Moving to San Francisco & Starting a hacker house

I moved away from home to San Francisco and put together a hacker house in a week. Here’s how it happened:

Why Moving out

I want to see how much I can grow by experiencing and forming my own opinions on life. Cupertino is a wonderful place to grow up in. I’m grateful for my childhood there. But I felt too comfortable.?

I feel like if I’m not uncomfortable, I’m not challenging myself enough and end up feeling like I’m wasting my time.?

Why San Francisco

As Design Buddies has taken off outside of my expectations, I’ve started attending and hosting many events around San Francisco. After spending more time and making more friends here, I realize it’s where I’d like to live. The one-way 1 hour+ long drive or train commute from Cupertino was draining.?

Attending more events increases my surface area of luck. I’ve also met many folks with big personalities and are deeply passionate about what they’re working on. I love to learn about that. It also inspires me to keep creating.?

There’s more going on in tech, events, communities, and socially for me here. There are more things to do - hiking, museums, touristy things, events, and overall more friends to go on fun adventures with. It’s also quite walkable and the public transport is faster than South Bay. I love it since I don’t like to drive. San Francisco is where I’d like to be right now in my mid-20s.?

I’ve been living here for almost a month so far and documenting my adulting journey on Twitter and Instagram. I’ve hosted events with Design Buddies and Gen AI Collective, Ansh Mehra, Cloudflare, IDEO, Glyf, Spice King, and more friends. I’m also organizing Design Buddies’ first happening on May 20, Design The Future. I’ve been attending about 2 events a day and hanging out with more folks! Every day is a unique adventure. I love it.?

Putting together a hacker house

After touring many places, I’ve decided to start my own hacker house, Bunny House. I’ve gotten my cool founder and creator friends to join. That way, I get to choose who I want to live with, how I’ll decorate it, and when I’ll be hosting events. I also want to make sure that whoever lives here would also be interested in participating and hosting their events as a shared space.?

Why “Bunny House”? Design Buddies’ friendly bunny mascot is Fluffle the bunny. I thought of the name “Design Buddies” for my community randomly in April 2020. “Buddies” sounds like “Bunnies.” We want to hop into fun adventures together as a community.?

I’m the opposite of a home-body. While I like decorating a nice place and hosting events, I also enjoy going out and collaborating with others. I also think there could be more designer and creator events in San Francisco. I’ve been cooking up some big plans with my friends around that. Also some collaborations with other hacker houses. Stay tuned!?

Opportunities for growth

I’ve been learning how to adult - cooking, managing a house, delegating, and more.?

I’ve learned ways to delegate things I don’t want to do but have to. I hired cleaners and an accountant to help me clean and do my taxes.?

I barely know anything about cooking. To incentivize myself to cook, I will try easy receipes and make reels out of them. Turning my pain points into content to help increase my distribution as positive reinforcement. I can turn anything into content~

I was happy living at home in Cupertino but even happier now in San Francisco! I’ll still be visiting Cupertino occasionally ??

If you’re in San Francisco, let’s hang out! Also, what kind of events would you like to attend? Co-working, drawing, hiking, large meetups, conferences

Stay tuned for more editions of Grace Pace on LinkedIn where I dive into my learnings in my life in my mid-20's, entrepreneurship, and more. I love trying new things and sharing about what I've learned.

I also share some more life learnings and career advice on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Feel free to connect with me there!

Have you moved to a new city? What was your experience like?