Does cost of living translate into cost of startup? Does it matter much?
I think if you can pay yourself (startup owner) less but still maintain the same standard of living, that's a great advantage.
I think if you can pay yourself (startup owner) less but still maintain the same standard of living, that's a great advantage.
Some of us may choose to live in more affordable cities because the quality of living is higher, or because we value being able to safely and comfortably walk or bike between home, office, and other destinations.
I personally make enough to live reasonably well in most any city in the US, and after a couple of years in the Bay Area, moved back to my native Portland because the quality of life was simply better, at least on the axes I care about.
Well, no. I am totally fine with making that argument, in a statistical sense. There are plenty of exceptions, but there's a kind of critical mass effect. New York is expensive, so you probably can't live here comfortably unless you're in the top n%, so members of the top n% move here, pushing up prices (and also hanging out with other top n%ers, and coming up with new ways to make money). Some n%ers leave, of course, but the general trend is still there.
There is some truth to what you're saying but your argument doesn't hold up to defend it at all.
This is also why people here walk and talk fast. With the rent so high, you can't spend time drawling or shuffling around. You have to get to the point or destination fast.
However, are these affordable cities "at the end of the world"? I mean, incomunicated and such. I'm not American, so I can't really tell from checking the list. In that case it might end up being a burden if you don't like travelling.
But looking positively again, it could be a good opportunity to start small groups of hackers in places where there aren't any and help each other out :)
However, the areas with higher cost of living also tend to be desirable places to live, with an existing concentration of business and tech-savvy people.