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Ask HN: How to minimize costs (ie rent) for a startup?

3 points by keeptrying ↗ HN
I live in NYC and am trying to minimize my rent/costs so that I can work on a startup full time. I'm looking at living in a 3-br share for $800 a month in queens.

Does anyone have any tips on minimizing rents/costs?

7 comments

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cperciva
I find that living in my parents' basement provides a dramatic reduction in monthly expenses.
keeptrying
My parents are in India and I will be living there for some part of the year for sure.
docmach
Not living in NYC is a great way to save money. If you don't need to be there you can live on less than $800 a month in some places.
keeptrying
Can you give examples. Also the good thing about nyc is the startup scene. There are lots of networking events which I've found very useful and also I'm single so I need a little social life.
patio11
Can you give examples.

Back in 2004, when I was living in St. Louis, two guys in a 3 room apartment near the Wash U shuttle line in a neighborhood which was 20-something friendly was $400 a month each. If you were content with the college kid lifestyle you could easily do it on $800 ~ $1,000 a month total.

Another option is doing the startup part time while working, which tends to make the difference between $800 and $1,200 pretty immaterial.

docmach
In Lincoln, NE you can get a one bedroom apartment with utilities included for $425 and if you are happy with 15' x 20' one room apartment you can get one for $275. There is a college here so finding interns is fairly easy and there are lots of small startups. However, once you start growing you might have trouble hiring enough people since there just aren't as many people who want to be in Lincoln as there are people who want to be in Silicon Valley or the east coast. I'm not very social so I don't know how good the socializing is here.
bcx
In Mountain View (in the Heart of Silicon Valley) we were able to rent a townhouse for roughly $500 a month. (with 5 people)

If you want to reduce your expenses, get a room-mate. (Then it will be $400 a month)