It’s 9 a.m. on a Wednesday, and there’s a line out the door at Starbucks in the Presidio. Inside is the typical collection of TikTok-addled teens and impatient locals, but it’s impossible not to notice the vests. 

They’re fleece and monogrammed with names like “Felicis,” “Forerunner,” and “Headline.” Those donning the uniform chatter VC-speak: All “TAMs,” “AUMs,” and, wait, did someone say “billion with a B?”

A similar scene plays out in small pockets of the Bay Area most weekdays (except when the investor class is summering in Europe or wintering in Jackson), but nowhere in as starkly beautiful a place as the forested expanse at the southern foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The Presidio is fast becoming San Francisco’s hub for venture capital, and a growing number of firms are trying to shoulder in. Just as the city’s startup scene has developed a specific AI-inflected flavor over the last few years, its venture community now has a unique personality defined in opposition to the Big Tech companies of the last era.

You could call it Sand Hill Road’s chiller cousin to the north. Surely that’s what the VCs gathering there want you to think.

“It’s part of a change happening in venture, where it’s no longer rich people sitting on Sand Hill Road and entrepreneurs coming to them,” said Ross Fubini, who moved his remote 15-person venture firm XYZ into the Presidio last summer. “We’re in the city, we’re in this place that is amazing for walks and deep thinking, and everything is a short Waymo ride away.”

San Francisco has emerged as the country’s undisputed AI epicenter — home to OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, startup accelerator Y Combinator, and dozens of hacker houses overflowing with vibe-coding college dropouts. 

That gravitational pull has drawn investors, too. In the past few years, firms like XYZ, Nimble Partners, Forerunner Ventures, and Atomic have joined the Presidio’s growing roster of venture upstarts. Headline relocated from the Transamerica Pyramid — one of downtown’s premier business addresses — before the pandemic, joining the likes of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, which set up shop in the former military outpost back in 2006.

“The Presidio’s investor ecosystem is definitely more diverse,” said Ben Hemani of Bison Ventures, alluding to the many hedge funds, family offices, and wealth management companies that are headquartered in the park, in addition to approximately two dozen venture firms. “It’s less of an old-guard vibe, and it feels more vibrant and growing.” 

Noelle Becker Moreno, chief marketing officer for Edge & Node, which operates crypto club House of Web3 in a converted military barracks, said the firm was among the first to move in after the large-scale pandemic retreat from San Francisco. Since opening in 2022, Edge & Node has let the Presidio Trust tour prospective tenants through its space, which boasts a Soho House aesthetic and views of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

“Most of the groups touring our space are tech companies and venture capital firms,” Becker Moreno said. “It feels like this is becoming the new Sand Hill Road.” 

They’re drawn to the proximity to the big names in AI, the cleanliness and safety, and the ease of access to residences in Marin, the Marina, and Pacific Heights. Oh, and have they mentioned the views?

“It’s really like a utopia,” said Becker Moreno. “People joke about going out and touching grass, but you can literally do that every day here.”

For Fubini, the difference between Sand Hill Road and the Presidio is that “investors are here because they love San Francisco and on Sand Hill Road because they love Stanford.” And as the AI boom unfolds mostly in the city, Fubini foresees the Presidio’s venture muscle only growing stronger. 

“We plan to be here for a decade and hopefully many decades,” Fubini said. “I’m constantly going on walks with investors and founders — down to Crissy Field, over to Starbucks, and to the food trucks.” 

Still, the dining options leave something to be desired. (The closest Blue Bottle is nearly a mile away, and forget about Sightglass.) Options for the power-lunching crowd include the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Dalida, Colibri Mexican Bistro, and the Italian restaurant Piccino. The highly anticipated The Mess Hall (opens in new tab) is slated to open next year at Tunnel Tops park, a complex that will have restaurants, a bar, and a market. 

Limited food options is one of the growing pains that comes with transforming a former U.S. Army post into a commercial business district. The other is more literal — there’s no space left to move into. Mark Zuffo, who leads real estate leasing for the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that manages the park, said its commercial space has a 96% occupancy rate. By comparison, Jackson Square is at roughly 80%, according to Cushman and Wakefield.

Last year, the trust inked 73 leases, including new deals and renewals. The agency is reviewing applications from office tenants for the last historic building (opens in new tab) on the Presidio’s Main Post Lawn, which offers nearly 40,000 square feet of space. The trust has received applications totaling more than three times the available area, according to Zuffo. 

By sheer numbers of VC firms, it’s still hard to find any place in the world that rivals Sand Hill Road, home to heavy-hitters like Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Andreessen Horowitz. 

But for all its adherents’ talk about quantifiable metrics and first-principle thinking, venture capital is still very much a vibes-based industry. 

And it’s hard not to feel optimistic while staring at the Golden Gate Bridge.