How Lean Startup Forced Me To Leave My Country | Hacker News Reader

How Lean Startup Forced Me To Leave My Country

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31 pointsthanasisp16 comments

I found the article a bit of a puzzle - I must admit I cannot understand his final point. The author talks about how he moved to the SF bay area, and says:

"So this is how instinctively craving for the Lean Startup’s feedback loop, i decided to leave my home country and get to the place where internet startups are built."

Isn't the internet, where internet startups are built? That’s were all your users are. That’s where all the revenue comes from. I thought the whole point of startups, was that anybody with an idea could create one without having to live in a certain place, or have lots of money and connections.

However I admit, that I live on the other side of the world from SF, and the probability that I don’t 'get it' is high. Can somebody who is in SF explain what you can do there, that you can't do from anywhere else in the world with a net connection?

Hey Luke! Thank you for your comments, i am the author of the article. Which would happen to be a perfect answer to your question... Among limitless other things, you can get feedback and support on your efforts in SF... more on that on another post i made on "Why Europe Leaks Startups to US" http://goo.gl/8ijbm

But now that i am in SF i can draw you a picture comparing the two situations. When i was back in Greece, working on my Consumer Internet Startup product was like operating the Pathfinder rover on Mars. If it got stuck in the mud it could take weeks, months, or forever to get started again...

On the other hand, being here in SF, working on the same product is like driving a Land Rover on Mars with me in it! In the unlikely situation that i'll get stuck in the mud, i'll have helicopters lifting me off in less than 30 minutes.

But then again, why not have someone 'local' explain the difference? :)

Hmmm, from reading your other post, it sounds like you can create a start up anywhere, but if you want to make the 'next big thing', you will get a bost from being in SF, because, there is a bigger network of people working on startups, thats where the money is, and thats where the coders are.

Would that be correct?

exactly!

Sounds like he couldn't get any feedback in Greece. This was interesting because having moved to silicon valley a few years ago, I never thought of user feedback as one of the core values of the area. The situation elsewhere in the US is probably better than Greece, but maybe not as good as San Francisco.

As somebody in San Francisco, how has being there helped you get user feedback? Wouldn't the audience for most startups be either global, or at least national?

Or is it something more to do with the culture of the San Francisco bay area?

From my experience, you get much better generalized startup feedback, but it's frankly harder to get true user feedback unless you're building something for SF types. I tend to filter a lot of my more general consumer product ideas through friends who DON'T live in SF because I want them to not be comparing it to every other startup they've heard about recently.

The bay area has a huge number of early adopters that can get an product to critical mass. It is incredibly useful to someone who doesn't have a platform or serious marketing dollars.

How did you get a visa for the US? This is still a big issue for EU based founders that want to move to the valley.

Hey rmoriz! I plan on bloging about that exact issue right after my next blog... Rss on ;)

Would you mind elaborating ever so slightly about your visa situation?

When people leave such big cliff hangers it makes me secretly despise them for their ability to get me transfixed until the next blog post.

So you are the spoiler type of guy :P

* Not one single path exists * Each one takes his own unique path * If you are to find it you will find it

Maybe an L1-A? You can get an L1 as part of establishing a new branch.

I believe Thanasis gives a good insight of his efforts to find the right path. Great article. As in most situations there is no "right" path.

For people asking on what is the big difference to do something outside a major innovation hub, this is something been discussed so many times. In fact this question is self-contradictory, because the guy that wrote it, reads HN a SF news incubator, which in fact started off from another city and moved to SF! They should have an idea why they did that. In fact they explained how beneficial this move was.

Now off course there are other hubs of innovation, but everyone has his own reasons for deciding.

Nice article. How are you doing today with users and feedback?

Hi Alex! I am in an ever accelerating pace since i set foot in the U.S! I am glad i made that decision

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