Hacker House Tents: $10/night, cheapest place to stay in California
airbnb.com
airbnb.com
Former neighbors of mine got in trouble for having friends stay in tents in their backyard for a while.
Granted, they were meth-heads, but what they got in a lot of trouble for was the tents not the noise/drugs. If you're running a "business" based on tents in your backyard, you could attract the wrong kind of attention, too.
Edit 1: (I want to meet people actually working on startups rather than those that just talk about them in various business conventions.)
Edit 2: Maybe something like the YC dinners, except people bring their own food / contribute some dish / or pay.
Edit 3: I'm more interested in meeting the people at HH than renting the room.
2: possibly, i haven't thought much about that. maybe if this is successful, we can use part of the money to fund a party of sorts.
3: i'm sure they're just as interested in meeting visitors too. you should definitely book sometime.
Is the dog awesome? ... This is at least as important to me as the location/price/amenities/cool people