San Francisco startups embrace shoes-off office trend, inspired by home habits

A viral photo from San Francisco shows neatly lined-up shoes outside the office of Cursor, an AI startup founded in 2022 by MIT alumni Aman Sanger, Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, and Arvid Lunnemark. Employees are asked to leave their footwear outside before entering—a practice spreading across other startups, including Replo, Spur, Speak, Flowhub, and Composite.