Back East
I’ve moved back to NYC! To be more specific, the suburbs of NYC — but I think that still counts!
When Liza and I found out early last year that we were expecting a girl we knew we would have to make a decision about staying in the Bay Area or moving back east. After a bunch of conversations, we made the move in late February and have been settling in much more smoothly than I had expected.
With some time now to reflect, I’ve been thinking a ton about the differences between the two cities. For reference, I spent ~6 years in NYC (Brooklyn and Manhattan) and then ~6 years in SF. So I feel like I can credibly claim to have somewhat of a balanced view on the “great debate” of which is better. Unsurprisingly, as with many things, the truth is…it depends.
Much has been written of course about the demise of SF — homelessness, drug abuse, crime, commercial vacancies, etc. All of this is true and all of it quite sad. Each year I was in SF was more or less worse than the prior year, accelerated by the pandemic in a way that was hard to fathom at the time. But since I left, and have had some space to reflect, I find myself rooting for SF to make a comeback. And I think it will. The reality is, even now, there is no place on earth that has done more to advance technology and innovation than that ~50 miles between San Jose and the Golden Gate bridge. The talent network effects there run deep. The “builder mindset” second to none. And there are enough people still there who deeply care about the city and bringing it back to where it ought to be.
When I first started in venture in 2017 in SF, it was pretty common to take every first meeting with a founder in person. Some of my fondest memories of SF come from the hours spent walking all over Jackson Square, SOMA, FiDi and South Park between meetings to unearth opportunities. Back then the entrepreneurial community was so incredibly concentrated in a few of these neighborhoods that you could meet 50–75% of founders within a 20 min walk of Market St. There was something quaint, almost familial about the whole thing.
Of course the pandemic and ensuing years have broadened access beyond the Bay Area. And that is a very good thing as innovation should never be isolated to one area nor founders unable to access capital and resources purely based on where they live. Still, there is something very special about SF…not to mention it’s a city of immense natural beauty.
Everyone I know who left SF the last few years did so largely for “push” reasons. For us, there was certainly some of that. But deciding to move back to the NYC area had much more to do with personal “pull factors” than anything else: it’s the center of gravity for my wife’s side of the family (hooray for free child care!), the schools here are excellent, we’ve found there to be a strong sense of community, etc. And much of this is simply a stage of life thing. Having a child changed our outlook, including what we started to optimize for on location.
I’ve now been back in NYC for a little over 2 months. It’s been fun re-acclimating. As a fintech-focused investor, NYC is very clearly emerging as THE winner in financial services innovation. It’s not bigger than SF just yet in terms of outcomes, but the slope of the line, as defined by fintech startup formation and pace of growth, is incredibly steep.
When I first moved here more than 10 years ago, there was effectively one fintech company in the city that had some buzz: Betterment. There are now dozens of other examples and more forming each month. Many fintech founders are relocating from SF to NYC (or opening up a second office here). This week there are 3 major fintech-related conferences happening at the same time. It’s pretty wild.
Suffice to say I’m excited to get plugged back in here, reconnect with some old friends and make a few new ones. Looking forward to saying “hi” if you’re in the area.
