Ask HN: Where would you immigrate/move today?

5 points by quietthrow ↗ HN
If you are in the technology and startup space and wanted to to be in a thriving hub of developers and start ypur own startup, what are the top 3 destinations you would pick ?

10 comments

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Heard about Startup chile ? "Start-Up Chile is a program of the Chilean Government to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in Chile."
Yup. I have heard about it so far the govt has put in $40M into it. Not sure about how rich the ecosystem is though.
I only need 1. San Fran. (no, I'm not from there)
I would definitely move to Berlin. It's not only a great city from what I've seen, but it seems it's becoming a startup hub as well. SoundCloud, Wooga and CloudControl come to mind.

Santiago also looks like a great place to go. One of the best cities to live in South America. The ecosystem is not as strong as in SF or Berlin though.

I live in Berlin and definitely double check you're ok with all its downsides before moving here.. It's not all rosy and neither is the startup ecosystem there
Could you elaborate about the downsides? It'll be good to have an opinion from somebody living in Berlin.
I would say before one moves to Berlin, you should make sure you're alright with these:

  - for a great part of the year, poor weather with very low cloudy skies
  - winter darkness
  - occasional hostility to foreigners (in certain  neighborhoods, in words and sometimes with violence)
  - high energy and telecommunication costs
  - poor access to good vegetable/fruit quality
  - terrible restaurant offers in certain styles (japanese for instance) ; in general lack of variety
  - ugly city
Also be careful and do check about the compromises that some promises made come from. For instance the cheap housing is in general badly constructed, and your landlord will perform renovations so they can drastically increase your rent in later times.

Can't comment about the startup culture.

Thank you for your opinion, I'll take that into consideration.
(comment deleted)
1) San Francisco

2) Mountain View / Palo Alto

3) Boulder