Leaving SF? Bring The Best of SV Values With You, Not Just SV Dollars

Why Startup Ecosystems Need More Than Just VC Funding

Hi. I read your [Tweet, Medium Post, WSJ OpEd] about leaving the Bay Area for [Texas, Florida, Seasteading]. I totally understand. Even though I might be more progressive politically than you, I too am frustrated by San Francisco’s [tax policy, failure to pass housing bills, conflicted attitude towards tech companies]. But no hard feelings and your [pictures with the mayor of your new city, floorplans for your new house, comparison of your new tax bill to your old effective rates] do occasionally make me jealous, although we don’t have any near term plans to leave.

One ask though. Don’t just take your intelligence, your hustle and your [angel, VC, SPAC] dollars to the new city — bring the best of SV values with you too. While it’s fair to assume we named Homebrew after [coffee, alcohol, opensource software package manager], it’s actually a tribute to the Homebrew Computer Club. The HCC was a group of early PC enthusiasts who met in the 70s and 80s to just tinker, share, build. And it was perhaps most notably where Jobs and Woz connected.

What would a modern HCC look like in your new city? It certainly would be visually different — the HCC was very white and very male. But besides fixing that, maybe a lot of the values would be the same. Sharing versus stealth. The love of building versus just the love of funding. Challenging each other constructively, even sometimes competitively…