I get this question at least once a week: if you’re a founder, why aren’t you in SF or the Bay yet? So today, I’m writing this to share some of my (controversial) thoughts on Silicon Valley.
Symbolism
I’m currently building AI software for the public sector. When someone hears “startup founder” in 2025, their brain autofills:
- San Francisco
- B2B AI SaaS
- VC
If you’re seeing everybody around you move to SF, ask yourself if it’s really neccessary for your field and the current stage of your company. The valley is unmatched at 3 things:
- Density of experienced founders
- Speed of capital access
- Cultural permission to swing big
However, the harsh truth is you don’t need any of those until after product-market fit. Before PMF, your bottlenecks are:
- Shipping
- Talking to users
- Stayling alive
The valley doesn’t magically fix any of those. It just actively worsens your burn rate. Which segues us onto my next point.
Cost of living
Living in the valley forces some decisions on you:
- You optimize your company for fundraising
- You accept the high burn as normal
- You default toward widely accepted viewpoints
I’ve seen too many founders atp raise money just to keep up with rent and salaries. That’s not leverage, that’s a dependency.
Customers
This is more of a personal reason, but you should introspect and see if this applies to you too.
I’m building for the public sector, and our customers are currently spread across the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Texas. Dallas is the perfect airport to get anywhere in the US within ~3 hours.
I currently haven’t raised a round yet, although I plan to do so in the upcoming months. One thing I’ve heard countless times is VCs prefer companies in the valley and that couldn’t be further from the truth. VCs don’t care where you’re based, they only care whether or not your location can help you make money faster.
As for the fundraising cadence, it is definitely slightly harder. You definitely get access to far more informal capital in the valley than any other city, and it’s not even close.
However, if you fly in for a week or two, and batch your meetings properly, you can close rounds just as fast. Fundraising just isn’t a priority for me at this point.
Talent
The valley is obviously unmatched when it comes to:
- Senior infra engineers
- GTM execs
- Other experienced startup operators
But as an early stage company, you really don’t benefit from any of those. Nowadays, especially with AI, remote talent enough for you to have a productive team.
TLDR
San Francisco is still optimal for:
- Raising capital
- Consumer products
- Devtools
- Hiring senior engineers
- Series A+ momentum
But I am:
- Pre-seed
- Selling to governments
- Working through procurement
- Not hiring aggressively
I’m optimizing for focused building, credibility, and reference customers. Not for fundraising or tech talent density.