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Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

thebluehouse.io

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Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#61

Post by lelele »

josefresco wrote: post #35

Hey I live in a small (former) fishing town! Except it's winter, 30 degrees and I'm inside staring at my computer screens and might as well be anywhere in the world. Yes I can stop work, and "go surfing" (in the right season), I can even stop working and visit the local town pier and see those quaint "fisherman" struggling to make a living -because let's be honest, not everyone can be a tech-ninja startup founder. If…

> At the end of the day it doesn't matter where you are.

I think that it matters, instead. Unless you are one of those people who are oblivious to their surroundings.

You are not going to code 24/7. And when you will have done your share of coding for the day, or even if you would just like to take a break, then being in a nice place will help you to recharge yourself.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#62

Post by xianshou »

VLM wrote: post #52
eddieroger wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree with this more. I worked for a startup-turned-recent-exit, and despite their big growth after a few years, if you go back and look at the first hundred customers or so, they were nearly all locals in the non-Silicon-Valley city the company was formed in, from other small shops to some of the bigger companies. Unless your product is niche to small fishing companies, this advice may not be the best.

"Unless your product is niche to small fishing companies, this advice may not be the best." Yet the competition space for very young rich urban american white kids making products for very young rich urban american white kids is hyper crowded, and in "rural fishing communities" the marketplace is apparently nearly empty, so the odds of a big success appear much better. There's a fad now of "home automation" as define…

100% of epsilon is still epsilon.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#63

Post by tluyben2 »

yallahaline wrote: post #8
atmosx wrote: post #6

Hm, 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…

I agree. More and more often you see people choosing a mix of both. Living in a big city when their product requires it, going abroad when they need more focus, or when their in a development stage that enables it. You don't have to be in the same place all the time anymore :)

Yep, I live deep in the mountains and travel to cities when I need to. Works well. Better than anything I did before anyway. It also gives a good perspective on what happens when you fail; nothing.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#64

Post by pjc50 »

binarymax wrote: post #10

For those of you in the UK/London - and want somewhere cheap and amazing to code in your own back yard, I highly recommend Hastings/St Leonards. It is (or was) a 'small fishing village' that retains a fascinating history. 1.5 hours from London, and 1 hour from Brighton, 1/3 the cost of flats and working space, good connection speeds, good coffee. If you come down to check it out, look me up and I'll buy you a pint. -…

And the most excellently named railway station, "St. Leonards Warrior Square".

While the housing is cheap by London standards, it's still the south east and it's possible to get cheaper and better in the north, west, or Scotland.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#66

Post by organsnyder »

onion2k wrote: post #50
josefresco wrote: post #35

Hey I live in a small (former) fishing town! Except it's winter, 30 degrees and I'm inside staring at my computer screens and might as well be anywhere in the world. Yes I can stop work, and "go surfing" (in the right season), I can even stop working and visit the local town pier and see those quaint "fisherman" struggling to make a living -because let's be honest, not everyone can be a tech-ninja startup founder. If…

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 that being said, I do agree with the sentiment, and I think that the benefits of high-cost locales are probably not worth the increased cost of living. I definitely appreciate my Midwest mortgage payment.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#67

Post by linkeex »

This might be the most dotcom-ish post I've read since joining HackerNews.

Don't get me wrong on this but even the argumentation is clearly wrong here:

> work in places so magical they could be on the cover of travel magazines

> under an umbrella on a beach in Senegal, in cafes in old Arab medinas, and more

> Adventurous Startups.

and then

> YOU’LL BE MORE FOCUSED

I've tried this myself and my experience was that working abroad is totally doable but by no means did I achieve focusing more on my work.

Instead I would pick any chance meeting new people and discover the new environment.

Also: In my opinion everything comes down to networking, which is why a lonely beach in Marocco might not be the right place to start this...

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#68

Post by banino »

santoriv wrote: post #42

Well, I think this strategy might work if you want to keep your burn rate unbelievably low while you are writing v 1.0. But to be honest 300 Euro per week for space is actually not optimal. I've been in the mountains of Vietnam for the last year and rent has been between $50 and $125 per month, which has made it possible for me to be unemployed for a long time and write v1.0 of my startup's app. I think that Southeas…

Hey! It's also pretty far from Europe, Morocco is 3hrs away from Paris and London. And a lot of people simply don't want to live in Asia, they'd rather go to Africa.

Re: Why you should move your startup to a small fishing town

#69

Post by thebenedict »

VLM wrote: post #52
eddieroger wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree with this more. I worked for a startup-turned-recent-exit, and despite their big growth after a few years, if you go back and look at the first hundred customers or so, they were nearly all locals in the non-Silicon-Valley city the company was formed in, from other small shops to some of the bigger companies. Unless your product is niche to small fishing companies, this advice may not be the best.

"Unless your product is niche to small fishing companies, this advice may not be the best." Yet the competition space for very young rich urban american white kids making products for very young rich urban american white kids is hyper crowded, and in "rural fishing communities" the marketplace is apparently nearly empty, so the odds of a big success appear much better. There's a fad now of "home automation" as define…

Just think! When you've built the app and captured 100% of the diesel fishing boat mechanic rating market, you'll make dozens - nay, hundreds - of dollars! Users could search, sort and filter all 6 diesel fishing boat mechanics in town!

I'm being sarcastic but you're right. I live in a small town (in a small country) and there are a lot of unmet needs that software could address, and minimal technical competition. The other side of the coin is that the market is small, and capturing lots of geographically disparate niche markets is hard. Even nth runner up success in Home Automation for Rich People in Big Cities is a lot of money.

Innovating in small markets is fun and part of the reason why I'm here, but big markets are competitive for a reason. The adages about small startups being just as much work as big ones, and owning 1% of $10^9 being better than 10% of $10^6, still apply.

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