When I was there, that was the Marina / Cow Hollow. Funny how quickly things change. When I moved down there in 1999, a friend of a friend told me to avoid SOMA if I "didn't like getting stabbed", but I guess that's mostly been gentrified at this point. It was already starting to improve back then.
Basically, give the soma a chance: there are quite a few gems and great people who hang out here. The area around folsom and 8th (some people call this folsoma) is starting to get more neightborhoody with the addition of many local restaurants, cafes, and bars.
Also, as the OP mentioned, soma is basically ground zero when it comes to startups and startup activity in SF.
There are lots of startups around South Park and down into Potrero, even. There are like 10-20 startups working out of Pier 38 alone.