Doug Fulop and Jessie Fischer had been enjoying a remote work lifestyle in Bend, Oregon, living in a large house surrounded by trees with great opportunities for outdoor activities. However, the tech entrepreneurs are moving back to the Bay Area, driven by the artificial intelligence boom. They are part of a growing group of “boomerang entrepreneurs” who see opportunity in San Francisco’s tech industry, amidst the worst slump in a decade. The A.I. technology scene in San Francisco, known as “Cerebral Valley,” is drawing back founders and attracting new talent with community-focused events, “hacker houses,” and startup accelerators like Y Combinator. Despite missing the calm of Bend, Fulop and Fischer are willing to sacrifice it for the inspiration, hustle, and connections found in San Francisco.
The world of generative A.I. is attracting large investors, with $10.7 billion in funding declared for start-ups specialising in this field within just the first three months of this year. This funding marks a thirteen-fold increase compared to a year earlier, which has caught the attention of thousands of tech workers who have been laid off, and those eager to join the next big thing. The A.I. technology is open-source, which means companies freely share their work, encouraging a sense of community.
San Francisco’s “Cerebral Valley,” the epicentre of the A.I. scene, is encouraging founders to return with a renewed energy. Its nights are filled with hackathons, meet-ups, and demos, all focused on the latest in A.I. technology. Even after a year of Covid-19 and the subsequent slump, San Francisco’s tech scene began to change last year, in tandem with the A.I. boom. Co-founders met at nightly hackathons, securing investments, winning over customers, and networking with potential hires.
Founders and investors alike were spurred on by the A.I. boom, leading to the opening of “hacker houses” in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighbourhood, which is now known as “Cerebral Valley” for its A.I. scene. Start-ups have spurned remote working by working from San Francisco, reducing the cost of rents by a quarter due to the high office vacancy rate caused by Covid-19.
The A.I. scene is attracting a lot of talented people, causing the opening of secret groups like the Society of Artificers, which focuses on A.I. and robotics. The monthly events are so popular that they always sell out within an hour, with people even trying to crash them. Founders You Should Know, another speaker series, features leaders of A.I. companies speaking to an audience full of engineers looking for their next gig.
Start-up accelerator Y Combinator, which previously encouraged companies to operate remotely, has now changed its tune, telling start-ups in their program to move to San Francisco. Out of a recent batch of 270 start-ups, 86% chose to operate locally.
While some A.I. start-ups such as Brex, a financial technology start-up, declared themselves “remote-first” early on in the pandemic, closing their office in San Francisco’s SoMa neighbourhood, the generative A.I. scene’s rise has changed this. Generative A.I. has prompted Brex and others to move their operations back to San Francisco, with entrepreneurs and investors meeting for casual conversations and community building around A.I.
Doug Fulop and Jessie Fischer are seeking to make their mark with their start-ups that use A.I. technology and are looking for co-founders. They are now willing to sacrifice the calm of Bend and move back to the Bay Area after too many 8-hour drives to San Francisco for hackathons, networking events, and meetings. The couple is considering living in suburbs like Palo Alto and Woodside, which have easy access to nature, in addition to San Francisco. Despite missing an idyllic life in Bend with skiing and mountain biking, they are willing to let that go to be around the ambition of San Francisco’s bustling tech scene.