Inside San Francisco's coffeehouse-fueled AI scene, where million-dollar deals happen over cortados

"I've built Octolane with my cofounder, Rafi, from every single one of them. But here's what the data doesn't show: the $500,000 investment term sheet I negotiated over a cortado at Cafe Réveille. The $800,000 deal I closed while sitting next to a grad student cramming for finals. The three customers who became friends, then advocates, then our biggest champions, all because we met first over coffee, not Zoom."

"I wake up at 5 a.m. here in San Francisco, because those three hours before the city stirs are mine. I review what our AI models learned overnight. I write. I think. Then I head to whichever coffee shop matches my energy that day. Saint Frank when I need to focus, since it's quieter, more intimate. Sightglass when I want that productive hum of energy around me. Equator when I'm meeting someone for the first time and want them to feel comfortable, not intimidated."

"Rafi, my cofounder and CTO, moved internationally to build this with me. One of our engineers handles the front end from one continent, another tackles the back end from another. So why would I pay $8,000 a month for an office in SoMa (the neighborhood South of Market Street) when I can spend $200 a month on lattes and have the entire city of San Francisco as my workspace?"

Mercury ranked the top five coffee shops powering founders in San Francisco based on transaction data: Sightglass, CoffeeShop, Equator, Saint Frank, Ritual. The founder built Octolane with cofounder Rafi from all five cafés and closed deals and investments through in-person coffee meetings. The founder contrasts past nights cleaning offices with building an AI company from coffee shop tables, calling the café workspace more honest than corner offices. Daily routine begins at 5 a.m. to review AI models and choose cafés by energy: Saint Frank for focus, Sightglass for productive hum, Equator for easing first meetings. A distributed engineering team spans continents, making expensive SoMa offices unnecessary when cafés and $200 monthly lattes suffice.

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