Startup Workaway: 20 founders. 10 days. 1 beach house in Costa Rica. Apply now | Hacker News Reader

Startup Workaway: 20 founders. 10 days. 1 beach house in Costa Rica. Apply now

startupworkaway.com

73 pointsnpt427946 comments

Do you want to concentrate on your startup or take a beach vacation?

Join me in downtown Detroit if you really want to work on your startup. I guarantee you won't be tempted to leave the building for ten days and will get lots of work done.

Is there a $500 application fee?

Hey Bugsy,

I was being sarcastic. However if there are enough people who want to do it I will look into making it happen.

No, it's $500 if you actually get accepted and want to go.

I was asking the guy who was saying he would do the same thing in Detroit. Maybe Detroit is cheaper?

+1 for Detroit. Do it on either side of DEMF and I'm definitely in.

Detroit :)

These bootcamp style hackathons foster a atmosphere that gives me that little extra boost I sometimes need to create.

This reminds me of the Buddhist idea of a 'Sangha' which translates roughly to "community with common goal, vision or purpose". One of the most important things that emerge from these communities are relationships that will be forged.

This is the hacker right of passage that I have been yearning for in the subconscious parts of my mind. I will be there, and I will make something beautiful.

Somehow beach house and programming doesn't jive to me. When I am "in the zone" the last thing I want to do is leave my desk to enjoy the beach & when I am enjoying the beach the last thing I want to do is go back to my desk.

Ps. I talk from experience, as I am right now sitting in front of the beach ! (surfing HN!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vKvAy8svSE

Nah, I need breaks man! Can't just be heads-down all day. Your work starts to deteriorate. May as well make your breaks awesome!

Please rig the house with cameras and make this a reality TV web show!

hah, I invision something like "Beauty and the Geek", but replace the girls with VCs.

LOL. That would be a show I'd enjoy watching.

You have to pay a $500 application fee and cover the cost of your own airfare?

I stayed at a pretty nice place for $10 a night in Costa Rica, so $500 covers 50 days during which one can code or swim and ends up owning outright whatever they write.

Have to be crazy to take this deal, it makes no sense.

Just to be clear, we're doing this at cost. We're renting a mansion with cooks and servants and stuff.

And we own 0% of your IP.

Er, OK, so the idea here is that it's a bunch of different guys working on random ideas of their own and afterwards they each go their separate ways? If that's the case, it's not so clear from the web site.

I have serious doubts that you found a nice place for $10 a night. I went there for 12 days in Jan '09 and I found that the prices were ok, but they definitely weren't third-world. It's developed now and you pay accordingly. It also seemed to me that $500 was for the stay (not an application fee), which is a good deal for 10 days for the house in the pictures.

If you say so.

I also stayed at a place on the beach in Montezuma, have you been there? That place was $1.50 a night. I wouldn't call it nice, but many of the people going there aren't looking for fancy digs at night.

> a good deal for 10 days for the house in the pictures

20 people x $500 is $10,000 for 10 days (9 nights?), or $1000 a day for the place. That's pretty expensive for CR, I can't say I've even heard of any place that charges that much. Of course there is the housekeeping and meals as well.

Does this place have 20 private bedrooms or is there room sharing for the $500.

I have a feeling there may be more people interested in doing the reverse of this: Startup Workaway: 20 founders, 10 days, 1 house in Palo Alto.

Given the typical size of houses in Palo Alto, 5 founders to 1 house might be more practical :)

I'd be in for that

Sounds awesome. Almost guaranteed to get a sunburn and some techcrunch coverage if you come out of it with something cool, considering all the ink startup bus got.

Take with grain of salt.

I'm all for supporting but these guys already tried this

http://stomp.io/

I signed up and did not receive so much as an email.

If the founders are on here:

Great work, I hope it happens and I get where you are coming from. But don't make this _just_ about you trying to get covered on techcrunch.

I created Stomp, and I'm one of the organizers of Startup Workaway.

Stomp needs much more iteration before it's ready for prime time. I don't want Stomp tech crunched until then, and Startup Workaway is a completely separate project that doesn't even mention Stomp on the web site.

However, I do apologize that I haven't emailed the 10 folks who expressed interest in the Startup Workaway on Stomp, or notified them of the date change. That's completely my bad.

The concept is a good mix between a a fairly inexpensive vacation and peer driven entrepreneurial fun. It sounds like a refreshing alternative to being holed up in some corporate office for a weekend eating crappy pizza.

This is a really great idea, and definitely something I would like to take part in. I would need more time to plan for it though - 3 months lead time is about right for me.

Awesome looking house Nick! I'm trying to decide whether to go, already have a conference booked during same time. Congrats for getting this off the ground, I remember exchanging travel/tech ideas at SXSW.

I've been working with Chelsea on launching Startup Abroad - http://startupabroad.org - this September, which is also about bringing founders together in an awesome place abroad.

West coast Costa Rican resorts are awesome. I stayed at this one before => (Non-aff) http://www.occidentalhotels.com/allegro/Papagayo.asp

You can usually get 30-40% off list price, and they're truly all inclusive. I suggest hitting one before or after the startup weekend since you're buying the plane ticket anyhow.

Take the $500 and put it towards your start up.

I moved to Honolulu about 2 months ago. It's done wonders for my productivity. Need a break? Hop down to the beach, take a swim, and get back to hacking. It is awesome.

A 10-day sojourn might not work so well if you want to enjoy the area while you're there, but if you can manage a long-term getaway (tropical or not), I highly recommend it.

This is a great idea. I wish I could apply for this one and I hope there are more opportunities like this. (I can't do this because of schedule commitments, but if it were two weeks later I'd be sending in my application.)

I'm applying, but if you feel like you can work in a simpler house and sleep either on a sofa/hammock/whatever, email me. I'm in the French West Indies, with a decent internet connection. No fee at my place, but you must be a decent guest - ie no loud music/boozing up/etc.

Thank you. That is a very nice offer. I wasn't specifically looking for a getaway but that is a very appealing idea.

Well you are welcome then. Seriously, you won't be the 1st guest I have :-) There's a bus stop nearby (20 min to the beach) so you won't need a car and a supermarket. And that will be a good motivation for me to code too!

We'll be doing another one, likely in the fall. Hopefully in a European castle. If you follow @startupworkaway, or sign up for the mailing list, you'll be notified when we nail down details.

Done and done. European castle sounds great. I'll be looking for announcements.

Reminds me of Jason Kester's "geekbeach" idea. Discussed here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2213225

Kinda hard to create the next Facebook when you have a tropical beach next door, no?

This is a brilliant idea.

Wish I had thought of this first, for Jamaica :(

Would love to know how it goes.

Are they saying that the application fee is $500?

No. "the per-person fee of $500 covers all the basic costs (except airfare). We supply the housing, the food, and the fun."

Any HN readers applying?

Delhi is long way from Costa Rica or I would have applied!

I'm going to give it a go. I like the idea and I love CR!

Good luck.

I'm still waiting for Startup Canoe...We have startup weekend, startup bus, startup ________ ... but I want to build a startup while on a canoe!

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