I know the default answer is silicon valley. But what are the other cities that I might look into, worldwide?
(For those interested: my plan is to live a short period of time in each promising city.)
- Great tech scene.
- Great VCs (Brad, Ryan, and the rest of the Foundry Group are a great bunch of guys).
- Great weather (unbelievable amounts of sun every year).
- Amazing hiking just 10 minutes outside the city. Go a little farther out (30-45 minutes) and you can follow some trails that will take your breath away (figuratively and literally :-).
- Great skiing close by if that's your thing.
- Great food -- not a ton of choices, but some good choices.
- Very quick and easy access to a major airport with cheap daily parking (about 45 minute drive and if you take the tollway, you'll never -- and I mean never -- have any issues with traffic).
- Easy access to both the east and west coast.
The downside is that Boulder is a bit homogenous. There isn't a lot of racial/ethnic diversity in my humble opinion.
Melbourne AU - also good for tech and culture, though it is closer to what you're used to (I'm assuming American)
New York US - hard to beat as a city
Important tips:
- live only in cities where you speak the local language, but visit countries where you don't.
- expect your productivty to be reduced by about half. Learning to live in a new country is surprisingly time consuming and the simplest of things can take hours.
- make sure you have at least a small social group (2+ people) or way to break into a social group in the new city.
I've lived in 4 cities across 3 countries in the last 2 years and in my opinion, moving to a foreign country while beginning a startup is like trying to swim while juggling.
I still say go for it, it'll be an experience, but starting a business is hard enough without having to learn to live in a new city, so if that is your ultimate goal, stay close to what you're familiar with.
Pittsburgh. It's cheap (REALLY cheap) compared to most cities and has a large talent pool of college kids (Carnegie Mellon and Pitt). Not the most exciting place to live, but for starting a company, it's probably one of the better choices. Less distractions + bad weather = lots of work gets done.
Austin.
NYC.
* Bangkok - you can find hotels starting at $10/night and probably cheaper in other places around Thailand...I'd suggest you check out the "remote" places near the ocean, I hear it's much cheaper.
* Budapest - great city; cheap to live in, people seem pretty nice .. especially women from South East Europe.
* Istanbul - Greaat culture; the people are soooo nice, crime rates are really low...I remember when I visited and went to eat at a local restaurant the owner was very nice, we had a nice chat, he asked where I was from..and soon after as I asked for the check, he said no no no, please, please, it's taken care of. I'm not saying everyone there is like that, but it semeed to me that almost everyone was so welcoming.
I'm going to be moving and living in a few cities, if you'd like to talk more, ping me(hajrice@gmail.com), I'd be glad to talk more.
Good luck!
Your view of a city will be vastly different depending on the length of your stay there. I thought Dubai was great on my first three-day visit.
Check out Taipei. It's vibrant, colorful, accessible, and lacks the heavy greyness I felt in mainland China. I dream of going back.
It's also a quite enjoyable film.
madrid
zurich
perth
vancouver