Well... it's been a while. And a lot has happened the past two months. First off, Dru and I have now officially moved from Utah to California. Right around New Year's an opportunity arose for both Dru and me at a company called First Opinion. After much thought, we decided to postpone our plans to build in Lehi and join the team in San Francisco. Super hard decision given how much I've been rooting for the little guy in Utah tech the past five years. I really love the Utah tech community and our CocoaHeads meetups. Thinking about it though, while Dru and I recognize that there really isn't a better place to bootstrap a business, this was an opportunity we didn't want to let pass by.
We accepted positions with First Opinion a few weeks ago, and in about two weeks went from finalizing floor plans/prepping to build a 2800 sq. foot home to selling virtually everything on KSL and moving to San Francisco in search of a small 1 bedroom apartment with 12 boxes and a couple suitcases to our name. Never would've guessed this, but finding housing in San Francisco is hard. Who knew? Between hotels, Airbnb, and crashing at the office we've had a comfortable bed to sleep in, but hopefully we'll be able to wrap up the apartment search soon. I know Lola would be rather appreciative.
The great thing about moving is the chance to start fresh. The past month has included 6 full Jeeps worth of donation items to DI, the sale of 3 vehicles, and about 20 items sold on KSL. It's funny how attached you can get to your possessions. And not just because they are shiny and new -- I'm talking old Jeeps, game consoles, a dumb t-shirt you love, and a $20 set of golf clubs. Some of the best parts were seeing the new homes that our stuff was going to. Granted, we let a lot of our stuff go at a premium since we were trying to get out to San Francisco as fast as possible... but from the guy who bought Dru's red Jeep with plans to turn it into a southern Utah rock crawler in 30 days to the teenage girl who was so stoked to get an Xbox 360/Kinect and a bunch of games. Or the people that found the first starter snowboard, road bike, and golf clubs. Or the teenager and dad that bought my XS 400. All awesome homes for some of the toys that have made life more exciting in one way or another over the past few years.
Last Tuesday, after 3 days of packing with some HUGE help from family and friends we finally got on our way. And now, in pictures...
Passed out after staying up all night packing.
You've been good to us, yellow brick Lehi home. So long for now.
We packed up a 10' Budget rental truck... definitely did not need the whole thing. Or 80% of it.
Lola enjoying her first few days in the city, constantly at Dru's hip.
Holding up at a hotel near the office.
Lola attempting to get used to the whole city thing.
At a cafe in Hayes Valley.
We've been doing a lot of apartment searching the past couple weeks. The dynamics of all the different neighborhoods is so interesting. You have some of the more traditional San Franciscan neighborhoods like the Castro, Nob Hill, and Hayes Valley, you have the Civic Center area with Twitter and a few high-rise residential buildings like NEMA and AVA popping up, and you have these newer districts like Mission Bay and Dogpatch that are a little further out (but not too far away). I'm glad we didn't just jump into a lease found on craigslist before checking out the areas, because in addition to working in the city, we're excited to live in and be a part of the community. We want to find an area that gives us easy access to do that. A couple leading favorites as we've been searching are Avalon Hayes Valley, 8 Octavia, and Linea, all of which are in the Upper Market to Hayes Valley neighborhoods.
To wrap it up, Dru, Lola, and I are here, safe and sound. We're getting up to speed at First Opinion and looking forward to contributing to its massive success ;). We worked together at Solutionreach for two years and really loved contributing towards a meaningful product, and being able to do that together. Being an earlier stage company and being direct to consumer rather than selling to doctor's offices, it's a unique opportunity to make a difference on a small, but passionate and dedicated team in an industry that we care about.