Thread by @jasoncwarner, There’s something ironic about people leaving SF this year & proclaiming SF [...]

There’s something ironic about people leaving SF this year & proclaiming SF doesn’t have a hold on tech. And particularly ironic are some of the specific folks proclaiming this

Like, yeah, been saying it for YEARS as we worked remote & while *you* said “sorry, need to be in SF”

And even now there’ll be someone that jumps in my mentions to say “it was different back then”. No, it wasn’t. You or they were.

It’s always been possible. The folks who said “not possible” simply didn’t know how, lacked the imagination, or knew it didn’t advantage *them*

And in the meantime a TOOOON of talent that would have been available to companies was cut out of a lot of those opportunities. Talk about limiting upside

And on the flip, people were not able to take advantage of their skills for something as stupid as “geo” & lost out

Now, that it advantages these same people, the script has flipped

This isn’t edgy, or forward thinking, or contrarian....it’s simply self serving in the moment hustling

Let’s simply call it what it is, cool?

I’m one of the lucky ones I guess. I never lived in SF and bc I was able to break into the SF network (Thanks, Heroku!), I was able to do other-worldly things. This is not common for fully remote people, particularly C-level

I got lucky. I got lucky & many didn’t

And I got lucky but so did GitHub, its founders & its investors

Because of a remote executive. Was told for many years that wasn’t possible & *even* at GitHub, it was nearly a deal breaker

Geo doesn’t have monopoly on special talent (ST), & when you find ST, *make* it work

So when I see folks loudly proclaiming that they could now build a company anywhere. Yeah, my dudes, many of us know this...we been telling *you* this for years. Literal years. And we kindly got told “wrong”

So the irony of late comers to this is not lost on me...and many others

So here’s my ask of these newly enlightened folks: Don’t make the *same* mistakes again!

Don’t now think “need to recreate SF somewhere”. Don’t think “can build a company in Miami”. This is the *wrong* thinking.

Think: build an internet company with the talent where we find it

And yes, as one of the literal world’s experts on building & scaling comps, particularly in a hybrid remote world, there are some operational differences. Don’t let your lack of knowledge hold you back once again. Learn something from your past mistakes & build a better future

Here’s a really simple way to start. Ready?

Don’t ask anyone to move to HQ, ever. Want to really blow your mind? Even C-level. Ready for the whoa moment? Don’t have an HQ

There are quite a few first order & then second/third order things to think about but...

If one can really walk through the ‘no HQ from 0 through IPO’ as a thought exercise, they likely have most of them figured out

As ranty as I sound in this, I’m kinda happy the laggards in this are coming around. I just wish it didn’t sound as preachy given the history

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