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Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

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Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#21

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #14
pryelluw wrote: post #11

Local here. Feel free to contact me (check profile) for anything. :) We have a incubator called parallel18, and a couple of working spaces. It's not a super huge tech scene but the people are awesome.

How's the internet there? I'd imagine that would be a significant barrier to productivity.

Something nice about internet in PR is that its constitution explicitly prohibits wire-tapping, although I don't know if it has been challenged in court.

For consumers, there's gigabit internet (both upload and download) without any data caps for $70/mo [0] in part of the metropolitan area. They appears to have commercial offerings [1], but no pricing info is available.

I found this blog post [2] from 2015 claiming that getting internet speeds adequate for streaming a large event can range between $1500 and $3000.

[0] http://optico.criticalhub.com/plans

[1] http://www.criticalhub.com

[2] https://medium.com/@lherrero/como-el-oligopolio-del-internet...

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#22

Post by Raptor22 »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #14
pryelluw wrote: post #11

Local here. Feel free to contact me (check profile) for anything. :) We have a incubator called parallel18, and a couple of working spaces. It's not a super huge tech scene but the people are awesome.

How's the internet there? I'd imagine that would be a significant barrier to productivity.

It's actually not that bad. Before I left the Island last year, I had 100MB down / 25MB up in my house. YMMV, but I wasn't even in the metro area, which I imagine has even faster speeds.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#23

Post by true_religion »

huac wrote: post #10
jameslk wrote: post #5

> They are motivated both by an urge to help lift Puerto Rico out of its quagmire, but also by a profound attachment to the island — its beaches and countryside, its friendliness, its intimacy and the tug of family. They're probably more motivated by the complete lack of federal income tax[0]. Funny that this wasn't mentioned once in the entire article. 0. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/07/04/hate-taxe.…

"To qualify, an individual must not have been a resident of Puerto Rico within in the last 15 years." It seems that "returners" don't qualify for that. Maybe it's just the amazing Puerto Rican food (I'd eat every meal at La Casita Blanca if I could).

The Forbes articles is confusing.

The article is in reference to (but doesn't mention) the "Individual Investors Act (Act 22)"[1], which exempts you from Puerto Rico's own income tax, and limits your IRS liabilities for capital gains tax on long term investments sold within the first ten years of your residency.

Regardless of if you take advantage of the above, you are exempt from Federal taxes.

This is just an incentive atop it.

[1] http://businessinpuertorico.com/en/profit/individual-investo...

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#24

Post by true_religion »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #6
rayiner wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor backwater compared to what? Puerto Rico has a GDP per capita between Spain and Italy.

And a Gini coefficient (.531 as of 2011) between Guatemala (.530) and Colombia (.535). Italy and Spain are at .319 and .359 respectively. The US as a whole is .475.

It's an inequality coefficient, not any kind of measure of how "nice" a country is for someone living there.

Countries with a high Gini, tend to segregate more heavily than those who don't, which for the typical 'rich' software developer means that they'll live in a trendy area and know to avoid the 'ghetto'.

For example, Miami has a high gini at ~0.6 to 0.7 which gives you the palaces overlooking shacks effect of Miami Beach.

High gini also correlates with extreme economic growth, where the benefits fall onto a small group (e.g. software developers), and a reversion to the mean hasn't yet taken place.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#25

Post by aiyodev »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #12

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but left to work in tech. As with any place, there's some good points and there's some bad points. Below are some points that someone moving to Puerto Rico might want to know. In my opinion, their greatest achievement has been in its educational system. Despite its huge list of problems, UPR enables people of any background to receive an affordable high quality college education.…

"In the US"

Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#26

Post by aiyodev »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #17
huac wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is healthcare in PR now?

I can't speak for its quality, but in terms of cost it's much more affordable than the US equivalent. According to the article, finding specialists in certain medical fields is apparently beginning to become a problem.

I would imagine an authority on Puerto Rico would know what country they were in.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#27

Post by caoilte »

aiyodev wrote: post #25
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #12

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but left to work in tech. As with any place, there's some good points and there's some bad points. Below are some points that someone moving to Puerto Rico might want to know. In my opinion, their greatest achievement has been in its educational system. Despite its huge list of problems, UPR enables people of any background to receive an affordable high quality college education.…

"In the US" Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

Technically it's a possession and territory belonging to the of the United States, but not part of it.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#28

Post by javiramos »

jameslk wrote: post #5

> They are motivated both by an urge to help lift Puerto Rico out of its quagmire, but also by a profound attachment to the island — its beaches and countryside, its friendliness, its intimacy and the tug of family. They're probably more motivated by the complete lack of federal income tax[0]. Funny that this wasn't mentioned once in the entire article. 0. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/07/04/hate-taxe.…

Eric and Bryan, the two founders of Lunchera featured in the article, are good friends of mine from MIT. They definitely didn't return to the island for tax reasons. Puerto Ricans are passionate about their "isla" - hard to explain to people expecting rational reasons.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#29

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

aiyodev wrote: post #25
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #12

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but left to work in tech. As with any place, there's some good points and there's some bad points. Below are some points that someone moving to Puerto Rico might want to know. In my opinion, their greatest achievement has been in its educational system. Despite its huge list of problems, UPR enables people of any background to receive an affordable high quality college education.…

"In the US" Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

I'm aware. But Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, so within the context of my post when I wrote "in the US", I was referring to the 50 states and the federal district. I apologize if it wasn't clear.

Re: Millennials returning to Puerto Rico, launching startups

#30

Post by [deleted] »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #12

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but left to work in tech. As with any place, there's some good points and there's some bad points. Below are some points that someone moving to Puerto Rico might want to know. In my opinion, their greatest achievement has been in its educational system. Despite its huge list of problems, UPR enables people of any background to receive an affordable high quality college education.…

[deleted]
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