Start-ups follow Twitter to turn neighbours
San Francisco, Nov. 12: When Mr Joe Fernandez, a tech entrepreneur, moved his start-up here last spring, a big goal, he said, was “to be best friends with the Twitter guys.” His theory was that by hanging around with executives at one of the hottest tech companies today, some of the magic could rub off.
And so he snagged an office at 795 Folsom, Twitter’s headquarters in the SoMa neighborhood. There, he has been stalking executives on — where else? — Twitter, to see who is to visit Twitter’s offices. When he finds out, he pounces and “hijacks the meeting,” he said, by asking them to swing by his company, Klout.
By doing that, he has met Mr Robert Scoble, the influential technology blogger, and Mr Steve Rubel, director of insights for the digital division of Edelman, the big public relations firm, and has spotted Kanye West in the lobby on his way to Twitter.
Through elevator and lobby run-ins, he has also forged a close enough relationship with Twitter’s chief executive, Mr Dick Costolo is helping Klout raise venture capital. “Now I have his cellphone, and I text him,” Mr Fernandez said.
He is not the only Silicon Valley entrepreneur trying to follow Twitter — literally. Although the beige-and-brown office building at 795 Folsom doesn’t have a gym, a cafeteria, decent iPhone reception or a particularly attractive facade, tech start-ups are jostling to rent offices there. Like middle schoolers drawn to the popular kid’s table in the lunchroom, they are hoping that proximity to Twitter will lead to chance encounters in the elevator, partnerships or an acquisition — or simply that some of Twitter’s fairy dust will land on them.
Twitter moved into the sixth floor late last year, and expanded to the third floor in May. Among the start-ups that have moved in since are Klout, which helps marketers reach influential people on Twitter; Storify, a service for building online articles out of media like Twitter posts; and Liquid Traffic, an online marketing company.
All say a top requirement in renting office space was to be near Twitter, which has attracted 175 million users in just a few years. Several real estate firms that rent space in the building say they have noticed the Twitter allure.
“Our brokers have received calls about tenants wanting to be close to Twitter, if not in the building, then nearby in another building, since they’re the new hot company,” said Ms Victoria Burkheimer, vice- president of acquisitions, Westcore Properties.
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