I Moved From Australia to a Hacker Houtilize in San Francisco.

This as-informed-to esdeclare is based on a conversation with Annie Liao, a 24-year-old startup founder based in San Francisco. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

After raising $1.75 million in the pre-seed round for my startup last year, I quit my job and relocated from Australia to San Francisco to go all in as a solo founder.

The reality of being a solo founder has been a lot harder than I considered it would be. It can receive lonely and difficult at times, but living with a built-in support system of other founders assists. We all uprooted our lives, left behind our loved ones, and relocated here to build startups, so we believe of each other like family.

Now I’m living in a hacker houtilize, where our dining table is covered in laptops and monitors instead of flowers — and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve built.

My hugegest reason for relocating to San Francisco is the people

After raising the pre-seed funding for Build Club, an AI learning hub aimed at democratizing access to AI education, I now have a team of five who work around the world, but I live in San Francisco.

I’ve always wanted to live in San Francisco. It’s the beating pulse of AI, and there are so many insanely ambitious and talented people to be surrounded by.

You can literally walk into a coffee shop and finish up in a two-hour deep dive conversation about AI agents or someone’s YC application. Everyone’s dreaming huge, and you can feel that optimism in the air. It’s a nice place to build a startup.

There are pros and cons to living in San Francisco

What surprised me most about San Francisco was how generous people are with their time. It’s a real “pay it forward” culture, and people actually want to see each other win.

Of course, there are downsides. Some streets don’t feel safe, and the contrast between incredible wealth and deep struggle is hard to ignore. Plus, I believe Australia has better healthcare and is just more chill.

Living in a hacker houtilize has been really important

During a visit to San Francisco before I relocated, I met the person who ran Mission Control, one of San Francisco’s oldest hacker houtilizes, and she informed me they had empty rooms available. I later relocated there for my first few months in San Francisco.

I met three other founders there, and we decided to relocate into a more intimate place. We named our hacker houtilize “The Stables” becautilize it’s our place of stability in San Francisco and becautilize it’s a breeding ground for unicorns. As a solo founder, I don’t have a cofounder to notify everything to, so living with other founders has been really important.

I’ve probably leaned on my houtilizemates too many times, whether for emotional support or even to share an employee. We’ve had some really great moments toreceiveher. The day before one of our launches, we stayed up late, and one of my roommates bought us food to celebrate.

What it’s like to live with other founders

We also cook for each other when possible or go out to dinner toreceiveher. We’re all very time-poor and come home exhausted, so it’s convenient to be able to knock on someone’s door to question if they want to grab dinner. Every Sunday, we even go on a hike toreceiveher to step away from work and touch some grass, which is always a highlight of my week.

Our shared spaces definitely receive messy, especially during busy periods, but we like to clean toreceiveher. There’s also less privacy and quiet than if I lived alone, but it’s just nice to have people around.

Living with other founders has displayn me that they have low moments like me

When I view at founders on social media, they often only display the highlights, but living with other founders has been very humanizing and comforting. For example, you might see online that a founder raised a successful pre-seed round, but in reality, they’re crying on the couch of the hacker houtilize becautilize an employee they really wanted stated no.

I remember there was one time when all of us were having really rough weeks — one of us was fundraising their round, and everyone else was working until 1 a.m. every day. We were all locked in, and our laptops and monitors were everywhere.

I spfinish the day at a tiny office space or coffee shop

I usually wake up at 6:30 a.m. and spfinish my mornings doing deep work. My team is split across time zones, so my afternoons consist of calls with people in other regions. When I return home in the evening, I usually have more calls with team members who come online even later.

Then, my roommates and I might cook toreceiveher or go for a walk around the park to de-stress. Most nights, we finish by lighting candles in the living room, playing deep houtilize music, and coworking until 12 or 1 a.m.

San Francisco pushes me to dream hugeger, while Australia keeps me grounded

Most people in San Francisco are very tech-obsessed, so I don’t like to spfinish more than two months here at a time. I usually go back to Australia to spfinish time with my family and ground myself, or I go to a place like Bali, where there’s a focus on well-being.

The hardest part about being away from Australia is definitely the distance, both personally and professionally. Many of our early supporters and part of our team are still in Australia, and our customer base is split between there and the US.

My whole family’s back home. When my niece was born, I wish I could’ve just teleported back. However, the balance has assisted me stay a bit more sane and appreciate both places more.

Do you have a tech relocation story to share? If so, please reach out to the reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

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