What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for six months

Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by dxbydt on Saturday October 12, 2013 @05:47PM (#6540483)

Props to the OP for being open to exploring a whole different continent. But frankly, there are plenty of university towns right here in the USA that'll fit the OP's 1000 USD budget very well. As a TA in a CS grad program, I made $800 per month. With that money, I lived in a comfortable studio & had everything the OP describes & when I graduated in 2 years, in addition to my Masters degree, I had managed to save $5000, which I used for downpayment on a car. Most students live like this & some of the frugal TAs manage to save much more than 5K.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by crucialfelix on Saturday October 12, 2013 @05:59PM (#6540543)

$1000/mo in thailand is living WELL. truly paradise, gorgeous weather, go to nice clubs, best beaches in the world. no comparison with just passing time in a university town in the US.

you could merely survive for much less in thailand

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by dxbydt on Saturday October 12, 2013 @07:03PM (#6540765)

Am just pointing out that bootstrapping a startup in a university town on 1k USD is definitely doable. You don't have to go all the way to Thailand and flout visa rules(yeah most of those rules are not exactly enforced but they are still on the books)

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by notahacker on Saturday October 12, 2013 @07:31PM (#6540840)

It's a fair point, but you'd never go to Thailand mainly to save money anyway: it's one of the most expensive countries in the region and certainly no easier to live in (beyond the tourist/expat ghettos)

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by crucialfelix on Sunday October 13, 2013 @12:08PM (#6543037)

True, I could even do it here in Berlin for €750. But it's going to be dark and cold soon. And the vitamin d and serotonin will slowly drain from my body. And my productivity and happiness will slowly plummet.

Accordingly, I will go to Bangalore, then further south.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by klausjensen on Saturday October 12, 2013 @06:28PM (#6540658)

And that is great if you are a US-citizen, but otherwise not so much. Even coming from rich Scandinavia and the EU, we are not welcome.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by eCa on Saturday October 12, 2013 @06:53PM (#6540736)

I think it's possible to live quite cheaply in most of the eastern members of the EU.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by ido on Sunday October 13, 2013 @01:36AM (#6541616)

For example you can live just fine in many fairly nice areas in Czech Republic and Slovakia for $1000/m (wife's family is Czech & Slovakian, never lived there myself but visited very often & stayed with locals).

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by gngeal on Saturday October 19, 2013 @05:47PM (#6578013)

$1000/m? Bah, you must be spoiled. I'd put that at $500/m or so. (Or perhaps it's just me being a reclusive hermit... :-))

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by nielmalhotra on Saturday October 12, 2013 @06:05PM (#6540569)

Out of curiosity, where did you do your CS grad program, so that you could live on less than 1k a month?

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by dxbydt on Saturday October 12, 2013 @07:06PM (#6540776)

Morgantown, WV. But nothing special about that... you could do the same in Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Carolinas, most places in south/sw...

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by oakaz on Saturday October 12, 2013 @05:45PM (#6540472)

Turkey. It's cheap, the variety and kinds of food is incredible and there is no racism at all since all western and asian cultures are mixed there. And the universities are completely free in Turkey, which leads the middle class grow faster and provide the companies dozen amount of engineers every year

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by wataguy on Sunday October 13, 2013 @04:42AM (#6541918)

What's the visa situation in Turkey these days? I know you used to be able to stay 60 days, pop over to Greece for a day, come back, and repeat as needed. Is that still the case?

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by chinmoy on Saturday October 12, 2013 @11:44PM (#6541419)

Free for only turkish citizens or for everyone?

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by TillE on Saturday October 12, 2013 @05:23PM (#6540388)

That's certainly more than enough money to live pretty well in Berlin, though a tourist visa will only give you 90 days in the Schengen Area.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by ido on Sunday October 13, 2013 @01:38AM (#6541620)

$1000 is 737 eur/m, you can certainly live like a student in Berlin that way (e.g. with roommates) but I wouldn't say "live well" considering the recent rent hikes. We're moving there now and just renting a small 2-room (1 bedroom) apartment can easily cost 600-700 eur/m (gesamtmiete).

You can do well with 1000 eur/m per person tho.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by berntb on Saturday October 12, 2013 @04:55PM (#6540270)

This has been discussed often, some web sites keep cost statistics.

For example, Google: living costs london cluj

(I was outsourced to Cluj, Transylvania in Romania. I recommend it. 250 Euro/month for a nice, central 50 m2 apartment. People are nice, it is safe. Different. Beautiful women. Mountains, but no sea. University city. The food is very good, but could be more international -- a few sushi places and one(!) Indian. If you want more info, add a comment and your email in your profile.)

If I had a choice personally, I'd go for Japan. For culture/food.

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by asveikau on Saturday October 12, 2013 @07:24PM (#6540824)

I thought that maybe the Romanians pronounced the letter J similar to its original use in Latin; that consonant made when the letter i brushes up against another vowel, as in iudex, like an English Y. But no, I look it up and they pronounce it as [ʒ], almost like we do in English.

Therefore, I will make my corny joke: you don't want your software written in a place that sounds so similar to "kludge". :-)

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by berntb on Saturday October 12, 2013 @08:21PM (#6540950)

Sadly, that term seems to have fallen out of use -- I have had to explain it to lots of young computer people in Cluj. :-)

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by bsullivan01 on Saturday October 12, 2013 @05:03PM (#6540303)

If I had a choice personally, I'd go for Japan. For culture/food.

Isn't that too expensive? I have no first hand knowledge, just what I read sometimes about it

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Re:What I learnt bootstrapping my startup from Thailand for ... by ido on Sunday October 13, 2013 @01:41AM (#6541625)

Japan has gotten a lot less expensive in the past 10 years.

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