Are there any small fishing towns in the US?
Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
131–140 of 156 posts
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#132Thats all well and good but some of us have families and kids.
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#133Looks appealing, right near Anchor Point, a world class surf spot. Was about to pull the trigger on a 3-4 month rental...until the price. 1,200 Euros/month in Morocco, really? During the fall and spring I pay 500 Euros per month for a 2 bedroom, 5 minute walk from the beach in Capbreton, France, an area with surf as good or better than anything in Morocco.
I can appreciate, number 1, the safety (as I had all my gear stolen in Morocco a few years ago, passport included), and living with other tech heads, but in the end I just need a decent internet connection, a kitchen, and location in some interesting part of the world; the rest are nice-to-haves.
Airbnb et al have totally destroyed the bargain rental market. From India, to Morocco, to Argentina, etc. formerly dirt cheap destinations now fetch luxury prices with often very modest accomodations in return.
Best bet for the travelling coder is probably to just do a week rental via hose-you-inc and then search locally for rentals closer to market value (i.e. not 2-5X what the locals are paying).
Now, it's a fantastic market for sellers, more power to them, if I had a place to sublet I'd be more than happy to fetch top dollar for some vanilla 1 bedroom apartment with a blender, hot plate, and clean sheets ;-)
2cents
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#134I'm not sure big cities are prohibitive here.
Sure the subway can suck but in New York City I have access to surfing, beaches, more yoga studios (and dance, and martial arts, among a million other classes in languages, the culinary arts, and virtually any other topic you could choose) than anyone could possibly count, restaurants, museums, concerts, sporting events, scuba diving, sky diving, and anything else you could ever ask for. (And even the things you'd never think to ask for). I mean the list just goes on and on and on. Of course this is predicated on the assumption that you will take advantage of it (and have the money, interest, time, and energy to do so).
However, that being said, the idea of waking up in my hut, and walking outside, doing a little yoga on the beach, and then setting up for a cup of coffee with some locals and hacking away in the sun does sound undeniably attractive.
I'd kill for some more sun in my workplace. And just whose idea were these damned open offices anyways? I do enjoy the social interactions and yet there is always that nipping feeling that I'm interrupting someone else's zone while I do so, much as, often, people interrupt mine when they do.
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#135Hm, sorry but ages of experience show that what mostly works is the other way around: You want to be a big city because you can find clients (users), meet people (e.g. possible investors) and generally speaking do any sort of networking that would be otherwise impossible. The internet is what it is, but you can never match the face-to-face relationship with an online approach. I totally understand that this is a drea…
You're optimizing for growth, the article optimizes for happiness. Depends what you're looking for in life.
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the fastest Internet connection you can get while paying $125/month for rent?
12 mbps for ~$10 a month. Arguably that's burst and in the evening I can't Skype effectively because of the congestion. But it's good enough for what I'm working on.
Wow $50 - $125 a month? Sounds like a great way to set up for six months and just have a crash pad to explore Asia with for a while.
Any pointers on visas?
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#137Back in 2009, I moved from Silicon Valley (Cupertino, natch, home of...well, me, until I left - rumor is there's also another tech firm or two there, but those fruit guys well, you know). At the time, I had it all. Consulting firm was paying half the bills and the scalable, bootstrapped and profitable media business had hit north of six million visitors the month before the big move. New location: Maldives. Sun, sand…
> A few exceptions about my move: * Father-in-law was Vice President, of the country at the time (I left before he became president)
Hahaha, come on man, I'm pretty sure that if you're part of the ruling social class of any given country your life is defeinitely going to be much more enjoyable than if you aren't.
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#138Are there any small fishing towns in the US?
plenty along floridas cost, depending on your definition of small:
jupiter, pine island, hudson beach..
pretty much take your pick along the coast, avoiding the major metro areas like Tampa/StPete/Clearwater/Miami/Jacksonville (all are more city than "town").
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
If all you're doing is hacking code then moving somewhere that lowers your burnrate as much as possible does seem like a good idea.
Only after you've tried to account for all of the intangibles, though. The right location can give you many benefits—workforce, networking opportunities, media access—that aren't available everywhere. Some of that can be done virtually, but in-person meetings still are much more memorable for many people. Also, if all your company is doing is "hacking code", then I doubt your company will be around for very long. All…
"Some of that can be done virtually, but in-person meetings still are much more memorable for many people."
But some don't ever do in-person meetings. There are many small companies who do business 100% online, don't need investors, local staff or anything like that. For this type of companies staying in the big city makes no sense.
(Disclaimer: I live in the woods in a small mountain town)
Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town
#140I'm not so sure you should be trying to push "leave your family and friends behind" as an upside. You are just reminding people of an obvious downside, you aren't actually turning it into an upside.