Small Business Owners Struggle Amid San Francisco's AI-Fueled Economy

I own a baklava bakery in San Francisco. Life as a small business owner in a city flush with AI money has been hard.

Tolgay Karabulut is the 43-year-old owner of BaklavaStory, a bakery in San Francisco. Tolgay Karabulut Since 2022, Tolgay Karabulut has run a small baklava bakery in San Francisco. The small business owner works 12-hour days, six days a week, baking batch after batch of fresh baklava. The city's AI boom has sent rent prices skyrocketing, and earning a living has felt like an uphill battle. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tolgay Karabulut, the 43-year-old founder of Bak...