SF Communities for New Founders
If you’re not from the Bay area, getting to know the different communities, hackerhouses and accelerators is highly non-trivial. Maybe you scroll past something on Twitter, maybe a friend tells you about one, maybe you stumble into an outdated blogpost, or maybe you are lucky googling. When I decided to move to SF post-graduation, I was able to find maybe 5% of these communities, despite spending a decent amount of time actively searching for them beforehand.
There’s no good reason why everything shouldn’t be in a nice one-pager.
So, here we go.
Legend:
🐧 — Goes above and beyond for internationals
❤️ — Personal favorite
Founder communities, fellowships and accelerators
In my opinion, the best reason to join one or more of these programs is to gain a community and make friends who are on a parallel founder journey to yours. Sure, funding and ego are valid reasons as well, just not time-lasting ones!
There’s a price to join each one, which ranges from cash, equity or simply time. Given that you’re probably short on all three, it’s perfectly reasonable to choose neither of these programs and invest your resources in building instead. Having said that, they tend to make life a lot easier.
Note: I’ve done an imperfect job sorting this list by how mature your startup needs to be, based on the latest gossip.
- : $400k for 7% + $600k in the next round
- ❤️️ : $10k with no strings attached
- ❤️🐧️ : pay-what-you-want for 7 days of 90 cofounder dates
- ❤️ : pay $800 for 3 days of 20 cofounder dates + a demoday
- 🐧 : $125k for 8% + $125k MFN SAFE; for recent grads, first-time founder, without a cofounder; OG version of Antler
- ❤️️ : up to $150k for 5–10%
- : $750k for (i think) 6%; games only
- : $125k for 7% + $375k MFN SAFE; cofounder is necessary
- : up to $1M for 3–10%
- : $600k for 1.5% + MFN SAFE; I know this isn’t in SF, but still cool
- : $1M for 5%; also know it isn’t in SF, but look at the terms!
- : undisclosed
- : $20k upfront + up to 120k for 6%
- : $100k SAFE
- : up to $500k
- : $200k for 7.5% (v. negotiable); UC affiliation not required, but rumor has it they still require UC affiliation (they opened it up to make it easier for O1 applicants to say they are special)
- 🐧 : $150k for 10%
- : $2.5k stipend + $200k for 8% + $300k ARC
- : you pay $1k and they own 2.5%
- : $150–250k for undisclosed equity
- : custom terms
- : $150k-3M for undisclosed equity
- : pay $750 for 3-month office space above IKEA
- : $25k for 5%
- : $150k for 6% + $37.5k fee
- : 250k on uncapped SAFE
- : $500k for 10%; fintech only
- : up to $250k for undisclosed equity
Hackerhouses
Pro: You’ll be baptized into the momentum and mentality of the area.
Con: You’ll be living with funky strangers, most of which will be guys.
- : Some insane climate folks live here.
- ❤️ : 5% equity take plus a $1M uncapped SAFE
- : 6-month with rent but noequity
- : new house in nob hill for young AI/Web3 founders
- : 10k sq ft coliving mansion for founders
- : housing craigslist for techies and founders
- Moomin House: it exists, but good luck networking your way in!
Events and co-lounging spaces
- : Saturday hackathons with very impressive speakers
- : Bougie co-lounging space with great views
- : Hardtech makerspace with some awesome events
- ❤️️ : Gathers an insane crowd
- : Coworking space and open house every Sunday
- : Endless list of events
- : Endless list of AI events
- ❤️ ️: Intellectual society with legendary book talks
- : Intellectual society with events and a fancy bar
- : Co-lounging space with biohacking spa(!)
- : weekly running and events community
- : weekly founder 5km run
A million thanks to the friends who suggested changes to this blogpost and to those who invited me to their events, spaces and communities. ❤️️
Hope this helpful to you and sharing is caring!
PS. If you’re moving to SF, definitely check out SF’s hidden housing gem.
