Industries › Fintech & Payments › San Francisco
Across 5 counties, the San Francisco metro counts 133,246 business locations employing 2,417,363 people. The 6,966 with 50–499 employees are the starting pool for a fintech and payments campaign, and Sapper works them by phone first.
| Sector | Locations | Jobs | 50–499 employees | 500+ employees | Change since 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services | 23,140 | 318,400 | 983 | 69 | −59 |
| Retail | 12,038 | 198,184 | 842 | 8 | −226 |
| Health care | 16,920 | 319,201 | 821 | 75 | +722 |
| Restaurants & food service | 12,900 | 194,523 | 593 | 3 | +132 |
| Wholesale trade | 5,144 | 93,327 | 282 | 22 | −181 |
| Insurance | 2,021 | 32,923 | 98 | 9 | −90 |
| Banks & credit unions | 1,342 | 28,637 | 56 | 10 | −20 |
Where to start: Start with professional services: 983 of its 23,140 San Francisco locations have 50–499 employees. Health care added the most locations between 2022 and 2023 (+722).
| County | All locations | Finance | Health care | Prof. services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alameda, CA | 42,318 | 1,515 | 5,587 | 6,731 |
| San Francisco, CA | 33,378 | 2,186 | 3,620 | 7,220 |
| Contra Costa, CA | 25,932 | 1,630 | 3,705 | 3,899 |
| San Mateo, CA | 21,569 | 1,274 | 2,694 | 3,464 |
| Marin, CA | 10,049 | 624 | 1,314 | 1,826 |
Where the market sits: Alameda County and San Francisco County hold 56.8% of the metro’s business locations across 5 counties. By count, Alameda County leads with 42,318 locations and San Francisco County follows with 33,378.
The metro has 462 locations in activities related to credit intermediation, 115 of them in payment and transaction processing. That is a lot of outreach competing for the same attention, so the first message has to be specific.
What wins: naming the buyer’s problem in their words, then asking one question. A list of services sounds like everyone else in San Francisco.
1. We agree on the accounts firstYou approve the target list. It is exclusive to you.
2. We introduce you, then keep goingPhone first, backed by email, LinkedIn and mail.
3. We qualify before we bookNeed, timing and who else is involved, confirmed.
4. You walk into a warm conversationWith the account history and a confirmed time.
For a fintech or payments company, we build the list around how your buyers take payments today, their size and the sectors your product fits. Alameda County and San Francisco County hold the most San Francisco locations, and professional services has the most mid-size ones (983). How appointment setting works →
The 5-county San Francisco metro has 133,246 business locations. 6,966 have 50–499 employees and 503 have 500 or more (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).
The most mid-size locations are in professional services (983), followed by retail (842).
Titles to test first include financial managers. The metro has 17,040 of them, plus 25,170 accountants and auditors. Your offer decides the final mix, and nothing is called until you approve the list.
Nearby markets: Fintech & Payments in San Jose (42 mi), Fintech & Payments in Santa Rosa (49 mi) and Fintech & Payments in Santa Cruz (59 mi).
Selling to contractors or home-service companies instead? See Abstrakt’s San Francisco page.
