, but there’s a contingent of fast-growing companies that are increasingly vocal about their desire to stay in the region. Call them the anti-exodus.
And even in a world of remote work, it turns out that proximity still matters — which plays to the Bay Area’s strengths. With the pandemic waning, more companies like Finix are seeking to bolster innovation and collaboration by encouraging or requiring employees to return to the office. Meanwhile, venture capitalists often want entrepreneurs to be physically nearby, to be able to tap into that Bay Area ecosystem.
“The major benefit to being based in San Francisco is talent,” CEO Dimitri Dadiomov said, pointing to the recent hiring of former Salesforce and Slack executive Craig Nile as chief revenue officer. “I don’t think it’s very easy to get that sort of experience outside of the Bay Area.” Modern Treasury, as with most fast-growing startups, has received overtures from other cities and states eager to juice their local economies by having the Bay Area’s fast-growing companies relocate there. But Dadiomov says he gives little thought to those pitches.
Immad Akhund, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Mercury, which provides banking services to startups, is also dubious of the exodus talk among startups. It’s not just the educational backgrounds of prospective employees in the Bay Area, but also the attitude toward working at promising startups. Anecdotally, a San Antonio transplant once said he moved to the Bay Area for a job at Google, then moved onto a smaller company before landing a spot at a fast-growing startup. That’s in sharp contrast to the typical view of climbing the career ladder elsewhere.