News & Updates
Apr 08

Will Austin take SF tech by the horns?

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IS TECH BIGGER IN TEXAS?

On April 14, join us for the final installment of our Mapping the Tech Exodus event series as we compare the tech policy landscapes of San Francisco and Austin.

To conclude our Mapping the Tech Exodus event series, sf.citi’s Jennifer Stojkovic will talk to Sarah Ortiz Shields, Executive Director of Austin-based tech advocacy nonprofit Austin Tech Alliance. While San Francisco’s tech industry continues to showcase its resilience, Austin has emerged as one of the Bay Area’s fastest-growing tech rivals. Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t slow Austin’s tech momentum. If anything, Austin benefitted from the 2020 tech migration, scoring expansions from Silicon Valley mainstays like Oracle and Tesla.

On April 14, we’ll dive into the tech contrast between San Francisco and Austin during the pandemic. Among other things, we’ll discuss the post-pandemic future of tech offices, San Francisco’s record year of tech investment, and unexpected challenges ushered in by Austin’s tech boom. This will mark the end of our Mapping the Tech Exodus event series, during which we talked to industry leaders in tech hubs around the country. Make sure to register below!

Register for Mapping the Tech Exodus

WHEN POLITICS MEETS SOCIAL IMPACT

In a piece for Business 2 Community, we explore how sf.citi members Instacart, Lyft, and Salesforce skillfully combine politics and social impact—and the benefits of doing so.

Several weeks ago, sf.citi hosted part 3 of our Scaling Social Impact event series to understand how tech can drive civic engagement in and outside of election cycles. Speaking to Casey Aden-Wansbury of Instacart, Joan Hanawi of Lyft, and Jim Green of Salesforce, we discovered innovative ways in which tech companies are leveraging civic engagement to strengthen their social impact strategy, business, and the communities in which they operate.

In recent years, Instacart, Lyft, and Salesforce have used their products and platforms to help people engage with their local communities, vote in elections, and take action on pressing socio-political issues. All three companies pioneered different approaches to increase voter participation ahead of the November 2020 election. More impressive still, they’ve managed to sustain civic engagement efforts beyond elections and nimbly respond to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how you too can integrate civic engagement into your social impact initiatives by reading our event recap below.

How Tech Can Combine Social Impact and Politics

UNDERSTANDING THE FACTS VS. FICTION BEHIND MIAMI’S TECH HYPE

In the latest sf.citi blog post, we take a closer look at Miami’s tech hype and examine the challenges Miami must overcome to compete with San Francisco for tech’s future.

sf.citi hosted our fourth Mapping the Tech Exodus event with Maria Derchi Russo, Executive Director of Refresh Miami. We learned that Miami’s tech scene has experienced some promising signs of growth throughout the pandemic and is poised for more growth in the future. Even so, Miami still has a long way to go before it can really give San Francisco a run for its tech money. Like many other cities, Miami lags behind San Francisco when it comes to two of the most important ingredients for a thriving tech ecosystem: talent and capital.

The contrast between San Francisco and Miami underscores many of the San Francisco Bay Area’s unique advantages that have made it such an enduring hub of tech innovation. Even as remote work allows for a more diverse tech workforce spread across the country, Miami is unlikely to topple San Francisco’s tech dominance any time soon. Get the full scoop on Miami’s tech landscape and how it stacks up to San Francisco’s below.

How Miami’s Tech Scene Compares to San Francisco’s

DID YOU KNOW?

San Francisco is not alone in experiencing an accelerated outmigration of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Mover Report published by Zillow reveals that many major metros, including Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, lost residents to cheaper markets in 2020. What’s more, this trend began as early as 2018. According to the study, some of the most popular destinations for San Franciscans moving out of state are Seattle, Austin, and Portland. Read more on that here.

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