Living outside of the Bay area fit into our calculations when my co-founder and I started TrailBehind.com too. We moved to a 3-bedroom cabin in Truckee, which costs us about as much as sharing a single room in a 3-bedroom apartment in SF.
That actually sounds really sweet. Working in the mountains on your startup with decently close proximity to the Bay Area if you want to come into the city for events. Great plan!
yeah, it's only 30 minutes from Reno, which has most big city creature comforts. Amtrak goes straight through town too. Might be hard to find new hires here, but perfect for buckling down to get it off the ground.
I always thought it would be kind of not smart to take out a loan (get lots of VC)just to pay rent in the Bay area. It's an okay place, but hardly worth the extraordinary cost of living, if you're just wanting to build a web site.
I live in the "bay area" up in Sonoma County. There is tons of stuff to do up here. I live 15 minutes from a redwood forest and 45 minutes from the coast, which has good bouldering. Mount St. Helena is 45 minutes in the other direction, with great top-roping.
I actually don't know much about the south bay or east bay, but the north bay has tons of good outdoor possibilities.
