Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

spreadsong.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 38 posts

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#21

Post by msort »

inaka wrote: post #7

ok, here's what i like and dislike about living in argentina and starting up a consulting business and building a product on the side. first, yes, it's cheaper, and yes, the wine i buy is better 100 fold than the states, and yes, i would say i've cut costs by about 40%. my kids didn't belong to a private club and take swimming and tennis lessons in seattle... so we're not taking advantage of the cost savings we could…

Hiring is not necessarily worse. In many countries (e.g. China), good engineers have a much lower market rate.

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#22

Post by dangoldin »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #11
idlewords wrote: post #2

I've done a similar thing as this guy, living in a number of countries for half a year or so, usually in connection with language study (doing remote contract work to pay my way). I've also observed American expats in those places, and in my home country (Poland). I think it is laudable to live abroad, and in our field we're fortunate enough to be able to choose where to live. But with that choice I think comes a cer…

* Basically treating it as your private hotel resort. I've seen many people who choose this route, and I find it pretty repugnant.* I assume that by this, you mean buying cheap food/beer and ignoring local culture? While it isn't my preference, I'm curious why you find it repugnant.

I understood it to mean that you don't treat people since you start living like a king. Instead of talking the local people and understanding the culture you only converse with them to get certain tasks done - maid, gardener, and so forth.

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#25

Post by abalashov »

alain94040 wrote: post #6
sound2man wrote: post #4

I wonder if you would end up with tax issues when doing this? As a US citizen would I pay tax abroad, or in the US, how difficult would it be to get the requisite visa, and most importantly, how many idea spots have fiber internet? It does sound intriguing though.

The US is one of very few countries in the world that taxes their citizens who live abroad. So yes, technically you'd be subject to pay income tax in both the US and the country you live in, but it is likely that there is a tax treaty with the host country that will let you deduct any local income taxes paid from your US taxes. In practice, this means that you will pay only one income tax (but file two returns).

Deduct any local income taxes paid from your US tax liability, or take a deduction in that amount on US taxable income?

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#26

Post by colinplamondon »

aditya wrote: post #18

This sounds like a bad idea for exactly the same reasons as starting up in a startup hub sounds like a good idea. 1) Easy to find and hire good people from your own network 2) Easy to raise money from connections in your own network 3) Easy to find accountants, lawyers, office space from your own network Starting a successful business is a fairly complicated and risky thing to do, why would you want to go live somewh…

Frankly, I don't give a shit about playing that game- success for me isn't being Mark Zuckerberg, because I don't want to live in Silicon Valley.

1) There are tons of people who would kill to work for a company that lets them live in interesting places around the world. We actually have some pretty seriously cool stuff going on in this area, but we're not quite ready to talk about it yet- I'll get a post out in a few weeks talking about exactly this.

2) Fuck that, we're already profitable.

3) Already have a great accountant, already working with a phenomenal law firm. Office space? Seriously? I'm not going to stick around the Valley because it's easier to find an office on Twitter.

I'm not sure if your last sentence is sarcastic or not- life is too short to spend seven years (average time to exit) somewhere you don't like.

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#27

Post by sho »

colinplamondon wrote: post #26
aditya wrote: post #18

This sounds like a bad idea for exactly the same reasons as starting up in a startup hub sounds like a good idea. 1) Easy to find and hire good people from your own network 2) Easy to raise money from connections in your own network 3) Easy to find accountants, lawyers, office space from your own network Starting a successful business is a fairly complicated and risky thing to do, why would you want to go live somewh…

Frankly, I don't give a shit about playing that game- success for me isn't being Mark Zuckerberg, because I don't want to live in Silicon Valley. 1) There are tons of people who would kill to work for a company that lets them live in interesting places around the world. We actually have some pretty seriously cool stuff going on in this area, but we're not quite ready to talk about it yet- I'll get a post out in a few…

I want to high five you after reading that ...

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#28

Post by kareemm »

Doing this now, and also living in Budapest.

One of the biggest benefits of bootstrapping abroad is that you don't have the social obligations that you do back home. No friends calling to grab dinner, go to a movie, go for drinks, etc (this is also a drawback, of course). You truly are able to control your own time. I spend 10-12h a day working, and when I get off my computer, I'm somewhere cool (like Budapest, or Buenos Aires!)

Having social contact is important when you're not working, but meeting people on sites like couchsurfing is pretty easy.

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#29

Post by freetard »

msort wrote: post #21
inaka wrote: post #7

ok, here's what i like and dislike about living in argentina and starting up a consulting business and building a product on the side. first, yes, it's cheaper, and yes, the wine i buy is better 100 fold than the states, and yes, i would say i've cut costs by about 40%. my kids didn't belong to a private club and take swimming and tennis lessons in seattle... so we're not taking advantage of the cost savings we could…

Hiring is not necessarily worse. In many countries (e.g. China), good engineers have a much lower market rate.

Agreed, why do many americans think other countries all have the exact same issues?

Re: Bootstrapping Abroad: why we do it and why it's awesome

#30

Post by jasonkester »

aditya wrote: post #18

This sounds like a bad idea for exactly the same reasons as starting up in a startup hub sounds like a good idea. 1) Easy to find and hire good people from your own network 2) Easy to raise money from connections in your own network 3) Easy to find accountants, lawyers, office space from your own network Starting a successful business is a fairly complicated and risky thing to do, why would you want to go live somewh…

You're right that it's tougher out here to generate the sort of hype that you get for free if you're in the Valley. For Twiddla, we actually left one of the founders behind just so he could do the Schmooze part.

But really, everything you mention is only relevant to a certain kind of of company. If you're not a Social-Media-Music-Sharing site that runs on the back of Twitter and needs to Get Big Fast, and you instead sell things to people who pay you money, then your list of things becomes much less important.

It's pretty good out here. You should come give it a try!

Post reply on HN