

Ask HN: Which Small U.S City Is Best Suited For Bootstrapping A Startup? - npguy


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johnrgrace
Some business plans will benifit a lot from being in a specific location;
however if you currently live in a city with friends, family, and maybe a SO
with a job starting right where you are until at least you hit MVP isn't a bad
idea.

I'm personallly biased towards lower cost areas, the same funding slug buys
you more runway. Being in michigan I'd say Detroit ISN'T on my top list of
cities to start in, I find Ann Arbor to be more expensive but offers better
quality of life and is right next to a major univeristy. Grand Rapids is
cheaper, and has StartGarden.com that is trying to build a whole ecosystem.

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israelyc
Probably Detroit or its peripheral cities (there are some nice ones,
Birmingham, Royal Oak and more). Dan Gilbert (Quicken Loans) is trying to
revive downtown and investing in new startups. Also it's only 45min away from
Ann Arbor which is an awesome city.

You can rent an apartment for the cost of monthly parking in SF :)

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npguy
Thanks for the data point. Are these neighborhoods good school districts as
well?

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smartwater
You have a 1 in 43 chance of becoming a victim of a crime in Detroit:
<http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mi/detroit/crime/>

I recommend Boston.

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israelyc
Thats Detroit proper (do not move to downtown Detroit or Flint :) but the
cities around Detroit are good, and I don't know much about the schools there
but it's worth looking into.

Oakland County has some of the richest cities in the US (a lot of old money)
so you can easily find a nice city around Detroit that will be cheap and still
very protected.

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_delirium
Pittsburgh has a nice combination of low-cost housing, good universities, and
a moderately sized tech industry (boosted by the Google satellite). Nice
nature in the area as well.

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vigeek
Philadelphia is quite good as well. Big city, in a super expensive area
(northeast) but quite affordable compared to NYC/Boston/DC.

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npguy
based on cost of living, and then other factors.

