I own a baklava bakery in SF. The city's AI boom has made life as a small-business owner more difficult.

Tolgay Karabulut is the 43-year-old owner of BaklavaStory, a bakery in San Francisco.

Tolgay Karabulut

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tolgay Karabulut, the 43-year-old founder of BaklavaStory, a baklava bakery in San Francisco. It has been edited for length and clarity.I've been running a baklava bakery, the thing I'm most passionate about, for the last five years. But the financial pressure I'm facing in San Francisco makes me question whether I can continue doing this forever.I moved to the United States from Turkey in 2005, when I was 21, to work as a lifeguard at a water park in New Jersey. During that time, I visited California for a month. I knew immediately I wanted to move here.I'd always been an entrepreneur at heart, trying different businesses like selling toys from China and setting up small kiosks in malls. When Silicon Valley was growing in the 2010s, my friend and I rented office spaces and subleased rooms to startups.But I always wanted to work in food. I had eaten in many places around the world and wanted to start a food business.In 2022, I finally started a baklava business, BaklavaStory. Baklava is a pastry dessert made with filo dough, chopped nuts, and syrup. I invested everything I had and borrowed money from friends, putting about $300,000 into launching the business.Nobody believed baklava would work in San Francisco. People told me it would be too sweet for people's palates.I said, "Well, I am the chef. I'll adjust how sweet we make it."12 hours in the bakery making only one dessert