AI startups are snatching up San Francisco offices, using Zoom fatigue to recruit talent
When Noah Jackson began his search for a new software engineering job at the start of 2024, there was one quality he knew he wanted in his next employer: office culture.
When Noah Jackson began his search for a new software engineering job at the start of 2024, there was one quality he knew he wanted in his next employer: office culture.
Jackson, 27, has spent almost his entire professional career in the post-Covid world of remote work. While many tech companies eventually brought employees back on a hybrid basis, others got rid of their leases altogether. For Jackson, all but the first nine months of his first real job involved working out of his home in San Francisco or at his company’s office, which tended to be mostly empty.
“Coming out of school, I overlooked how much work is really a part of your life and not just a box to check off,” said Jackson, who previously worked at an enterprise software company. “Being fully remote, it feels like it’s just like a thing that you have to do.”
In May, Jackson got his wish, taking a job at Tako, a visualization search engine startup that requires employees come to the office four days a week. Tako is among a growing crop of early-stage tech companies in San Francisco attempting to return to the pre-Covid days, when startups took pride in their digs and limited their use of Zoom.
“We’re not trying to build a culture that works for everybody,” said Tako CEO Alex Rosenberg, who launched the company earlier this year. “We’re just trying to make it work for Tako.”
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