This founder loves San Francisco, but says 90% of people there are the same

Koby Conrad doesn’t have a bad word to say about San Francisco itself. ‘I love San Francisco. It’s one of the most gorgeous cities on the face of the planet,’ the founder of AI sobriety companion Sunflower told Business Insider, describing life there as like ‘peaking over the edge of the universe and seeing what’s coming next.’

But he also felt the city revolved too heavily around one industry. ‘If you’re in SF, you’re around a specific type of person all the time. Highly technical humans who work at tech companies is 90% of the circle. I think it’s really good for early-career humans,’ he said.

Conrad, 32, grew up in Boise, Idaho, and moved to San Francisco at 26 after his younger brother encouraged him to join the startup ecosystem, later entering Y Combinator after his brother listed him as a co-founder on an application. After weighing New York and Buenos Aires as alternatives, he chose Argentina, drawn to its culture, food and significantly lower cost of living.

He now splits his company across both places, keeping the technical team in San Francisco and New York while basing the go-to-market team in Buenos Aires, and travels back to San Francisco regularly even as he applies for a nomad visa in Argentina.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Luis Argerich