If you are moving to San Francisco to build a company, you need two budgets, not one. The company budget covers the business. The founder budget covers you. Most cost guides only write the first one, then leave you to find out about the second after you land.
This page gives you the second budget. It uses real numbers where we have them, and tells you exactly what to ask when we do not.
What your first month actually costs
Your first month in San Francisco is the most expensive one, because you pay for the place and you pay to set it up at the same time. Here is the shape of it.
- Rent. Your monthly housing cost.
- Deposit. Usually paid up front and returned when you leave.
- Setup. A bed, a mattress, bedding, a desk, a chair, plates, pans, a lamp. All of it at once, in a city you do not know yet.
- Utilities. Power, water, trash, and internet, usually set up separately and billed separately.
- Time. The week or two you spend on all of the above instead of on the company.
The last one is the cost founders miss. A week spent buying furniture and waiting for an internet appointment is a week your startup did not move. If you are here for three months, that is eight percent of your runway spent on logistics.
The Foundry numbers, in full
We can give you exact figures for our own houses, so here they are.
- A private furnished room starts at $2,290 a month.
- The deposit is one month of rent. It comes back when you move out, minus any damage.
- The minimum stay is one month, not a year.
So to move in you need $4,580: the first month plus the deposit. There is no separate utility account to open and no furniture to buy. If you want parking, ask about it on your tour, because some houses charge for a garage space and some have none.
That rate covers power, water, trash, 500 Mbps internet, weekly cleaning of the shared space, and a furnished room with a bed, bedding, towels, a desk, a chair, and storage. The kitchen has pots, pans, knives, plates, and coffee. Every house has laundry.
The point of listing it that way is not that it is cheap. It is that it is one number. You can put $2,290 in a spreadsheet and it will still be right in March.
Why the second number matters more than the first
A cheaper room is not always a cheaper month. Compare two founders.
Founder A finds a room at $1,900. She pays a deposit, buys a bed and a desk, waits nine days for internet, and splits four utility bills with roommates she has not met. Her first month costs closer to $4,500 once the furniture is in, and she loses most of two weeks.
Founder B pays $2,290, arrives with a suitcase, and starts work the next morning.
By month four the rent difference is real money, about $1,560. That is worth having. The question is whether the two weeks at the start were worth more than that to your company, and only you can answer it. What you should not do is compare the two rents and think you have compared the two options.
Want the full breakdown?
Every rate, every included item, and the four houses you can choose from.
Where you live changes what you spend
San Francisco is small, but the commute is not free. Rides add up fast when you take three a day for meetings.
We have four houses, and the difference between them is the neighborhood, not the room.
- Shotwell, in the Mission. One block from 16th St Mission BART, about a minute on foot. This is the shortest walk to a train of any house we run.
- Guerrero, in the Mission. About five minutes to the same BART station, and two blocks from Dolores Park. From there it is roughly 30 minutes to downtown and about 50 minutes door to door to SFO.
- McAlister, in the Western Addition. Two blocks from Alamo Square, walking distance to the cafes on Divisadero and to Hayes Valley.
- Fulton, in Lone Mountain. Across the street from Golden Gate Park and next to USF. The quietest of the four.
If most of your meetings are downtown or in SoMa, being near BART is worth more than an extra square foot. If you write code all day and take two calls a week, quiet is worth more. Pick on that, not on the photos.
A checklist you can use on any place
Take these questions to every option you look at, including ours. Write the answers in a column each. The comparison usually decides itself.
- What is the monthly rent?
- What do I pay before I get the keys, in total?
- How much of that comes back, and when?
- What is the minimum stay, and what happens if I leave early?
- Which bills are separate, and roughly what do they run?
- Is the room furnished? If not, what do I have to buy in week one?
- Is internet already on, and how fast?
- How long is the walk to the train I will use most?
- How many days pass between saying yes and sleeping there?
That last question is the one people forget, and it is often the most expensive.
Company costs are a separate list
Keep these apart from the founder budget, or you will not be able to tell whether you are spending to learn or spending to live.
- Incorporation and legal templates.
- Software, domain, and hosting.
- Contractors and design.
- Customer research and anything that gets you in front of users.
The useful test for company spend is simple. Ask what you will know next week that you do not know now. A customer interview that changes the roadmap earns its cost. A tool you open twice does not.
The short version
Budget your first month as rent plus deposit plus setup plus lost time, not rent alone. At Foundry that is $4,580 to walk in the door, $2,290 a month after that, and no setup or lost time, because the room is furnished and the internet is already on. Compare that against anything else using the checklist above, and make sure both columns are filled in before you decide.
