‘Best of both worlds’: Seattle startup founder community Foundations is expanding to San Francisco

Foundations, the Seattle-based founder community that operates a startup accelerator and co-working space, is opening a new location in San Francisco — extending its footprint beyond the Pacific Northwest for the first time.

The expansion is not about abandoning Seattle so much as helping Seattle founders succeed, said Aviel Ginzburg, the venture capitalist who co-founded Foundations in 2024. Ginzburg said the goal is to support Seattle-founded companies that increasingly split time between the two tech hubs, rather than to recruit Bay Area startups.

“It’s about giving our community the best of both worlds,” he wrote in a blog post. “No more choosing sides; we’re bridging the gap to empower founders wherever their journey takes them.”

The new San Francisco office, expected to open in the second quarter, is roughly 5,000 square feet — similar in size to Foundations’ original Capitol Hill location in Seattle. Foundations members will be able to use both the Seattle and San Francisco spaces.

Ginzburg framed the move as a response to shifting market dynamics, with stronger startup momentum in the Bay Area and growing hurdles for Seattle-based founders, specifically related to hiring.

Last week GeekWire reported on Seattle entrepreneurs who are relocating to San Francisco, drawn by the city’s AI boom and serendipitous encounters that are harder to find in Seattle.

Ginzburg said one or two Foundations member companies relocate to San Francisco every month, and teams that stay in Seattle are spending more time in the Bay Area.

“Seattle remains an incredible place for deep tech work, with its engineering depth and quality-of-life perks, but SF’s density of ambitious startups, AI innovation, and investor networks are unmatched, and the divide is growing,” Ginzburg wrote.

He told GeekWire that the move is not motivated by tax or political concerns, but acknowledged that proposed legislation in Olympia — including bills that would tax gains from qualified small business stock — “is just going to increase our headwinds.”

Ginzburg, a general partner at Seattle venture firm Founders’ Co-op, noted that San Francisco is not without its own drawbacks for founders. “By expanding Foundations to SF, we’re slaying the false choice,” he wrote in the blog post. “Our members get access to both ecosystems without giving up their hard-earned community of practice: Seattle’s grounded talent AND the Bay Area’s electric pace.”

He said Foundations is updating its mission from “making Seattle a better place to be a founder” to “make Seattle founders successful” — regardless of where they’re physically located.

Other Seattle-based startup groups have made similar moves in recent years. Longtime VC firm Madrona opened a Silicon Valley office in 2022. Matt McIlwain, managing director at Madrona, told GeekWire last year that having a presence in Silicon Valley “gives us some information flow, some people flow that’s highly complimentary to what we do here.”

Flying Fish, another established investment firm, also expanded its purview beyond the Pacific Northwest in 2022.

Foundations co-founder Tyler Brown is already based in San Francisco to help run the new office. Ginzburg said he’ll be making more trips to the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, Foundations is also adding another 5,000 square feet in Seattle at the Capitol Hill location. A plan to expand to the Eastside has been delayed.

Foundations launched two years ago as a way to support early stage founders, filling a gap left by the departure of Techstars Seattle. The group now has 290 active members, and has worked closely with 68 founders-in-residence that participate in an accelerator program and have raised more than $70 million collectively. Ginzburg recently brought on Seattle investor Peter Mueller to help run operations.

Foundations operates as a benefit corporation, a legal distinction designed for entities that want to turn a profit and also prioritize social and public good. The organization set up its business model so that it could fund operations without requiring an exchange of equity with participating entrepreneurs.

It’s one of several startup groups in the Seattle region aiming to help founders, including the AI2 Incubator and its AI House, Pioneer Square Labs, Plug and Play, and several others.