S.F. local merchants want tech firms' business, not charity

Mark Dwight, founder of Rickshaw Bagworks, says tech firms' charity is good, but business would be better. Mark Dwight, founder of Rickshaw Bagworks, says tech firms' charity is good, but business would be better. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close S.F. local merchants want tech firms' business, not charity 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Don't get Mark Dwight wrong. The San Francisco small-business leader is happy that top tech companies just promised to donate millions to local charities. But he's got a better idea for how tech companies can help the city's economy: buy from local retailers - particularly when they fill swag bags for conventions that pass through the city.

It is the latest healing balm proposed for how San Francisco's wealthy tech community can mend its fractured relationship with residents jittery about how skyrocketing real estate prices are changing the city.

Beyond any economic impact that Dwight's proposal might have, it packs a cultural one, too. Other small-business leaders say a buy-local emphasis would also address a deeper, ongoing complaint some local merchants have about their new tech-company neighbors: They're not becoming part of the community.

Part of that is a cultural disconnect. A startup company may be a small business in terms of the number of people it employs, but most generally have a reach beyond San Francisco. A local brick-and-mortar small business is focused on local customers who pass through its doors.

Dwight, who is a board member of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and sits on the city's Small Business Commission, would like to see stronger business ties between the two groups. And not just philanthropic ones.

"Because there's been such a progressive agenda in the city, the call to action (to tech companies) has been, 'You should be more philanthropic,' " said Dwight, a former Cisco employee who founded Rickshaw Bagworks, a 16-employee firm that custom-manufactures messenger bags and backpacks in the Dogpatch neighborhood.

Shop locally

"Don't just think about the philanthropic things we're doing - think about where you shop," Dwight said.

Lately, tech philanthropy has been top of mind among the city's tech and political leaders.

On Friday, The Chronicle reported that Salesforce.com founder and native San Franciscan Marc Benioff was leading an initiative to raise $10 million from tech firms over the next 60 days for Bay Area antipoverty programs. That came days after Googles pledged to give $6.8 million to fund two years of Muni rides for working-class youths.

At last month's Crunchies Awards for tech companies, venture investor Ron Conway told the audience that "we - that means all of us - must be leaders in tackling the challenges in housing, transportation and education. We are in this together." And Mayor Ed Lee has called on tech companies to step up their corporate responsibility, both in giving and service.

But Dwight doesn't want charity. He wants business.

Convention business

Specifically, he wants the city's small businesses to get a piece of the action when it comes to getting more locally made goods at conventions, which brought 638,274 people to San Francisco last year, according to the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"If all of these companies would redirect even part of their purchasing power locally, think of what it could do," said Dwight, who helped create SF Made, a nonprofit that is dedicated to helping promote local manufacturing and works with the convention bureau.

Dwight's first target: the "swag" bags filled with name-branded goodies that companies give out at conventions. His back-of-the-envelope estimate is that $100 million worth of swag bags are dished out annually in San Francisco. Neither the Convention and Visitors Bureau nor the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development track how much is spent on convention swag bags or how much of their content is locally produced.

Dwight has experienced that impact firsthand. When Google recently placed a large order with his bag company, he wound up hiring two new full-time employees, who live in the city and whose children attend school in the Sunset District. The impact also trickled down to his screen printer, who is in the Bayview neighborhood and meant more work for the local firm where he occasionally rents a truck.

Mayor supportive

Lee is on board, at least philosophically.

"He's absolutely right," Lee said. "We're not only looking into this, we've been advocating for this."

"As Mark says, if we have great manufacturing - whether it be chocolates, wines or in his case, fashion accessories, we should be pushing it. It should be a policy that runs through with the way we operate," Lee said.

SF.citi, Conway's organization of tech companies, is open to connecting with local manufacturers, too, said spokesman Alex Tourk.

"There is great synergy between tech and local manufacturing. As an organization we would certainly be open to partnerships that support local entrepreneurs as small business, of which we believe are how tech startups are defined, are the backbone of our local economy," Tourk said.

But some small-business owners say those startup owners aren't connecting enough with their local communities, and part of that divide is widened by the self-contained work campuses with free food and on-site child care.

Henry Karnilowicz, president of the San Francisco Council of District Merchant Associations, said "There's just a little isolation between them and us, I hate to say.

"I'm not saying it in a negative way. None of us feel that they're terrible," Karnilowicz said. "But it would be nice to have them be part of us - not just them and us."