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What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

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Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#61

Post by hackerboos »

peterjancelis wrote: post #48
hackerboos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>EDIT: Of course, I'm not exactly familiar with the visa situation since I don't actually need it. Based on the OP, it seems pretty complicated, but still worth the hassle. I lived in Thailand for several years and 'bootstrapping' your business there as a foreigner without a work permit is breaking the law. You need a work permit to do ANY type of work in Thailand and although working out of sight is unlikely to get…

1. You are allowed to do business meetings on a business/tourist visa. 2. You can do business meetings from a co-work office. Now please tell me how being in a co-work office, working for a company incorporated abroad and not accepting local payments, can get one arrested.

You're wrong.

You can't conduct any type business on a tourist visa you will be deported if you are caught. People have been warned that they will be deported for singing on a karaoke in clubs as it's classed as work.

The business visa you are talking about (NON-B) is designed for employees of foreign companies who are conducting business with Thai companies. Not foreign businesses conducting business alone or with each other.

In fact without evidence of this you won't even get your NON-B visa.

http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/123/15388-Non-Immigran...

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#62

Post by practicalpants »

justincormack wrote: post #50
practicalpants wrote: post #47

Ah, I'm so on the verge of doing this. I quit my programming day job a few weeks ago and really want to make this happen. However... I'm terrified of the SF real estate market when I return. I'm also torn about whether to give up my apartment or find someone to sublet (or AirBnB it?) to have something to return to. Any advice, from anyone here who knows SF/SV, or has done something like this, about the above, or abou…

If you are scared of a real estate market, then doing a startup is probably not for you.

I did my own startup for a year and a half. It's reasonable to fear running out of money and plan accordingly.

Some practical tips for handling housing is what I was fishing for.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#63

Post by klausjensen »

dxbydt wrote: post #42
digitalnalogika wrote: post #3

Thanks for the post, I now feel like I want to do similar thing sometime in my life. Is there any other interesting, safe, cheap place where you could live comfortably using at most $1000/month?

Props to the OP for being open to exploring a whole different continent. But frankly, there are plenty of university towns right here in the USA that'll fit the OP's 1000 USD budget very well. As a TA in a CS grad program, I made $800 per month. With that money, I lived in a comfortable studio & had everything the OP describes & when I graduated in 2 years, in addition to my Masters degree, I had managed to save $500…

And that is great if you are a US-citizen, but otherwise not so much. Even coming from rich Scandinavia and the EU, we are not welcome.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#64

Post by pieterhg »

kirk21 wrote: post #56

Awesome! How did your family/friends react? What is your next stop? Moving to Berlin next month to bootstrap.

They are quite used to me moving around a lot and just want to see me happy. I am now in Saigon and my next stop is probably Phnom Penh and then celebrate NYE in Hong Kong.

Berlin is awesome! What are you working on?

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#65

Post by jamornh »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #54

> The enterprise loves C# coders. But that’s not necessarily the best language for a startup stack. Why? It's quite easy, much more powerful, performance is great! Jeffrey Richter in his book "CLR via C#" says it's often more fasten than even compiled C/C++. Have you heard about Entity Framework and ASP.Net MVC? It's growing like a mad thing, a lotta features, improvements and so on. Maybe the license price is high?…

Regarding this, you can also even get started for free by joining microsoft's bizspark program. Since they already know the tech, and its being produced cheap by Microsoft for start ups, I'm guessing most will figure that its worth it to just stick with C#.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#67

Post by Radim »

jamornh wrote: post #17

Thai national here, and as a fellow bootstrapper I would have to agree with most of the points of the OP. The reason why I left my well-paid job in Singapore and come back to Thailand to bootstrap my startup is due to the much lower cost of living and un-tapped talent pool. I'd like to add that the quoted figure of $1,000 USD a month is rather high. Most Thais can get by with $500 USD. That is the current starting sa…

Yes, definitely biased :)

Check out my answer to scheff below for a different (non-native) perspective.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#68

Post by larrykubin »

throwawayQWERTY wrote: post #18

Note: Using throwaway so my employer doesn't find out about my plan to eventually leave. Are there any places similar to this in USA? Cost of living around $1000 (give or take), good internet access, no car needed, decently cheap food and rent, and possibly an affordable coworking space? I'm looking to bootstrap an internet company and while I don't mind living abroad, I'd be much more comfortable here in the US, see…

Back in college I used to rent 1 bedroom apartment in Austin for $400 a month near campus. I never had a car there either. Prices have gone up some, but still you can find cheap apartments there.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#69

Post by notahacker »

maccman wrote: post #27
pieterhg wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! The most I could get from the Thai embassy in Amsterdam was a double-entry visa. If I wanted a triple-entry visa (giving me 3x90 days or 9 months), they required me to have booked all my flights in and out of the country beforehand. That was a bit too much planning for me. I believe there's education visas if you study Thai at a school for a year, but that seems like too much of a distraction while starting u…

You should try Siem Reap - much nicer, and seems almost european.

Or if you want somewhere relaxed Battambang has most of the benefits of Siem Reap (even day trips to Khmer ruins!) but without the tourist circus.

Re: What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

#70

Post by pieterhg »

Radim wrote: post #52
scheff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

care to elaborate?

Why not. There's plenty of more detailed info out there, and I don't claim to be any sort of expert after mere two years, but here's two stereotypical extremes: Tourist-eyes : beautiful beaches; nice weather; safe; cheap food; laid back, friendly smiling people -- PARADISE! Live-and-work-there-eyes : rampant bigotry and racism (common to most SE Asia); dishonesty ("losing face" and all, again shared across SEA and no…

You're absolutely right on most of those points. With regards to the racism: I did experience it when I entered night clubs, and it felt weird I had to pay an entrance fee and the Thais did not. But on the other hand, I know foreigners (esp. Westerners, like me) simply cause a lot of trouble in night clubs and obviously hitting on their women. In a weird way, you pay that off with an entrance fee.

In my limited experience, much of the racism I saw Westerners deal with, was most of the times them behaving in a stereotypical Western way (loud, obscene and rude). I don't have a problem with that, but Thai do.

I've come very far by just being over-polite and friendly to everyone I met. Bowing a lot, smiling and always staying calm in conflict situations (e.g. outside at 4am with drunk people).

With regards to dating, I mostly dated hi-so girls, which in the end paid more for my drinks, than I did for theirs ;)

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