Is San Francisco Still Worth It in 2026? | Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel

Is San Francisco Still Worth It in 2026? | Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel

Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of the web development platform Vercel and the creator of Next.js, one of the most widely used frameworks on the internet. In this Fireside chat, Guillermo explains how open source can accelerate product-market fit and why ruthless focus matters more than ever in the age of AI. Chapters: 00:55 - From Argentina to Silicon Valley 06:20 - Founder-Market Fit & Early Mistakes 08:02 - Open Source as a Speedrun to Product-Market Fit 11:24 - Building for Agents First 13:55 - The Focus Decision That Made Vercel 17:56 - Defining Taste in the Age of Infinite Building 22:07 - Hiring Talent in 2026 26:56 - Crafting Signal in a Noisy World 31:44 - Agents, Conviction & Playing Long-Term Games 💡 Are you a founder building the next big thing? Join Speedrun, the startup accelerator designed to help founders move fast with capital, mentorship, and top investors. 👉 Apply now: https://speedrun.a16z.com/ 📲 Follow us for more insights: X (Twitter): https://x.com/speedrun LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/a16zspeedrun/