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Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#51

Post by jaaron »

lionheart wrote: post #5

The way I see it, there's really no need to move out of the country to reduce your burn rate. I'm 99% sure that the inevitable culture shock and myriad other issues that come with living in a new country cancel out any benefit you get in terms of cost of living. If you move out of the bay area and live like a college student, that should be more than enough to bring your expenses to a bare minimum. I know its not har…

I can confirm that you'll lose a fair bit of momentum in the move. In the long term, it can be great. But in the short term, you'll increase your burn rate and your work can stop all together as you figure out the rules of working in the new country.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#52

Post by lionhearted »

codyrobbins wrote: post #33

I live in Honolulu and New York City, so I'm not qualified to give advice regarding choosing domiciles with cost of living in mind =) But I do always see ads in the Wall Street Journal enjoining people to move their businesses to Moldova for a variety of attractive reasons — low cost of living being one of them if I remember correctly.

Hey, do you have any feedback on where would be acceptable to short-stay live in Hawaii? I've had a hard time sorting out which islands/neighborhoods would be good to spend a couple months on, any input would be massively appreciated.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#53

Post by maneesh »

Yea, I was doing freelance programming for 1.5 yrs (moving on now to work on SEO stuff==> no more clients), I moved to Buenos Aires/Brazil to geoarbitrage, made a ton of money in relative standards and lived like a king on a relatively meager US salary. This year, off to India, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, and Kenya. Not a bad life :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#54

Post by codyrobbins »

lionhearted wrote: post #52
codyrobbins wrote: post #33

I live in Honolulu and New York City, so I'm not qualified to give advice regarding choosing domiciles with cost of living in mind =) But I do always see ads in the Wall Street Journal enjoining people to move their businesses to Moldova for a variety of attractive reasons — low cost of living being one of them if I remember correctly.

Hey, do you have any feedback on where would be acceptable to short-stay live in Hawaii? I've had a hard time sorting out which islands/neighborhoods would be good to spend a couple months on, any input would be massively appreciated.

It depends on what you're looking for. Oahu has all the amenities since Honolulu is a pretty big city, but there's still plenty of beautiful beaches and rural places elsewhere on the island. There's also a small but blossoming tech scene in Honolulu. If you want complete peace and quiet, then I would suggest the Big Island or Maui. The Big Island is like being in the middle of the Everglades in Florida, with a few small towns and nothing for miles. Maui is a little more suburban and cosmopolitan, but still somewhat rural since there's no big city like Oahu. While Kauai is absolutely beautiful, it's very small and far more touristy and commercialized — I'm not a big fan.

Renting out residential homes is technically illegal, at least on Oahu, but people still do it and you can still probably find tons of people renting out rooms in their homes for short-term stay on all the islands on Craigslist. On Oahu there are a lot of short-term accommodations in Waikiki, but Waikiki is very touristy, somewhat expensive, and most of the places are converted hotel rooms with no kitchens. A few centrally-located neighborhoods you might want to check that are relatively affordable are Manoa, Palolo, Kaimuki, and Makiki. Kailua and Kaneohe are also nice, but they're on the other side of the island and they're inconvenient without a car.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#57

Post by lsc »

rjurney wrote: post #39
lsc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bay area is the center of the universe, well, for my people. I think living here and needing a part-time job to pay the bills (part-time jobs pay twice as much here as anywhere else, btw) is a better choice than moving to the midwest, or even Sacramento.

Right, I agree. Pick an undesirable part of the bay area thats cheap, get a motorcycle, etc. But I don't really agree with a part time job. A part time computer job anyway, will totally kill your focus. There is something big to be said for full timing it. It sounds like he's talking about saving to go full time out of the US, and the bottom line is that he can do the same thing by living in poverty IN the US - and s…

depending on what you are doing (and who you can hire, and what you can charge for your time) I think working part-time sometimes makes a lot of sense.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#58

Post by abalashov »

patio11 wrote: post #3

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…

Nothing is "absurdly" easy. No, $1000 is not an incredibly difficult monthly recurring revenue number to achieve, but to say it is "absurd" or even "easy" unless you're a marketing guru with considerable capital and resources at your disposal is preposterous.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#59

Post by abalashov »

rumpelstiltskin wrote: post #19
elsewhen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Texas doesn't have a state income tax?

No, it doesn't. Some are saying it's the new California due to the enormous economic influx it's attracting, and given that its government's fiscal house is comparatively in shape.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?

#60

Post by andrewtj »

andyjdavis wrote: post #38

Im currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Low cost of living. Nice relaxed environment for when youre not working. I was previously living in Australia. Made a decent living from consulting work which may have been one of the reasons the product side of the business didn't do terribly well. Once I was out of the country consulting work got harder to get so I've had to devote more energy to products and that seems…

I'm currently in Australia and am looking to head to Thailand to extend my runway. Can you offer any advice on how you found your apartment and made the move? Anything you wish you'd known before you landed?
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