10 Tips for UK Founders Going to San Francisco

Dec 11

I’m very vocal about the fact that international founders should prioritize spending time in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. There are many reasons to do so, from competitive benchmarking to fundraising to simple inspiration. But what if you’ve never been to San Francisco before? Where do you start?

Here are 10 resources for UK founders landing in San Francisco for the first time:

1. GBx

Many countries have Silicon Valley-based networking organizations focused on helping new arrivals connect with their expat communities. For UK founders, it’s GBx. The organization was founded nearly 10 years ago with the support of the UK government as a private network for successful British entrepreneurs, investors and senior tech executives in the Bay Area. It quickly expanded to offer programming and events focused on helping UK-based founders land and expand in Silicon Valley. In addition to regular social events, GBx hosts one of the few formal events in the San Francisco tech community, the annual GBx Gala.

2. The Department for Business and Trade

When founders think of high-value resources, “the government” usually doesn’t make the list. But for UK founders landing in San Francisco, the Department for Business and Trade (formerly known as the Department for International Trade) can be an incredibly valuable resource. UK DBT has a San Francisco-based team specifically dedicated to supporting UK founders and tech investors that operates out of the British Consul General’s office. UK DBT regularly operates trade missions to bring UK-based founders to the Bay Area to meet with investors and business leaders in their industry (I’ve personally spoken at many of them over the years).

3. London and Partners

Another government-affiliated organization that supports UK founders coming to San Francisco and Silicon Valley is London and Partners, the economic development agency for London. Like UK DBT, London and Partners operates a number of programs designed to help London-based founders visit and expand to the Bay Area. Grow London: Global is the organization’s overarching initiative to support London-based companies with international expansion, while Grow London: Early-Stage focuses specifically on early-stage companies.

Subscribe to their newsletter to stay up-to-date with London and Partners’ offerings.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be an incredibly valuable resource for meeting people in San Francisco, provided you use it intentionally. Before you head to the Bay Area, use LinkedIn to find and reach out to people who could help bootstrap your visit. If there are specific people that you know you want to meet, see if you have any mutual connections and ask for introductions. Beyond those, look for individuals that you have a common connection with, such as:

People that you’re already connected to you and who (perhaps unbeknownst to you) are currently located in San Francisco or Silicon Valley
People who attended the same school as you
People who have worked at the same company as you
People who are simply from the same city or town as you

Then, write an intentional, personalized outreach to each of them asking to meet.

5. Portfolio “Cousins” and Founder Groups

Continuing on the theme of common connections, reaching out to founders who have the same investors you do can be a great hack for bootstrapping your Bay Area network.

Before traveling to San Francisco, reach out to each of your investors and ask them if they can introduce you to any founders they’ve invested in who are currently in the Bay Area. If you’re in any portfolio groups (email lists, WhatsApp, etc.) share the dates you plan to be in California and ask if anyone else will be there.

Speaking of founder groups, don’t forget to reach out to the local founder groups that you’re a part of to see if anyone plans to be in the Bay Area at the same time as you, or knows of any founders that you can meet.

6. SF IRL

SF IRL is a newsletter that shares events and meetups happening in and around San Francisco. Sign up for the mailing list before traveling to the Bay Area and look for events that will take place during your visit (events typically get posted 2-3 weeks in advance). As with any collection of meetups, the ones listed in SF IRL are hit-or-miss, but adding some number of events to your schedule can be a great way to hit the ground running.

7. Cold Emails

If there are specific people you want to try to meet while you’re in San Francisco, don’t be afraid to send a thoughtful cold email several weeks in advance. Most people in places of power, influence and experience in the Bay Area genuinely want to help up-and-coming founders, but their work and other obligations leave little to no time for them to do so — so be aware of the paradox of time and how it dictates their availability.

Here are some tips on how to write for success.

8. Shack15

San Francisco has plenty of private clubs and social venues, but nowhere in the city is the tech community popping off more these days than at Shack15. Located above the iconic San Francisco Ferry Building, Shack15 is a membership-based coworking space that regularly hosts public events (many of which you’ll find listed in SF IRL).

Shack15 offers one-time day passes based on availability, so reach out to them a few weeks before your visit and see if you can secure one.

9. Conferences…Maybe

Many founders visiting San Francisco time their visits to coincide with major tech conferences. This can be a great strategy for meeting lots of people in a short period of time, but you have to be intentional. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up making a bunch of connections with other founders who are also visiting from abroad (which might be great, but doesn’t necessarily fulfil your goal of building a network in the Bay Area).

TechCrunch Distrupt is a prime example of this — virtually nobody local to San Francisco attends this conference (unless they’re a speaker, in which case they typically show up for their session and leave immediately after).

Industry-specific conferences are generally higher-value. The JP Morgan health conference in January, the Game Developers Conference in March and the SaaStr Annual conference in September are all great events for founders in those sectors. But even with these conferences, the best opportunities to meet people tend to be at the parties and side-events, rather than the main show. Try to hustle your way into as many of those as you can.

10. Speaking of Hustle…

If you’re visiting the Bay Area for the first time, nothing’s going to supercharge your experience more than good old fashioned hustle.

On a recent visit to San Francisco, one of our Associates joined me armed only with a copy of that week’s SF IRL, a spreadsheet of events shared with her by a friend, and a lot of ambition. In only two days, she attended 7 events and made dozens of meaningful connections with founders and investors alike. (Not unrelated, she was recently promoted to Principal.)

Ecosystems

Chris Neumann