I'm curious if anyone here has moved from an expensive city in the U.S. to a city in Panama, Costa Rica, or somewhere else with a lower cost of living. What was your experience like? Is it worthwhile? What are your rent/internet costs? Are there any sites dedicated to starting up this way?
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?
#2Probably easier, and comparable in costs, to move to the rural midwest - e.g. South Dakota. Or Detroit.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#3You may want to bend the ear of these guys:
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 US where the living is cheap. In St. Louis, for example, I know there are plenty of livable apartments near Washington University for about $450 or so. (When I was there it was $800 a month for a very capacious 2 bedroom apartment.) Add on another $200 for food, and we'll round it up to $1,000 so that you can take the bus to see a movie once a week and deal with life's little expenses. There, that's your ramen profitable number.
It is absurdly easy to sell that much a month, if you actually sell stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#4Probably easier, and comparable in costs, to move to the rural midwest - e.g. South Dakota. Or Detroit.
Yeah, but then you have to move to South Dakota or Detroit.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#5The 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 hard to find a room in my local college town for under $400 a month. And thats right by the university. I assume that somewhere further out in the boondocks you can get a place for even cheaper.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#6To anyone interested to learn the cost of living in different places, I live in Montreal (Canada) and think it's a god damn cheap place to live. I pay $405 for a spacious 3 1/2 with parking (+$45 electric bill). There is plenty of entertainment in this city too. Also as a Canadian I don't have to worry about health care. So if you ask me, I think I am in a good spot for a start up.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#7To anyone interested to learn the cost of living in different places, I live in Montreal (Canada) and think it's a god damn cheap place to live. I pay $405 for a spacious 3 1/2 with parking (+$45 electric bill). There is plenty of entertainment in this city too. Also as a Canadian I don't have to worry about health care. So if you ask me, I think I am in a good spot for a start up.
Is it important to be able to speak French there?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#8I'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 up an office in India as well to remedy that problem.
I was in Beijing for about 6 months. I would not recommend that unless you either (a) speak Mandarin fluently or (b) plan on staying there for the long haul. Engineers were highest quality I've seen though.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#9Probably 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.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone moved outside of the US to bootstrap your business?
#10To anyone interested to learn the cost of living in different places, I live in Montreal (Canada) and think it's a god damn cheap place to live. I pay $405 for a spacious 3 1/2 with parking (+$45 electric bill). There is plenty of entertainment in this city too. Also as a Canadian I don't have to worry about health care. So if you ask me, I think I am in a good spot for a start up.
Is it important to be able to speak French there?
Not essential, but does not hurt to know common phrases