This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Pat Santiago, a 28-year-old cofounder of Accelr8, based in San Francisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Last year, I moved to San Francisco to cofound an AI startup. Living in a hacker house seemed like the best way to make as many connections as possible.
My cofounder and I had an idea for a no-code AI workflow builder and planned to stay in San Francisco for three months, but we decided that running our own hacker house could be more fun. It would also help us build a strong network.
Soon after we decided to move from the separate cities we were in, we began searching for potential hacker houses that we could rent and run ourselves. The operational stress can be intense at times, but I’ve now got a better grasp on managing it.
We found our first hacker house on Airbnb
I met my cofounder in 2023 because we were both working at Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. Those projects fizzled out, and we went on to do other things.
I moved from my hometown of Pittsburgh, and he was in Dallas. San Francisco was always a place I wanted to live because it seemed like the kind of place where people who thought like me were.
We planned to share a bunk bed in one room, and fill the rest with people we found, possibly securing free rent for ourselves in the process.
We looked on Airbnb and found a place that had been converted from a five-bedroom house to a 15-bedroom house. After speaking with the owners, it seemed like it would work. They said we had two weeks to close on it if we wanted a master lease for all the units.
We messaged people on LinkedIn until we filled all the spots in the house
We were frantically sending messages to people on a San Francisco housing directory, LinkedIn, and X. We thought we could definitely convince 15 people to do this in two weeks, and it would be worth it if we did.
We scheduled around 100 calls to fill the first cohort. We made the decision to start the house at the beginning of June. By July 4, we had filled every spot, but some people dropped out, so we continued interviewing until the first move-in day on July 15.
One of my most memorable experiences was when the first group arrived at the house last year.
The pros of running the hacker house
What surprised me the most about moving here was the level of optimism; people are generally optimistic by default.
For San Francisco, the money I’m making from this isn’t great, but it’s livable. Ideally, as we expand to more buildings and locations, I can create a better financial situation for myself. But for now, it’s nothing to complain about because I’m so inspired by doing this.
The biggest motivator right now is seeing the impact our alums make in the world. They’re doing some really cool stuff, and I’m constantly getting updates that make me smile.
At the end of summer, we dropped to 12 residents, but I wasn’t really panicking because I now know this is just the natural flow of the year, and we’ve picked back up into the 40s.
The biggest challenge was when we were given a 2-month notice to vacate the first house
Our first house was taken over by a new management company, and they gave us a two-month notice to leave. When I looked for our next spot, I procrastinated because I wasn’t even sure if I would commit to managing this house for another year. But I had the hypothesis that a lot of hotels here are vacant, and if I called them, we could get a good deal and fill one.
After we found a building that would work with us, within a day of posting the first advertisement, we had 80 applicants. It was the reassurance I needed because I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to work. People love it.’
We priced a private bedroom at $1,500 a month, and that base price has remained consistent, except that we now offer larger rooms or suites as additional options.
Building a strong community is the key to success here
The house does a lot of community events because when we got here, we were going to networking mixers that droned on. Then, I was sitting in the backyard, complaining about just that, and I had the idea for a Mark Zuckerberg-themed rave.
Everyone was cracking up, but then we threw a Mark Zuckerberg-themed rave, and there were no name tags in sight. No one networked, and it was a blast. I was very proud that I’d sparked that.
People try to make community a digital phenomenon, but I think those who are literally shaping the future should be coming together and being physically present with each other.
Community used to mean gathering in a bar, a social club, a church, or somewhere physically present with other people; however, there’s a lot less of that in the world now, with the rise of AI and technology.
My major piece of advice is just to be nice to the people you meet and make friends. Doing community events is what keeps me engaged. Leading a group of people out for the night, to the park for a day, or on a hike, I can see the magical feeling I felt when I first moved here through their eyes, and I really love that.
Do you have a hacker house or founder story to share? Contact this reporter, Agnes Applegate, at [email protected].
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