# Jan Sramek Czech-born former Goldman Sachs trader who is the founder and CEO of [[California Forever]] and its land-buying subsidiary [[Flannery Associates]]. The architect — and public face — of Silicon Valley's most ambitious attempt to build a new city from scratch on the edge of the San Francisco Bay Area. ## Background - Born in the Czech Republic, raised in a town of roughly 1,000 people. Son of a schoolteacher and a mechanic. - Olympic-hopeful in handball before pivoting to finance. - Educated at the **London School of Economics**. - Published his first book, *Racing Towards Excellence*, at age 22. ## Goldman Sachs (2008–2013) - Joined Goldman Sachs out of LSE as an emerging-markets trader, turning down multiple hedge-fund offers. - In **2009 (age 22)**, named *Financial News'* youngest-ever "Rising Star" in European capital markets. - Built a reputation as a precocious, self-promotional macro trader during the post-2008 EM run. ## Startup Years (2013–2017) - Co-founded **Better AG**, an e-learning startup, reportedly sold to a compliance-training company in 2016. - Co-founded **Memo Inc.**, a short-lived social media venture. - Spent a stint at **[[Stripe]]** working on "special projects" as an external contractor — a connection that later showed up in California Forever's investor list (Patrick and John Collison are backers). ## California Forever / Flannery Associates (2017–present) In 2017, Sramek incorporated [[Flannery Associates]] and began quietly assembling farmland in southeastern Solano County, on the edge of the Bay Area, with capital from a Silicon Valley billionaire consortium. Over six years, Flannery spent more than **$800M** acquiring roughly **60,000 acres** — most of it agricultural land near Travis [[Air Force]] Base. In **August 2023**, NYT and CNBC reporting unmasked the buyers, and Sramek surfaced as the operation's founder and CEO. He rebranded the effort as **[[California Forever]]** and began a public-facing campaign to build a walkable city of up to **400,000 residents** on the assembled land. He relocated his family from San Francisco to Solano County. After polling collapsed and a July 2024 ballot initiative was withdrawn, Sramek pivoted: instead of a countywide vote, he restructured the proposal as a **Suisun City annexation** with a **defense-manufacturing tentpole** — the "Solano Foundry" industrial park and a proposed 1,400-acre shipyard near Collinsville pitched as national-security infrastructure. ## Style and Reputation - Self-promotional in the Olympic-athlete / Wall-Street-prodigy mold — frequently cited his own *Rising Star* and book in early interviews. - Press coverage describes him as a "whiz kid" (Daily Beast) and a "mogul" (NorthBay Biz); critics at public meetings have called him a "shill" and "smooth talker." - Has shifted public framing from utopian urbanism (2023) to defense-industrial revival (2025–26) as Trump-administration procurement priorities shifted — a pivot supporters call pragmatic and critics call a bait-and-switch. ## Investor Network Sramek's backers connect him directly to the core of the Silicon Valley funding ecosystem this KB tracks: - **[[Marc Andreessen]]** — a16z - **[[Michael Moritz]]** — former [[Sequoia Capital]] chairman - **[[Reid Hoffman]]** — LinkedIn / [[Greylock]] - **[[Laurene Powell Jobs]]** — [[Emerson Collective]] - **[[Patrick Collison]]** & **[[John Collison]]** — Stripe co-founders - **[[Chris Dixon]]** — a16z crypto - **[[Daniel Gross]]**, **[[Nat Friedman]]** — AI investors ## Controversies - **Flannery price-fixing suit (2023)** — Flannery sued local farmers for ~$510M alleging coordination to inflate land prices; suit dropped in 2024 after public backlash. - **Travis AFB proximity** — federal investigators initially probed whether the secret land assembly threatened the air base; Flannery was cleared, but the optics dogged the project for months. - **Promises problem** — CalMatters reporting showed most of Sramek's headline commitments (affordability, water, transit, schools) were not legally binding on any future owner. - **Local democracy critique** — opponents argue Sramek is using Suisun City (pop. 30,000) as a procedural vehicle to entitle a city of 400,000 without a county-wide vote. ## See Also - [[California Forever]] - [[Flannery Associates]] - [[Marc Andreessen]] - [[Michael Moritz]] - [[Reid Hoffman]] - [[Laurene Powell Jobs]] - [[Saronic Technologies]] — reported $3B drone-shipyard tenant - [[Watching]] — California Forever is an actively tracked story