Free resource · San Francisco

Free San Francisco business-location research for entrepreneurs

Covering the San Francisco metro, including Oakland. No account, no paywall, nothing to buy. Built for anyone deciding where to open, and for the people who advise them.

What the Survivability Score measures

The projected chance that a specific business type lasts two or more years at a specific address.

The decision this is meant to help with

Most people choose a location on rent, on a walk-through, and on a feeling about foot traffic. Those are the things you can see standing on the sidewalk. What you cannot see is whether that block has actually supported your kind of business over time, or whether the businesses that lasted there were a different kind entirely.

That question is answerable before a lease is signed, and it is what this research covers for San Francisco.

Five things the San Francisco data shows

1. Location matters far more for some businesses than others

Across San Francisco addresses, a discount store ranges from about 38% to 85% projected two-year survival, a spread of 47 percentage points. A physical therapy clinic ranges from about 57% to 81%, a spread of only 24. For one of those, the address is close to the whole decision. For the other, it barely moves the answer.

This is the single most useful thing to tell someone early. It tells them how much of their energy belongs on the site search.

2. The businesses where the address decides the outcome

Business typeProjected 2-year survival across San FranciscoSpreadHow San Francisco ranks
Discount Store38% to 85%47 pp#4 of 24 metros
Fish Chips Restaurant29% to 85%56 pp#3 of 24 metros
Irish Pub32% to 85%53 pp#4 of 24 metros
Thai Restaurant33% to 83%50 pp#3 of 24 metros
Dermatology Clinic35% to 83%48 pp#3 of 24 metros

3. The businesses where almost anywhere in San Francisco works

Business typeProjected 2-year survival across San FranciscoSpreadHow San Francisco ranks
Physical Therapy Clinic57% to 81%24 pp#2 of 24 metros
Falafel Restaurant58% to 80%22 pp#11 of 24 metros
Seafood Restaurant58% to 82%24 pp#3 of 24 metros
Dentist Office56% to 81%25 pp#11 of 24 metros
Grocery Store52% to 77%25 pp#2 of 15 metros

4. Where San Francisco is a strong market compared with other metros

Business typeProjected 2-year survival across San FranciscoSpreadHow San Francisco ranks
Convenience Store58% to 89%31 pp#1 of 24 metros
Dessert Shop58% to 88%30 pp#2 of 24 metros
Grocery Store52% to 77%25 pp#2 of 15 metros
Physical Therapy Clinic57% to 81%24 pp#2 of 24 metros
Fish Chips Restaurant29% to 85%56 pp#3 of 24 metros

5. The neighborhood picture

Across 81 San Francisco neighborhoods, Marina is the strongest on average, at about 81% projected two-year survival, with its best locations near 87%. Seminary averages about 70%.

Averages hide the thing that matters. A single block can beat an entire neighborhood's ranking, and every low-ranked neighborhood contains locations that beat the metro average. Use the neighborhood view to narrow a search, not to rule an area out.

What is free here

How advisors and program staff use this

Methodology, and what this is not

The model is trained on roughly a million business outcomes and scores 500+ business types across up to five price tiers in 24 U.S. metros. Of everything it considers, the Revenue Capture Score, our own measure of projected market share against forecasted local spend, carries the most predictive weight.

Data as of 2026-08-30. Geographic scope: the San Francisco metro area, 81 neighborhoods.

This is decision support, not a guarantee. A projected two-year survival figure is a probability drawn from how comparable businesses have performed at comparable locations. It does not account for the operator, the concept, the capital behind it, or the lease terms, and no location score can promise a business will succeed or predict that one will fail. Treat it as one input among several.

For chambers, EDOs, libraries, and business-support organizations

This page is free and open on purpose. If it would be useful to the people you serve, you are welcome to share it, add it to a resource list, or use it in advising. Nothing is expected in return.

Ready-to-use description

StreetSpring publishes free neighborhood-level research on how likely different business types are to last at least two years in San Francisco. It covers 81 neighborhoods and 500+ business types, updates as the underlying data does, and needs no account to read.

Direct link

https://streetspring.com/partners/san-francisco.html

Where it tends to fit

Business Planning, Market Research, Site Selection, or Starting a Business.

Also available at no cost

Contact

I am Bobby, the founder. I built StreetSpring after watching good operators sign leases on blocks that had never supported their kind of business. If you want the PDF, want to book a session, or think something on this page is wrong, write to me directly.

Bobby | StreetSpring

Data as of 2026-08-30. Neighborhood figures from the live San Francisco rankings; business-type figures from the published national aggregate dataset. Survivability is shown throughout as the projected chance of lasting two or more years. Aggregate results only, no address-level data.