Find Your GTM Renaissance: Why NYC and SF Are Still Worth the Move

(shoutout to Sahil Bloom for the inspo for this article)

At VibeScaling, I spend most of my day talking with top GTM candidates - people quietly exploring their next move into or within AI.

About a third of these conversations are with talented folks in tier 2 cities or suburbs who ask me the same question: "Should I make the move?"

My answer is almost always yes.

If you're early to mid-career and serious about tech and increasing your career ceiling, you should strongly consider relocating to NYC or SF in 2025 to benefit from what’s known as the Medici Effect.

History of The Medici Effect

In the 15th century, the Medici banking family in Florence began bankrolling artists and thinkers. This funding created a magnetic pull - suddenly, the world's brightest minds converged in one place.

The talent density sparked the discourse that ignited the Renaissance.

Fast forward to today.

On a call just this week (shoutout to Matt), a founder told me something that stuck (and also inspired this article):

"Athens built a statue to Nike, the goddess of victory, and cut off her wings so she could never leave. But civilizations are organisms - they go through life cycles. Florence had its moment. So did Athens. Now it's SF's turn."

He's right. Throughout history, you see these flashpoints - concentrated pockets of talent in small geographic areas that create an outsized impact. Athens in 500 BC. Florence in the 1400s. Today, it's the Bay Area and NYC for this wild AI wave.

He also said: "There's only 500,000 people in SF proper, but look at the GDP creation. It's insane. It's like Florence during the Renaissance, except with homeless people and bad politics instead of beautiful architecture."

(Shoutout to Granola for helping me capture these quotes 😆)

He’s spot on. These cities have the highest IQ density in the world. And despite their problems- the crime, the cost, the dysfunction - ambitious people continue to show up.

Why Physical Proximity Still Matters

For most of the world, we live in a remote-first world. You can Zoom anyone. But something that hasn’t changed: humans still do business with people they trust.

Investors write checks to founders they've met for coffee. The best hires often come from serendipitous conversations at events, not LinkedIn cold outreach.

The most ambitious people I know - the true top performers - actively seek environments where they're surrounded by people better than them. The Medici Effect is why attendance at Columbia's 10-year reunion crushes Penn State's. It's why people pay absurd rents to live in shoebox apartments in these cities.

Ideas don't compound the same way over Zoom as they do over a whiteboard or a beer. Casual interactions compound. New connections compound. You learn by osmosis from your surroundings from other top performers that push you.

The Bottom Line

NYC and SF each have their strengths. NYC is more fun, better for single people, more diverse across industries. SF is the purer tech hub - more concentrated startup energy, stronger builder mentality, less Northeast dogma.

But both cities offer the same fundamental advantage: they increase your surface area of luck. You're more likely to meet a co-founder, find an angel investor, join a rocketship startup. Get pulled into opportunities you didn't even know existed.

If you're an early-to mid-career professional and ambitious, find your Medici Effect.

Right now, that's NYC or SF. Full stop.