The Mission’s reputation as a hotbed for tech companies continues to grow.
HotPads, a real estate search engine, is the new startup in the neighborhood. The company moved from Washington, D.C., to its new office on 16th and Valencia in order to tap into the wealth of web developers and take advantage of the neighborhood’s restaurants and bars, said co-founder Douglas Pope.
“[We] made several trips to San Francisco over the last year to get a better feeling for all the different neighborhoods,” Pope said. “We chose the Mission because we wanted to locate HotPads in an area that was vibrant both during the day and at night. Within a couple of blocks there are countless restaurants, bars and cafes…there are great lunch spots and awesome happy-hour locations. The Mission is also easy to get to from most parts of the city and outlying areas. We are one block from BART and close to a lot of Muni lines.”
HotPads opened its 5,000 square-foot office in April and hired seven employees, and is looking to hire more. Twelve other employees are in the process of relocating from D.C., where the company was launched six years ago.
