DATELINE–San Francisco

San Francisco-area entrepreneurs are marketing boutique water bottled at unlikely sources.

These days when the jet-set crowd walks into a bar in the chic SOMA district of San Francisco they’re just as likely to order water as a nouveau cocktail in a martini glass.

But it’s not simply water they’re ordering. Instead, they’re sampling HQ2O’s signature collection of “corporate watercooler” waters. For consumers who hanker for water with the rarefied air of high-tech success, HQ2O offers natural spring water drinks containing distilled drops of water siphoned from the company headquarters of Yahoo!, Wired and Silicon Graphics, to name a few.

Only in San Francisco, where juice bars are now as common as pizza parlors and smoking is prohibited in bars, could water with a high-tech aura fetch as much as $5 for a 6 oz. glass. Across the city, bartenders take orders for “coolers” that claim as their source 12 different “corporate headwaters.” A few drops are ceremoniously served up from a vintage apothecary bottle, and the drink is topped off with HQ2O’s special brand of natural spring water.

The cool new product which originated as the barroom brainstorm of two twentysomething entrepreneurs has struck a chord with San Francisco’s growing population of multimedia professionals.

“It’s like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes,” jokes Faye Mulholland, the female side of HQ20, “except you’re only walking as far as someone else’s water cooler.” Mulholland believes that the brisk sales of HQ20 can be attributed to a growing sense of self-awareness among the digiterati. “The industry has matured,” she explains. “A company like Yahoo! had less than 30 employees four years ago. Today it has 600…Startups are becoming regular companies with more turnover, and techno-literate employees are looking for a second wind.”

Now that San Francisco’s multimedia firms have grown into their own, a whole host of new businesses have sprung up to cater to the sophisticated tastes of their upwardly mobile workers. From wireless modem networks to 24-hour gyms, the market seems to be wide open for any company that can capitalize on emerging lifestyle trends.

Founded by two ex-multimedia types, HQ2O is a telling example of just how profitable a little knowledge of this demographic can prove to be.

It was shortly after Mulholland left her position as a product manager at one of the high-tech firms whose “water essence” she now sells, that she met Sam Taylor – also recently downsized – at a trendy San Francisco nightspot. The two struck up a conversation about how they could turn their bad fortunes into instant stock options.

“We talked about a software firm, a consulting firm, even about starting a technology news magazine we jokingly called ‘Mo’ Beta Blues,’” reminisces Taylor, “but in the end it was the wackiest idea that seemed to make the most sense.”

“Wacky” is making a lot more than “sense” these days for Taylor and Mulholland. While the seed of the duo’s business idea may seem untraditional, the business plan proved rock solid. “The day after I was laid off I realized the thing I missed most about my old job wasn’t my co-workers or even my paycheck but the water cooler,” ventures Taylor, “and if I was willing to pay money to recapture that water cooler mystique, it wasn’t hard to figure out that other people would, too.”

Indeed, HQ20’s products have lubricated countless conversations and launched more than a few partnerships in the over 20 bars and restaurants that now stock the high-tech beverage. Gus Samaristan, the proprietor of the slick Mission District nightspot Cosmos, confirms his clientele’s affinity for the high-priced and nonalcoholic drinks.

“Talking about computers in this town is like talking about the weather,” Bryant suggests, “and when you order a glass of Sun or a shot of SGI you’re letting everyone around you know that you’re in the game whether you work at one of these companies or not. Personally, I like it because it gets people talking, not drunk.”