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Ask HN: We're moving to the valley for 3 months and need help

32 points by fredoliveira ↗ HN
Here's what may seem a crazy idea:

We're moving to the bay area for 3 months (starting in August) to work on a new idea, take in the California air and see a few old friends. Back when I lived in California, I was staying at the Techcrunch HQ in Atherton. Now, however, I'm bringing the rest of the guys along and we need suggestions as to:

1) Where to stay. It's tough finding a place to rent for 3 months that isn't crazy expensive (we don't need the swimming pools or tennis courts, even if we like to have fun). Should we just stick to lurking Craigslist, or does anyone have little secret housing gems in the bay?

2) How to finance it. We have a pretty exciting idea and we're building an MVP. The people we talked to are interested in putting in money, but we wanted to be creative with funding our stint in the valley - we don't want to spend investor money in housing (should we? meh). We have an existing product that will help finance this, but we'd like to do something creative. Any thoughts?

I guess this is it for now. We're doing this for the idea first, the experience second, the fun third. Would love to hear your suggestions, questions and thoughts.

16 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 49.1 ms ] thread
bdickason
This is a crazy idea. It probably won't work. But just in case you're weird enough to try it:

Startup Panhandling

1) Find the most crowded Starbucks that is visited regularly by a startup-y crowd (google, etc).

2) Sit outside said starbucks with an extension cord running to external power supplies from 7am-7pm.

3) Bring cheap at&t wireless 3g phone to tether for internet or rely on starbucks wifi (jailbroken iphone 3g maybe?)

4) Make a cardboard sign (or for more points, use an old beat-up CRT monitor) that says "Building software prototype - Any $$$ is appreciated." I'm sure you can come up with something much wittier.

5) Place some spare coins in an old laptop bag in front of the sign or monitor.

6) Earn $60-100 per hour from people dropping change and dollars into your 'hat' and offer to e-mail them when you finish your MVP.

fredoliveira
That's great creative thinking - thank you so much! ;-)

We've been thinking more conservatively (which might be a mistake). I've been thinking of doing consulting while I'm in california, which should help sufficiently. We will possibly visit a few well frequented Starbucks for the cool bits of conversation anyway - I particularly miss the one closest to the apple store on University Ave in Palo Alto.

Again, thanks for the great ideas!

bdickason
This might have been mentioned as well, but tutoring can be very lucrative for short term income. This is especially true for middle to high school students in prep schools.
natch
$60/hour is one dollar a minute. I don't know if Starbucks even has that many customers on a sustained basis, let alone customers who aren't working on their own software prototypes on their own shoestring budgets. So I agree with your "crazy" disclaimer. Cute, though.
jimboyoungblood
Haha. Good luck finding a starbucks with a startup crowd in the bay area.
joshu
there's one on university avenue in palo alto.
rradu
Or you can go to Coupa Cafe in PA
skmurphy
The essence of entrepreneurship is "quid pro quo" please don't get into the habit of begging. Stay in an entrepreneurial mindset by thinking about how to create value or at least barter services. To understand who in Silicon Valley needs charity visit a Salvation Army location or a homeless shelter before you portray yourself "in need" of a donation.
[dead] dreadlabs
Can someone explain what MVP is?
alain94040
Great initiative. The air here is indeed healthier for startups.

I don't have tips on a place to sleep, but I can tell you where to work and hang out: the hacker dojo in Mountain View (http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/).

How many are you? You can always find a cheap sublet and crowd a room, college style. What exactly is your budget? Would $500/month be too much? Or do you really want to make this free (possible, but expect to sleep on a couch and move often)?

fredoliveira
We're bringing 5 people in. We have a bigger budget than that - we're still trying to figure out how much exactly but i'd say around $3k/month is the max we can do. I love the hacker dojo suggestion! More places like this where we can hang out instead of just working out of whatever place we find are definitely welcome.

Thanks!

timcederman
I found a place to stay for a while on airbnb, but that ended up fairly expensive. In the end, trawling Craigslist really is your best bet (although homeaway.com or vrbo.com are also fairly decent options).

For funding, you need to get in touch with the angel network here. YC folks are certainly a good start.

fredoliveira
Thanks for the alternative sites! We've been looking at airbnb actually. We'll go through the others. Much appreciated!
tedr
How many are you fred? My place might be available in August.

Creative idea how to to fund it? The biggest need in the valley right now are capable engineers, UI, UX and project managers. This is a kooky for certain, but if you want to be original and a hero you could connect European talent with valley companies that are paying $2-$5k for candidate leads. Or find a way to virtually bring that talent to the area.

fredoliveira
Heya Ted! There's 5 of us coming - I'll get in touch with you by other means to talk about all of this. One of the best things about heading to cali for a while is the chance of hanging out with you too. Can't wait!