Remote work is a trap for ambitious founders.
I know this is heresy in 2025. The internet will tell you that you can build a billion-dollar company from Bali. That distributed teams are the future. That San Francisco is overpriced, crime-ridden, and irrelevant.
They're wrong.
I left San Francisco. I tried the remote thing. I worked from cheaper cities with better weather and more space. And you know what I learned? Geography still matters. The people who tell you otherwise are either selling you something or building lifestyle businesses they'll never scale.
I'm moving back to San Francisco because I want to build things that matter. And if you're serious about doing the same, you should too.
The Density of Ambition is Irreplaceable
San Francisco's magic is not the offices or the coffee shops. It's the density of people who have decided to dedicate their lives to building the future.
In most cities, you're the weird one for wanting to work 80-hour weeks on a problem most people don't understand. In San Francisco, you're normal. The guy next to you at the coffee shop just raised his Series A. The woman at the bar is debugging her ML pipeline. Everyone is building something.
This matters more than any Zoom call or Slack channel can replicate. Serendipity compounds. The impromptu brainstorming sessions, the chance encounters that spark unexpected collaborations, the ambient pressure to ship—these are the intangibles that separate companies that change the world from those that don't.
The Financial Equation
Let's address the elephant in the room: San Francisco is expensive. Brutally expensive. But here's the thing – as I've progressed in my career and joined a larger startup, the financial equation has shifted. The salary calculations that seemed daunting a few years ago now make sense. Yes, I'll be paying more for housing, but I'm at a point where I can absorb those costs without compromising my quality of life.
The city's cost of living is still eye-watering, but I've come to view it as an investment in my career and personal growth rather than just an expense. The opportunities, networks, and experiences that come with being here often translate into long-term career advantages that outweigh the immediate financial impact.
The Happiness Factor
Perhaps the most compelling reason for my return is the simplest: I'm happier in California. The financial sacrifices I make to live here pale in comparison to the sacrifices to my wellbeing when I'm away. There's something about the California lifestyle – the blend of urban energy and natural beauty, the progressive mindset, the food scene, the ability to drive an hour and be in any environment from beaches to mountains – that just fits.
I've tried to replicate this elsewhere, but there's no substitute for waking up to that particular quality of California sunlight, or ending your workday with a run along the Embarcadero, or spending weekends exploring the endless variety of experiences the Bay Area offers.
The Hard Truth About "Remote-First"
Yes, San Francisco has problems. The housing crisis is real. The politics are exhausting. The cost of living is brutal.
None of that matters.
The companies that will define the next decade of technology are being built here, right now. The founders who will become the next generation of industry leaders are meeting each other at dinners in the Mission and hackathons in SOMA. The deals that will reshape industries are being closed over coffee in Hayes Valley.
You can optimize for lifestyle. You can work from Lisbon or Austin or Miami. You can save money and have more space and avoid the chaos.
Or you can be where the future is being built.
Remote work is fine for execution. It's fine for scaling an existing business. It's fine for lifestyle optimization. But if you're trying to build something that changes the world, you need to be in the room. You need the serendipity. You need the density. You need San Francisco.
I tried the alternative. I left. I came back.
The remote advocates will keep posting threads about how geography doesn't matter anymore. Meanwhile, every major AI company, every breakthrough startup, every transformative technology company keeps clustering in the same 7x7 mile peninsula.
That's not a coincidence. That's the answer.
See you in San Francisco.