Bay Area adventure: Day 1

I’ve just landed in San Francisco, after a long flight ex-Sydney. I’ll be in the Bay Area for a bit over 3 weeks, splitting time between StartupHouse and the ’Blackbox Mansion’ (more on both of those soon).

It’s primarily a trip for learning and connecting. Learning about the environment for startups, launching, recruitment technology, and fundraising. Connecting with people across all those spaces. 

I’m now a fresh sponge. All going to plan, I’ll write here more often, to free up some space for more absorption.

For now, just a quick reflection after my first full day:

It couldn’t be easier getting to San Francisco as an Australian startup.

My first day looked like:

• Fly Syd-LA-SFO (ok, this bit sucks)
• BART to downtown ($8)
• Walk to Startuphouse (soon-to-launch ‘B&D’ – bed and desk)
• Grab a feed at Wholefoods down the block ($7)
• Buy an AT&T simcard and data pack ($30). Now fully connected. Somehow my Australian phone wasn’t set to roaming, so the trip from the airport was ‘blind’. It’s unbelievable how critical it’s become to have the web in your pocket, always. 
• Back to Startuphouse. Work. Sydney coming online – talk to clients and team. Setup meetings and schedule for the next few days. Smooth sailing so far.

Totally painless. I missed an afternoon of ‘work’, then fully back online, just in a new environment.

Ignore the distance for a minute (and yes, flights cost money). But it honestly couldn’t be easier for an Australian startup to just get over here, and spend some time. There is literally no roadblock. 

Cost of living is no comparison. And the time zone is amazingly friendly. It’s midnight here and I’ve just seen out the full working day in Australia (with a few gaps).

We’ll see if that can last. But I’m feeling optimistic about living a double-work life the next few weeks, and seeing what comes of it.