In a post on X, Amjad Masad, the founder and CEO of an Artificial Intelligence company named Replit, one which is valued at over a billion dollars, announced that his company would be ditching San Francisco and moving to a “more liveable” city elsewhere in California. His move comes as others leave behind LA and San Fran, with real estate prices falling hard as businesses leave the once-beautiful cities behind.
Explaining why, he said that they needed to leave behind the dysfunction of the city, that he wants the business to move to a more “livable” city, and that the he wants to establish a new home base for a new coding startup, similarly to how Google created a large campus in Mountain View and Apple created a similar campus in Cupertino.
Beginning the lengthy post on the decision, Masad wrote, “Replit left San Francisco for Foster City. The “why” we’re leaving is boring, sad, and predictable (crime, dysfunction, etc), so instead let me tell you why we chose Foster City. Foster City embodies the American post-war optimism and the long-lost California pro-growth mentality.”
Continuing, he wrote, “in 1958 businessman Jack Foster set out to build “a master-planned community concept”; in 1960 bought Brewer Island, a largely undeveloped land used for salt evaporation and dairy farming; in 1961 started building, and in 1964, the first family moved in. By 1966, more than 5,000 people were living there. Can you imagine how long it would take to build such a project today?”
Masad then went on to add, in reference to his company’s new home’s history, “The city is also known for its innovative engineering, particularly its “Venice-like” lagoon system. Instead of employing massive landfills to elevate the terrain for development, engineers devised a system of lagoons that provided essential drainage and a super cool aesthetic landscape.”
Nothing that, in contrast to San Francisco, Foster City is “super liveable,” Masad then added, “Finally, the city is super livable. When Haya and I moved to California, we first took residence there and, in fact, incorporated Replit here. Our first bank was Wells Fargo, a few steps from our new office.”
Building on the “liveable” point, Masad noted that Foster City is also quite affordable compared to San Francisco, saying, “It’s relatively affordable compared to the rest of the Bay Area and has a healthy mix of residential, commercial, and recreational spaces. Downtown San Mateo is a bridge away, a fun place to hang out or live.”
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Concluding, he compared Replit to other Bay Area greats like Apple and Google, saying, “Finally, in the Bay Area, almost every town has an associated iconic tech company. When you think of Mountain View, you think of Google; when you think of Cupertino, you think of Apple. My hope is that in the future, when you think of Foster City, you’ll think of Replit.”
In response to a commenter who said that Foster City is great, if somewhat quiet, Masada noted that quietness is a good thing because it gives employees the ability to focus on work. He said, “Quiet is good. That’s why Silicon Valley worked — the most fun thing to do is build computers and software.”