I’ve been spending the week in San Francisco with @aSadhankar and @Gahzi, immersing myself  in everything the Bay Area startup scene has to offer.  A critical part of running a startup is finding out how others do it.

So why is this place such a startup launch pad?  Three things became incredibly clear at the street level:

Startup “Spots”

Founders know where to find other founders.  When we got here, we knew to immediately hit Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto, Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View, and the Epicenter Cafe in SOMA.  Sure enough, we were immediately surrounded by young founders pitching engineers to work with them and angels talking term sheets.  We thought we’d have to walk into a VC’s office to find it.  No way.  It’s out in the open for everyone to see, and people gravitate towards it.

Employees are the Brand

Employees are branded, and they wear their brand proudly.  Everyone has a t-shirt, zip-up or hoodie with their startup’s name on it.  They wear them to coffee shops, restaurants and even to class.  I found myself Googling startups I had never heard of, only to see a landing page hoping to grab my info.  This is viral marketing at it’s core, and I was incepted.

(edit:  As I write this, one of the Yobongo guys walks into Epicenter.)

Risk = Reward

In Ottawa, I’ve spent the last month convincing friends to leave their “career” jobs and try something a little more rewarding.  It’s been a struggle.  Even with competitive pay, amazing growth, a killer office and rewarding work, young engineers are reluctant to join a startup right out of university.

The opposite is Filip Mares, arguably one of the best students to come out of Carleton.  We ran into Filip by chance while sitting at the Coupa Cafe (see point #1).  It turns out he was picked up by Alphonso Labs, the creators of Pulse.  Filip took a risk, moved to SF and is now has an equity stake in a great company.  He’s clearly winning.  This place attracts a different breed of people; arguably the right ones.