I recommend the Turks and Caicos Islands. English is the national language (though many people also speak creole), the currency is USD, there are no income taxes and you can get residency with a real estate investment of as little as $75k. It's also one of the most beautiful places to live in the world. Cost of living is comparable to the midwest (they do have 15% sales tax), and the internet is fast. Great place to do a tech startup.
Come to Puerto Rico. You don't need a Visa if USA citizen, most people speak English, and we have a booming tech business industry. There are also many awesome engineers looking to build the next big thing. For example, Mayan EDMS was built by a fellow puertorican. So is Blimp, and Hiptape.
You could also try Israel - anywhere between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Living costs are much lower, it is easier to get work visas, and the entire tech sector is based around a startup mentality. It also has a vibrant VC community.
You can try Philippines. Foreigners can own a condominium or buy a house if you can find a loophole or establish a corporation. English speaking, thriving software development scene.
Thanks for all the responses. A couple clarifying points:
--- Probably the biggest thing we're looking for is a pro-business, pro-immigrant, pro-technology set of government policies. We want to live in this location for several years and be able to work without the government thinking that we're some sort of threat by doing so (the position the US takes, for instance.)
--- We're also looking for good infrastructure. This doesn't mean we'd rule out a hut on a beach somewhere. A latrine toilet would be ok if we had good broadband.
--- I did just ask for "Startup culture" but by that I meant that there were people who were entrepreneurial in the area, and maybe there are enough people who are programmers to have a monthly developers meeting in an area of interest to us. The whole startup culture thing is a bonus, and my asking the question was to get a read on other parts of the world-- but startup culture isn't the number one criteria for our choice, but it will help us narrow down if we have multiple good candidates.
--- We're not likely to need Venture Capital. We've got the equivalent of an angel round in the bank already. So access to capital is not that important. This is a business that will self fund and if we need capital to accelerate growth, that's not so hard to raise anywhere when you're already profitable.
-- In looking at these answers and looking at all of the visa requirements, I'm struck by the number of countries that would be happy to have us stay there for 90 days but then would put us thru the ringer if we wanted to stay there 6 months or longer.
I wonder if there is any country that values bringing in great minds who want to build something.
Hawaii (still in the USA) is great in that it's a warm place, but the cost of living is high.
However, great hackers in Hawaii cost 50-75% what they would in Silicon Valley. A lot of intelligent, quality people move back here after going to school at fairly good schools (many go to USC,UCLA,Berkeley,Stanford - a smaller amount Harvard and MIT before returning home for cultural/family reasons).
I know this because I left Los Angeles for a 30% pay cut to come home to Hawaii. I get paid less, but I can walk around in my tank top all year. Call it an extreme sunshine tax.
The highest profile startup we've had recently are the guys that built Sprout Builder. ilovephotos.com (Blue Lava Technologies) is an amazing product that I'm not sure I'm allowed to discuss, and also built out of Hawaii.
They also have a few incubators/innovation centers where you can get cheap office space (and cheap everything else). They're nice offices,, but subsidized considerably by the local government specifically to spur more innovation here.
Speaking of low taxes, I think US companies are overlooking Turkey and the advantages it offers to tech companies.
1) no corporate tax
2) no income tax for employees
All that is required is for the project to be approved as an R&D project. There is an incredible talent pool, solid infrastructre and a beautiful city waiting...I am just saying...:-)
Yes, it's a good place for digital workers, but don't expect some incredible tech scene. The expat community is alright. I recommend southern Tenerife, but many people are on Gran Canaria too.
Any company you start there will have to do business outside. There are excellent tax conditions, but not a lot of workers and very few customers, if any.
Same goes for freelancing, you'll have to work with clients outside the islands if you expect more than 10% of a usual tech salary.
I just spent a month living there, and while I enjoy the country(food in particular is amazing), internet speed is terrible, and basic developer needs like being able to download a docker image, is like an overnight download ( because the internet will throttle down to low kb/s on such a download). Doing full time startup work from there would require working on something fairly lightweight I think.
Not just that, but there's a good pool of tech talent due to relaxed immigration laws and being an attractive destination and an English speaking country (for the most part).
I have lived in Portugal (Lisbon) for about two years. One of the cheapest countries in Europe, friendly, people are warm towards foreigners. Country itself is very beautiful and great food (one of the best fish cuisine).
There's a decent tech scene primarily centered around crypto currency. Most of the issues and roadblocks are government related to be honest. It's an interesting country if you want to invest in a developing country but quality of life is pretty bad.
New Zealand is also making a big push to bring in tech workers, with some amiable visas. I see their immigration department at tech conferences all the time.
From personal experience, I can tell you that Taiwan is a fantastic place as well. Lots of engineers, absurdly low cost of living for the civic amenities (which blow away even the best that San Francisco or New York can offer), and gorgeous nature if you're into that. If you manage to learn Mandarin it'll greatly expand your access to the programming community there, but if not there's plenty of English speakers and just expats.
Amsterdam NL - great for tech community and the cultural experience
Melbourne AU - also good for tech and culture, though it is closer to what you're used to (I'm assuming American)
New York US - hard to beat as a city
Important tips:
- live only in cities where you speak the local language, but visit countries where you don't.
- expect your productivty to be reduced by about half. Learning to live in a new country is surprisingly time consuming and the simplest of things can take hours.
- make sure you have at least a small social group (2+ people) or way to break into a social group in the new city.
I've lived in 4 cities across 3 countries in the last 2 years and in my opinion, moving to a foreign country while beginning a startup is like trying to swim while juggling.
I still say go for it, it'll be an experience, but starting a business is hard enough without having to learn to live in a new city, so if that is your ultimate goal, stay close to what you're familiar with.
I think a better choice for startups and tech-minded people would be Amsterdam. I'm currently living in Amsterdam on around 900~eur/month, a room can cost between 300 and 500 eur/month plus you need health insurance and food.
There are a lot of tech opportunities here, plenty of startup and also big companies. VC is getting bigger here as well so it's a thriving hub if you want to found your own startup.
Go to Portugal.
Great weather with amazing beaches and country side, low cost of living and lot's of engineers that can speak fluent English. Also the government has subsidies for tech companies, specially in the IT sector.
Spain is ok as well, but I find that people there have a hard time with English and like to party a bit too much.
And the comments about London are true. It is very expensive to live here and the quality of life is appalling. Many people who start out in sexy industries ( games, web, etc... ) gravitate to finance because they can't afford to live an adult life here on the wages of those industries.
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