SF B2B
The other day, I went to order my venti soy chai tea latte and something amazing happened, I heard two people sitting in Starbucks discussing … a book.
This has long been a pet peeve of mine. I initially moved to San Francisco in 1995, back when it still meant you might be gay to most of the world, and not that you were trying to become a dot-com millionaire. When I first arrived here with no job prospects and a wad of cash, I balked at the amazingly high rent (I paid $285 a month in Pennsylvania), but loved the culture around me.
As it turns out, I arrived right before it nearly all went away.
I was a reporter for InfoWorld, and you could see the amazing influx of new companies, none of which had anything relevant to my coverage area, but no understanding why anyone wouldn’t want to meet with them. Everyone was changing the world, how could I not want to play a role to help them?
The city became a magnet for people trying to get in make their millions, and get out. It’s no wonder the whole thing failed, no one was building anything that was intended to last. I still don’t know how most of them were able to use their cell phones, given how far up their asses their heads were.
Everytime I would go into a coffee shop when visiting New York City, I would eavesdrop on artist openings, exhibits, theater, books… and upon my return, I was awash in a sea of letters: VC, IPO, B2B, etc., etc. I seriously thought I would have to leave eventually, because not only were these people infiltrating the city and raping it of why it was such a cosmopolitan place to live, they were also forcing out all the people who make it interesting. One yuppie taking over an apartment that used to house four artists and writers was not good for the future of the city.
When the market crashed, I was hopeful, but there was always the chance that it would rebound. Now that that seems less and less likely, I’m enjoying living in San Francisco more again. Sure, it would have been nice had my options kicked in two months earlier, and not after everything started going downhill, but that’s still fine. I rather make no money and live somewhere cool. If I lost my current job, I’d still be fine here. I would wait tables, anything… just as long as I kept plugging away at my novel, creating, feeling, breathing…
I do feel sorry for the people around the country who are now suffering the boring stories of all their returned heroes, who went to San Francisco for the gold.com rush and nothing panned out. The stories will go away soon, and they can become big fish in their little ponds again.
Of course, people keep asking what the next big thing will be. I’m not concerned what it is really, but hopefully it will happen somewhere else. Hopefully San Francisco will go B2B once and for all, back to basics…
