| I wonder if we'll see an influx of startups to the Oakland area? We chose to locate the Bay Area office of our NY-based product design/dev studio Cainkade in Oakland for a variety of reasons. 1. Value. As a bootstrapped services business I couldn't fathom paying 2-5x more to have 2-5x less space in SF. 2. Commute. Bay Area principles are happily living in the east bay and sought reasonable commutes. 3. Location as differentiation. I had a theory that the thousands of people on the BART platforms each morning might be interested in a shorter commute. As we've started hiring, this theory has been proven out. There's a large pool of professional, mature tech workers out there who would love to shorten their commute. Location for us has been an asset, helping us stand out from other companies. There are lots of empty storefronts and spaces here. For those that are complaining about Oakland's gentrification, I would say it is still very, very early. Some other experiences from working/running a business here. Like - - Going to a cafe and seeing diverse group of people. Not everyone in there pitching or wearing company issued hoodie. Although at times it seems that everyone is wearing a Kaiser badge.
- Our gorgeous, large space.
- Stag's Lunchette has insane sandwiches.
- Less homeless, feces, drug paraphernalia.
- 15 min. to downtown SF from our office. Quicker for me to get downtown from here than it was living in Noe Valley years ago. Miss - - More friends and work-friends in SF. No sidewalk serendipity here.
- Peninsula/Valley access. With traffic it can be even more of a nightmare to get to Palo Alto- San Mateo area. |