The Return to and of San Francisco

1/ After graduate school I moved to San Francisco (SF) for my first civilian job at Pocket. My time at Pocket was a fantastic experience where I learned so much and it was great working with Bill Maris, Nate Weiner, Matt Koidin, Jonathan Bruck, & the team.

2/ SF from 2014-2020 was the place to be for building startups. It felt like everyone was either working on a startup or had an idea for a startup. At the time I called the South of Market (Soma) in SF the “Mecca of Startups.” VCs opened up offices in the area and every evening it felt like there was a startup networking event or conference. SF was fertile ground for me to continue to learn & network beyond school.

3/ Then Covid hit in early 2020 and downtown SF became deserted. It reminded me of scenes from the movie “I Am Legend.” My family and I left SF for the Seattle suburbs for ~2 years.

4/ Our family returned to SF this year and we have been enjoying the city. At first the place felt empty, but recently I’ve noticed an uptick in the # of people in the city, the energy in the city, and the # of events. Here are a few events that all happened last week:

- Spartan Race (great workout)
- Brandon Childers, M.S. & Bunker Labs had their SF Veterans in Residence get together
- Kera DeMars, Eric Bahn, & Hustle Fund hosted a Founder Friends event with Rahul Vohra, the Founder & CEO of Superhuman
- Maryam Haque, Rhianon Anderson, Sarah Mattina, & Venture Forward held its holiday party with Bobby Franklin & National Venture Capital Association
- Roy Bahat, James Cham, & Bloomberg Beta hosted its Startup Festivus event (the very best annual SF startup holiday event)

5/ SF, like other cities, has its flaws but there are also many nice things about the city:
- The people and the varied cultures and communities, as Marc Andreessen recently wrote “we live amidst an enormous flowering of culture and creativity” (albeit selectively quoting)
- The food (nom nom)
- The longstanding optimistic view that we can build the future and make the world a better place
- Activities for kids
- A great library system
- The weather
- A nice airport

Please lmk if I’ve missed any other positive attributes of SF or what you like about the city. 

5/ I’m optimistic about 2023 and SF if next year reflects current trends. I hope to contribute in a small way to SF’s recovery, as Context VC will be organizing several events in SF in 2023. One of the events I’m really looking forward to at the beginning of 2023 is the Military Veteran Startup Conference on 2/2/23-2/3/23 at the Marines’ Memorial.

This event will bring together hundreds of military veteran entrepreneurs, VCs, and limited partners. Check out the agenda and sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gVNjDrZw 

6/ If you are going to CES in Las Vegas and want to meet, message me!

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