Silicon Valley VCs Contemplate a Pandemic Move, but Where?
- As Oracle and others leave, many startups remain in Bay Area
- Founders Fund's search for a new city ended in a stalemate
This year, the partners at Founders Fund—a prominent San Francisco venture capital firm that has backed Airbnb Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc. and other leading companies—took an informal internal poll: If the fund could open a major new office outside the Bay Area, where would it go?
It’s a question many venture capitalists and startups have considered this year in some form or another, spurred into action by the coronavirus pandemic that has so many people working from home anyway. Tech workers are leaving California in droves, sending San Francisco rents tumbling by as much as 35%. Large companies have made the leap, too. Oracle Corp. announced plans on Friday to leave the Bay Area for Austin, Texas, e-cigarette maker Juul said it would move to Washington, D.C., and cybersecurity firm Tanium is moving to a suburb of Seattle. Even Elon Musk has said he’s now a Texan.