Startups hoping to secure seed funding in 2016 may find it more difficult as investors have become more cautious, but Mission tech workers aren’t expecting a crash and those in start-ups are more sharply focused on sustainability. While venture capital investments reached a record high in 2015, the year was also marked by a plummet in public tech stocks and...
Bitcoin, a digital “cryptocurrency,” is now being dispensed at a local grocery on 17th and Mission streets that installed a bitcoin ATM – the third of its kind in the Mission District, and the first to appear at a market. “At first I thought, what the hell is this?” said the nephew of the market’s owner, who gave his name...
Rent Masters, a startup offering to help tenants willing to move out of rent-controlled housing figure out what they would be owed in buyout money, came under fire last week by the city’s housing rights community. In a buyout, a tenant agrees to vacate a unit in exchange for a payout by the landlord. Negotiations involved in this process can be lengthy and taxing and...
San Francisco’s Municipal Transit Agency is tasked with moving shuttle bus stops citywide from small, neighborhood streets onto larger thoroughfares under the city’s new 12-month program regulating the hundreds of commuter shuttles that transport employees of Silicon Valley’s tech companies. The program takes effect April 1, but it may take longer than that to figure out where to put the new stops. In addition...
Nearby residents are upset over proposed changes to move tech shuttle stops from 18th Street to Dolores Street, a move that will remove coveted parking spaces during certain times of the day. The shuttles – some of which span 35 feet in length – are currently assigned a route that takes them on 18th Street halting at Muni bus stops to load and unload passengers...
After years of building a quirky community, bitcoin investor Jered Kenna last month purchased the building at the corner of Mission and 20th streets that houses art and technology creators. With the $7.3 million purchase, the site of the former T-mobile downstairs could become a brewery and pub, and the empty space a door down may become a laundromat and...
The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency’s board of directors on Tuesday gave its stamp of approval to a deal negotiated between city leaders, tech companies and activists that extends the city’s disputed commuter shuttle bus program for 12 months. The agreement was made under the condition that the shuttles’ impacts are studied and that the program regulating them will be revised accordingly. With the transit authority’s sanction, the 790 shuttle...
Google announced plans last week to bring high-speed broadband internet to San Francisco to serve disconnected communities throughout the city by plugging in public and low-income properties at no cost to residents. The company will use existing fiber optic cables that are largely owned by third-party companies. It is also talking to the city about leasing access to some of the...
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted today to dismiss an appeal calling for an environmental review of the city’s commuter shuttle program. Instead, the Board approved several major modifications to the program including limiting the number of shuttle stops and establishing a six-month review of the program’s impacts on the environment, traffic, and housing. Opponents of the shuttle program and the tech...
Startup founder Justin Keller has come under a barrage of internet fire for posting an open letter to city officials with the complaint that he is forced to witness the struggles of homeless individuals on city streets. “The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned...
As the San Francisco Unified School District works to implement a mandated computer science curriculum into classrooms citywide, local organizations are looking to address what they say is a serious shortcoming in the city’s classroom-to-career pipeline for tech. Trends in the tech industry indicate that some 1.4 million computing jobs will become available by 2020, yet less than six percent...
As many San Francisco restaurateurs say that they are having difficulties filling positions in their establishments, some are turning to tech for solutions. A new startup seeking to match job seekers with openings in their neighborhood aims to address a hiring gap that has left many restaurants understaffed. By promising to connect the two within a 24-hour period, the online hiring...
The storefront at 2863 24th St. near Bryant Street that will house Compupod is still under construction, but inside, owner Hugo Gonzalez is placing the finishing touches. Gonzalez says the electronics repair shop will be opening by Friday. At about 1,200 square-feet, the 24th Street location is notably smaller than Compupod’s flagship store at 2433 Mission St., but will feature the same services, including a...
The minds behind an app to track and flag homeless encampments in San Francisco say that the app does not exist and was in fact intended as a commentary on tech culture. Since its launch on Tuesday, the app has been damned on Twitter. SnapCamp’s purported premise was “cleaning up” San Francisco’s communities by encouraging its residents to take pictures of homeless encampments and noting “problem areas” at a...
A not-so-neighborly letter circulating amongst Mark Zuckerberg’s Mission District neighbors entangles the Facebook CEO in an issue that many San Franciscans generally do not take lightly – parking spaces. Some residents of Liberty Hill, where Zuckerberg bought his home at the cross of Fair Oakes and 21st streets for a reported $10 million in 2013, have passed around a letter that accuses his security team...
