The greatest red pill there is, ironically, is living in the deepest of blue state.
The “second-most valuable private U.S. startup” Stripe could soon dethrone beleaguered Juul for the top spot, and if so, they’ll do it with their headquarters moved from 510 Townsend Street to the shores of South San Francisco.
Those us who do not consider “fintech” to be an actual word will often confuse Stripe with Square, so let’s get this straight: both are web-based payment processors for small business. Square is the one co-founded by Twitter mogul Jack Dorsey, and is publicly traded after its terrible IPO in 2015 has since recovered nicely and made many a techie rich. Stripe, on the other hand, has not IPO’d and as such, its $35 billion valuation has it considered the second most valuable private startup in the country. Both Square and Stripe are headquartered in San Francisco, but Stripe made some noise last month that they were thinking of leaving town because of the scarcity and skyrocketing cost of available office space. Today Stripe announced they’re making good on that threat, as the Chronicle reports that Stripe is moving its headquarters to South San Francisco.
Their new joint is at Oyster Point, currently a sort of biotech office park. Oh, I hear they have a very nice DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel down that way! But more importantly to Stripe, they also have no gross receipts or payroll taxes down that way. Stripe will move its whole 1,000-employee operation to a new waterfront headquarters where they’ll sit aside even more terribly named biotech companies Fluidigm, Theravance, and Stemcentrx.
While the price was not announced, the San Francisco Business Times ran the available numbers as they are wont to do. They note that Cytokinetics, another Oyster Point tenant with the same realtor, is paying $65.40 per square foot. So at that rate, Stripe’s 421,000 square foot property would come in at about $27.5 million. The Times also reports it’s a twelve-year lease, and that Stripe’s current San Francisco lease runs eight more years, but the company will complete the move to South San Francisco by 2021.
Of course the tech business sector is sounding alarm bells about how impossible it is for startups with infinite wealth to do business in San Francisco. “Unfortunately, Stripe choosing to leave town is not an anomaly,” said sf.citi spokesperson Alex Tourk, whom we cannot ever mention without linking to this. Tourk also told the Chronicle he hopes to “work together as a collective business community to fix the gross receipts tax once and for all and establish a fair and equitable tax system that we can all rely on.”
Yeah, about this tax thing: Stripe was one of the biggest techie complainy-pants about the 2018 “homeless tax” Prop. C, dropping about $500,000 to fight it, and bitching on Medium that it was an “ill-conceived half-measure.” Stripe will surely find a friendlier tax environment in South San Francisco.
Stripe will not become the biggest South San Francisco employer — that distinction still belongs to Genentech and their nearly 9,000 employees. But Stripe will become the biggest tech sector employer there, at least, until another San Francisco startup bolts for the cheaper rent and lower taxes of “the Industrial Tity.”
I’ve never even been to San Francisco (SF). What the hell is the difference between San Francisco and South San Francisco (SSF).
SSF sounds like a nice place to be because it’s on the water and there are less taxes…but compared to just about everywhere else in the US it’s probably shitty.
This is out by the airport. A girl I dated went to Santa Clara and I would have to fly in to SFO and drive. It’s not a shithole. It’s actually beautiful…shitty people are ruining it.
More like a couple thousands, and this is proof that you didnt even bother to read the first sentence of the article about the fact that Stripe is the “second-most valuable private U.S. startup”.
I hear grumbling but not much change is happening. Somehow these latte’ liberals tolerate having a million-dollar condo and having to fight off hordes of winos to go anywhere.
They now not only have skid row, they have skid street, skid avenue and skid boulevard.
Don’t be so sure. There’s some trouble in paradise. The problem is, these liberals don’t know what to do. They have to fight off bums on the way to symphony hall, and they’re griping more and more publicly, but there’s no “liberally-correct” way of clearing them out.
All of the sudden youre a supply-side capitalist. How convenient. The “demand” is artificially high is bc of all the rules and regulations that cripple new development, not to mention rent control implemented. Here is one such idiotic regulation that automatically adds at least $10,000 on a small home being built after 2020
While the politicians dither, there is going to be a lot of trouble in paradise if they don’t clean up the streets. Warnings have been given about the spread of disease. They are a ticking time bomb.
Actually, there is a shortage of affordable housing in SF, - and there was when I helped a girlfriend find a room in a house 35 years ago. There hasn’t been much change but for Dem. ‘leadership’ creating a tiered society right out of Dickens.
The difference then is that SF had not been taken over by leftist twits, and was not yet a magnet for tens of thousands of homeless and general bums. The city did not have a vast moocher class in 1984, let alone hordes of illegals.
SF created its own mess, I have no sympathy for anyone foolish enough to live there.
Yes, it had and it was, but it just took a while for the crazy policies to fully take root and bear big rancid fruit.
Politics has drifted left, from stupid in the 80’s to insane by the millenium. I remember a guy I worked with in 1995 or so - he was always listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio in his cubicle and had a picture of Newt Gingrich on his wall. Then one day, a picture of Willie Brown appeared instead of Newt. I asked him what’s the deal? Well, the SF mayor at the time, Richard Jordan, had this program called “Matrix” to disperse the bums living around city hall. Willie Brown was running against him. He said “you know that Matrix program of Jordan’s? Well, he got them away from city hall all right, and now they’re on my front doorstep!”