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, a 43-year-old owner of BaklavaStory, runs a small baklava bakery in San Francisco. Since 2022, the small business owner works 12-hour days, six days a week, baking fresh baklava. The city's AI boom has caused rent prices to skyrocket, making earning a living feel like an uphill battle. As a Turkish immigrant who moved to the United States in 2005, Karabulut always wanted to start a food business. After investing $300,000 from personal savings and borrowed money, he launched BaklavaStory.

Karabulut's days consist of waking up at 5:40 a.m., Monday through Saturday, and working alongside his seven-person team to prepare fresh baklava. He only sells one pastry, making it fresh all day by baking it every 20 minutes. Karabulut explains that his biggest expense is labor, as California's labor costs are high, and he prefers to keep his kitchen small and efficient.

Despite the financial challenges, Karabulut is motivated by the positive reactions of customers who praise his baklavas. He shares his method of eating baklava, encouraging customers to turn the pastry upside down to enjoy the drier top layer. As rent prices soar in San Francisco due to the AI boom, Karabulut remains committed to growing his business and hopes to eventually afford a separate apartment for himself.