41–50 of 78 posts
Probably easier, and comparable in costs, to move to the rural midwest - e.g. South Dakota. Or Detroit.
You might also consider one of the no-income-tax states like Texas, Florida or Nevada in case your startup starts to make some money. Moving out of Silicon Valley (with the top state tax rate over 9%) can be a big money-saver.
I found most places in Asia to be too distracting or too removed from business life. In places like Bangkok you will be hanging out with tourists and teachers, laid back crowd. In Hong Kong or Singapore, it's too fast, too over-paid and too British and annoying; you will be very self conscious and/or lonely if you're not hanging out with MBAs and other well-paid careerists.
Working out ok so far
You may want to bend the ear of these guys: http://www.expatsoftware.com I have lived abroad for the last couple of years. It is a wonderful experience. There are much, muuuuuuuuuuch easier ways of reducing your burn rate, if that is what matters to you. One simple one is taking your fluent command of the English language, American passport, and familiarity with all the local systems and relocating to anywhere in the…
But, if that's too much, head over to a college town like Athens. Can easily get a 2 or 3-bedroom apartment for $500-$600, $700-$900 if you want a rather upscale one. Salaries are low, and no shortage of college talent pool. There are a lot of townies, too; the charm of Athens seems to rub off on a lot of folks that finish college here. The University of Georgia is here - 32,000 students or more.
The broadband is good, and the living generally cheap. Real estate is by far the most expensive thing in Athens. It's somewhat annoyingly suburban outside of downtown and older historical areas, but that can be dealt with.
Honestly, I think that's a lot easier than trying to go through all the trouble of moving abroad.
I'm currently operating in Manila. Low cost of living. Extremely cheap local labor (hiring system admins for about USD$5k per year). People speak English well. Very American-ized environment, so minimal culture shock. There's a growing call center culture here, so bandwidth is pretty reliable. VC community is small but active. Manila lacks a big talent pool of software engineers. We've been experimenting with setting…
I'm in Beijing to cut costs and recruit team members. Ditto on both points a and b.
You may want to bend the ear of these guys: http://www.expatsoftware.com I have lived abroad for the last couple of years. It is a wonderful experience. There are much, muuuuuuuuuuch easier ways of reducing your burn rate, if that is what matters to you. One simple one is taking your fluent command of the English language, American passport, and familiarity with all the local systems and relocating to anywhere in the…
Ok, I'll bite. I'm a software developer, 10 years of web dev experience, and I can't fathom a business idea that would "absurdly easily" make me a grand a month. But I have little experience in entrepreneurship as of yet. Mind giving me a few pointers?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correction: No, not essential but someone will eventually treat you like shit because you don't speak french, and it's going to be offensive and feel like overt racism, but it'll happen rarely.
Not as bad as being in France, even when you just have a connection at the international airport and have to get somewhere it is very common to have people look down on you because you are trying to get their attention in English.
"Excuse-moi, parlez-vous anglais?" ("Excuse me, do you speak English?")
(phonetically that's roughly "ex-cues-eh-mwah, par-lay-voo an-glays" with a little emphasis on the "glays", just say it fast and it'll sound recognizable)
You might get no. Then you say, "Oh... no parlez-vous francais... do you know where xyz thing is... xyz thing... xyz thing... y'know xyz thing..." Eventually they'll get it. The two-second politeness of addressing someone in French has always been enough for me.
Based in Hong Kong which is a much lower cost base than US for engineers/designers, and we have a US based remote intern who helps with doing focus groups etc Working out ok so far
Hong Kong is actually a great location if you're interested in China. Getting investment visas is not too difficult and living costs are similar to the US. If you're smart, it can be much cheaper.
Trying to startup in China is _very_ difficult. I wouldn't recommend it until you have some experience in the area. As such, Hong Kong is a great place to get started.
If you are going to try Hong Kong, I would suggest getting in touch with an immigration advisor as soon as possible, because you can waste a lot of time otherwise. Also, get in touch with the people at the Hong Kong Startup Association: