

Ask HN: Socialize to make software - v_ignatyev

I live in Russia, in a small town, not in Moscow and not in St. Petersburg.<p>There are too few passionate programmers around me who are good enough and who want to work for free or at least for food first time, or to take part in hackathons for making and prototyping ideas and making great product.<p>I&#x27;m looking for opportunities for my personal and professional growth. I want to find friends and partners in the USA to build software and hardware together and run startup company in the USA. Just because I think the USA markets are huge in the comparison to russian markets.<p>I think, changing the location could open up some benefits, though it has disadvantages too.<p>I have for now B1&#x2F;B2 visa, but I have no ideas where to go and what community to meet or join in the USA for the first time to make good networking related to tech entrepreneurship and making software. And how to create reliable relations to expand them when I&#x27;ll go back.<p>So, what would you do if you was me? Try to make success story here or change location?<p>Thanks for help, HN
======
olalonde
I am in a similar boat (living in China) and HN is really my only way of
keeping in touch with the startup/hacker community and "socialising". I really
wish there was a IRC channel/website dedicated to people in our situation who
are looking to socialise or collaborate together on projects/startups.

I was thinking about this problem recently and one idea that I came up with
was to build a "MVP league" that would combine aspects of eSports leagues and
online hackatons (e.g. Node Knockout). Participants could form teams and
submit a new MVP every X weeks. Another option would be to have
theme/technology based tournaments (e.g. "open source", "node.js",
"education"). Winners could be selected after each cycle, new teams could be
formed, there could be a leaderboard of teams/participants, etc. Sponsors
could offer prizes to winners or investors could offer funding.

There are already a couple of websites that aggregate online hackatons
([http://challengepost.com](http://challengepost.com),
[http://www.wehack.it/](http://www.wehack.it/)) but I haven't seen one that
operates as a league and most online hackatons are one off things or once a
year things.

Curious to hear HN's thoughts...

PS: I added #lfl on Freenode to my auto-join if anyone wants to hang out :)

~~~
v_ignatyev
Have you already took part in one of virtual/online hackathons?

~~~
amirouche
to take part in virtual hackatons you need to know people.

~~~
v_ignatyev
wrong. look at
[https://github.com/koding/global.hackathon/tree/master/Teams...](https://github.com/koding/global.hackathon/tree/master/Teams/OrangeVerse)

our two man team is _random_. Some guy joined me for the hackathon, because he
hadn't got idea what to do and he was following me in Twitter and read my ask
for help.

------
theprestig3
I'm kind of in a similiar boat. I'm currently based in a small town outside of
Seattle called Olympia, where there is really know tech/start-up scene. But I
see the potential in this town to harbor start-ups and innovation.

Pretty much south of seattle, it's going to be hard for dev and entreprenuers
alike to start-up.

So I started a small business that I work in with my free time, to help build
a foundation for people to learn code, brainstorm ideas, and start businesses.
I do free code classes via meetup, and I'm working on getting something weekly
in motion, and hackathons.

And since I've started my group has been getting a lot of interest and support
from the community and even the county.

I plan to keep at it, until there is a solid foundation for people interested.

I don't know the demographics of your town, but the concept I started might be
something you could give a trial at.

And if it doesn't work out, or pick up interest. Then abandon ship and make
your success story.

~~~
Nate75Sanders
I'm in Seattle and I'd like to know more about what you're doing.

~~~
Abundnce10
Same here. Let's hear more!

------
colinbartlett
A lot of people here will recommend Silicon Valley, but I am not one of them.

I believe you will find New York more hospitable. Here we have investors,
technologists, and an extremely diverse culture with accommodations and
activities for a wide range of budgets and tastes. А тут у нас много русских.
Foreigners and non-native English speakers here are just the norm, they are
pervasive and not treated like second-class citizens. My experience in the
rest of the country is not so welcoming, even in the SF Bay area.

------
jkaykin
For what it sounds like you want to do, I would suggest coming to the Silicon
Valley. There are hundreds of meetups every month and many opportunities to
meet and work with talented developers (also there is a hackathon every
weekend here).

I am a Russian American (I speak Russian fluently) and I would be happy to
connect and show you around once you are here.

~~~
v_ignatyev
it's great! haha ) touch me in Skype? vladimir.ignatyev

------
robertoallende
I think it depends if you can find 'customers' for the projects or tech you're
passionate about. Anyway, i think the best could be try to do both. Ie, create
a link with California and at the same time, star to gather people locally.
Become a connector with the 'Valley' and meet people in your town doing the
same and help each other.

------
rnl
While the US is likely the largest market, there are plenty of opportunities
elsewhere. Ignoring those might be part of your strategy, however if you are
willing to take look at what Europe or Asia have to offer you might be facing
something quite unexpected as there are tech start-ups everywhere.

I live in Finland and there is an emerging start-up scene here already. Also
there are plenty of older, steady-going companies, that have proven business
models, who have start-up mindsets towards new things.

If your plan is to create a thriving project that aims to address a specific
business problem, you are going to need a group (even small) of likely minded
people. There should not be any "work for food"-ethics attached. No body will
work for you for food, but many people are willing to work to create something
they believe in.

Why exactly do you want to be in the US? I've lived in Moscow and St.
Petersburg for quite some time. It is hard to imagine, that you won't find
anyone in those cities with summed population of almost 20 million, who is
willing to work with you on your or their ideas.

~~~
v_ignatyev
Moving to Moscow is not an option if you are going to spend time writing code
and talking to customers, not go for hours in a subway

------
kschmit90
It depends. Do you prefer telecommuting or face to face interaction?

Technological globalization has created a situation where, excluding time zone
differences, we could communicate in a way that is extremely similar to face
to face contact.

Speaking from personal experience, a coding bootcamp might be a good
opportunity for you, assuming it is cost effective. Through a coding bootcamp
you will have the opportunity to network in regards to tech entrepreneurship
and software in general, as well as developing a higher skill level, however
you may be proficient enough already.

If I were you I would make a table of pros and cons, based on as many factors
as I found to be very important, attribute weights with those factors and make
a decision based on the results. Or you could flip a coin and see which side
you want it to land on in mid air. That will give you a good idea of which one
is more favored by your spinal cord at least.

It's a tough question, good luck!

~~~
v_ignatyev
I prefer face to face, just because from the retrospective of my experience
such links are more reliable.

Thanks for sharing ideas!

------
vayarajesh
I also have similar situation - I live in Dubai - and don't have many
passionate programmers here. After lot of reading and research I have realized
that it is very important to work with good programmers like in USA in order
to grow and moving physically to Silicon Valley is the best option but if you
like your country and have a family to look after you can also try remote
jobs.. if you look at remote working with companies in USA it will be almost
as beneficial as working as physically present there.

e.g. [https://angel.co/jobs](https://angel.co/jobs)
[http://remoteworking.co](http://remoteworking.co)
[http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs)

You can also try contributing to open source projects on github until you find
a way to be around good programmers

~~~
hammadfauz
I am in the exact same situation as you. I live in Sharjah. my github:
[https://github.com/hammadfauz](https://github.com/hammadfauz) Most of the
times, I want to make something, but I have no idea what. If you or anyone has
something neat to do, I'll be glad to participate.

------
vladimirralev
I am going to suggest for you to go visit San Francisco, stay in a hacker or
startup house. Try a few, some are awesome, some are bad, depends on the
guests. Smaller houses are more casual, but bigger houses often host events or
team up to travel together to nearby events. Plan to stay around 2 months to
really get the feel of how things work. Check if Stanford or some other
university hosts a startup camp of some sort. I feel like you should stay away
from actual hackathons in the valley, but I may be wrong. Also the winter is
warm in San Francisco, so you get to move around easily and it attracts more
traveling hackers from around the world. Another thing - don't focus too much
on the engineering part - don't dismiss artwork, design, and sales people.

------
resdirector
FWIW You may be interested in an app I'm building which allows people who work
remotely (or in remote places) to socialize with other people who work
remotely. The idea is to allow people such as yourself who are interested in
tech to have "water cooler"-style conversations even if they are removed from
the tech scene.

Feel free to give it a go: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-cooler-
chat/id94476300...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-cooler-
chat/id944763002?mt=8)

You might find some interesting people on there to talk to, it's still early
days and currently only my friends are using it so far, but we're a friendly,
interesting bunch of people :)

------
epicureanideal
Do you have a degree related to software engineering / computer science?
What's your email address? Put it in your profile and I'll contact you.

If I were you I would change location if possible. Generally it's harder to
change your environment than to just move to a better one. I recommend the SF
Bay Area because it's the most tech friendly, and can recommend some places
nearby where you'll have access to the Bay Area but live cheaper if you're not
moving here to work for a big company.

~~~
v_ignatyev
No, I have degree in power supply systems engineering and power electronics.
My e-mail is ya.na.pochte@gmail.com and skype is vladimir.ignatyev. Follow me
on Twitter: @v_ignatyev I do a lot of retweets about tech and
entrepreneurship, following up trending topics.

