
Ask HN: How can anyone afford to start a business in SF? - justinzollars
We all know the myth. The myth is a young engineer, who moves to San Francisco and starts a company. That company quickly gains traction and then applies to YC and becomes fantastically successful. How can anyone afford to do this, especially the young engineer? I&#x27;m not even young and I played out the scene from Office Space where I calculated how long it would take me to completely run out of money and ultimately go homeless - and in San Francisco that number is not long!  How can anyone afford to start a business in San Francisco?
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RNeff
Silicon Valley and SF are where the talent lives, where the VC's live, where
the big ideas are implemented. You need some founders, remember Steve (Jobs)
and Steve (Woz). Watch
[https://www.startupschool.org/](https://www.startupschool.org/), it is free.
There are other startup accelerators other than Y-C.

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justinzollars
Thanks this is awesome.

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snowmaker
Seems like maybe you're doing it in the wrong order. Why don't you just apply
to YC, get accepted, and _then_ move to SF?

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dylanhassinger
that myth is not usually reality

read about some actual startups' birth stories, gain inspiration from those.
usually it includes sacrifices and rarely does it take place entirely in SF

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SQL2219
other peoples' money.

