So much was said and done about the Twitter tax break. Does it truly matter to tech? It looks like the tax exemption so far mostly benefit one single building – that is the SF Mart where Twitter is located. Next door to Twitter, the large real estate deal signed by Dolby on one side and Square on the other side are both outside of the tax exemption zone. Dolby tell the truth about the tax. “A payroll tax exemption was not part of our motivation — we just believe in the neighborhood”.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/06/dolby-to-follow-twitter-buys.html?page=all

Vast majority of tech companies in San Francisco do not find this worth their while. Startups are not flocking to Tenderloin just because of the tax break. As the deal signed by AirBnb, Dolyby or Square tells us, if their business is growing and the real estate is desirable then they will come, tax or no tax.

The other mythology is tech companies tend to move to Silicon Valley as they grow. This was heard so many times that people just accepted it as an unexamined truth. Yet I’ve great difficulty to actually come up with a list of growing tech companies who have actually done so. The contrast is especially stark when you consider the huge number of startup coming to San Francisco despite the negative reputation cited. This tell me that some times people people are drawing a very wrong picture when it comes to the competitiveness of San Francisco for tech.