Ask HN: Visiting SF for the first time: Where to stay? What to do? Who to see?

Looking for advice on getting the most out of the city from a startup perspective.

My co-founder and I are coming from London as part of http://www.ldn2sfo.com/ . That aims to give us a whirlwind lowdown on how SV and SF operate, and a very high-level view of where a few startups and VCs are located.

We'd love to get a somewhat deeper view and with a view to working our backsides off and growing our bootstrapped company into one that requires a US entity within a year, we want to get a good sense of how SF can be done bootstrapped or at least affordably (even from a London perspective the salaries, rent, etc look crazy high from here).

At the very basic end there are just trip logistics: Recommend an AirBNB to use as a base, or a garage to sleep in, ideally owned by someone on HN and with a good internet connection (we work when we have moments spare).

At the other end there's a more general: If you were coming to San Francisco and Silicon Valley for the first time and for a week or so and wanted to get the most out of it, what do you wish someone had told you?

Basic goal: Figure out how SF/SV works from a startup perspective, build a network of contacts that might grow into friendships that could offer support in the future, and on the dream list would be to also build a few connects with VCs who might later become investors.

So in the most vague Ask HN ever, what would you share with a UK startup coming to San Francisco?