Entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann relocated his team from San Francisco to Manhattan. He has one regret. This video is part of a “Profiles in Entrepreneurship” series with Start Out, which promotes entrepreneurship in the LGBT community. http://www.startout.org

Topic: The downside of relocating to NYC

Gabe Zichermann: Oh, God. I love New York City and I’ve lived here now for four years. After I sold my last company, my partner is a fashion designer, and we thought San Francisco is no great place to be a fashion designer unless you’re really into polar fleece, in which case it may be the best place in the world to be a fashion designer, but we thought well, we can move to New York for his career and I can start a tech company anywhere because I knew I was going to start another one. It turns out that New York has been great for my partner’s career and it’s pretty difficult to start a tech company here, but I love New York City and can’t imagine culturally or intellectually wanting to move back to the West Coast. But I cannot get over the terrible, terrible Mexican food, terrible, horrible. Every time I go back to San Francisco or L.A. and I’m fortunate to be there almost monthly, my first stop is Lateckaria [ph] in the Mission or Mexico City in Los Angeles, where I get something delicious. Despite combing the edges of the five boroughs in New York, I haven’t found anything good. I often liken the experience [of] eating Mexican food in New York to running into your first love on the street after not seeing them for 20 years. There is no upside. Whether they’ve gotten really cute and you don’t feel so cute or they’re hideous and you feel really cute. The bottom line is that run in is going to sully the beauty of the memory that you had of them. All I do now is politely decline every offer for Mexican food in New York City and save my needs until I get back to San Francisco or L.A. or San Diego.

Recorded on October 22, 2009