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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?

#31

Post by codyrobbins »

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…

Not to mention the cost of airfare for the inevitable trips back home for holidays, weddings, funerals, etc.

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

#32

Post by lsc »

the SF bay area has enormous quality of life advantages for the common nerd, when compared to anywhere else I've lived.(granted, which only includes other parts of the US.) - but just on a personal level, being a nerd is a very lonely thing most places, and that loneliness gets distracting after a while. In the bay area, you are no longer weird or different. Hell, I can walk down the street to the hacker dojo, and be the dumbest guy in a room full of people (well, maybe not the dumbest, but certainly below average. My point is that in the central valley, it was pretty rare to meet others with my mental abilities. The bay area teaches me humility.)

I think this might have something to do with the disparity in wages; standards are just higher around here. Yeah, you pay more for a person, but the pool from which you can hire is so much richer. if you can choose good people, you can get better deals in the bay area than most other places.

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

#33

Post by codyrobbins »

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.

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

#35

Post by terpua »

brown wrote: post #8

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 also in Manila. Would love to meet up. Email in profile.

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

#37

Post by staunch »

edb wrote: post #13
staunch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does 3 1/2 mean?

It's Montreal for 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen, 1 livingroom and a bathroom.

Ah. Thanks. In Japan they do nLDK: n Bedroom + Living/Dining/Kitchen (1LDK, 2LDK).

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

#38

Post by andyjdavis »

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 to be bearing fruit.

Apartment rent is maybe $300/mth inc net connection, water, electricity. Can get a good thai meal for $1-3. Net connection is pretty quick although the infrastructure is a bit dodgy so there is an outtage probably once a week for generally no more than an hour or two. Dont think Id host here but for your own connection its fine.

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

#39

Post by rjurney »

lsc wrote: post #29
rjurney wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. I'd have been better off in a piece of crap apartment in an undesirable area, rice and beans and a motorcycle, plus access to brain power in the bay area.

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 still have access to the networks in the bay area.

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