Bootstrap CEO: Thailand Edition

When I came up with the idea and started building SHERPA, I was already in Thailand as a backpacker / freelance designer for a friend who lives here for similar reason to why I’m still here… Like minds, fairly solid internet infrastructure, and cost of living.

SHERPA is not funded, at least in the traditional sense of the word. We are building a very complicated web app on a 2 person team and very minimal funding (somewhere in the 4 digits). But this is possible mainly because in Thailand we have the luxury of a very very low cost of living. To give you an idea… I live in a very decent 2 bedroom house in a beautiful booming town in the mountains of Northern Thailand for THB4000, which is about US$130. My cell phone is less than $10/mo, my home hard-line and my portable 3G wireless internet totals about $50/mo. Food on most days comes to less than $2 per meal, and when I splurge and go all out, it can cost a whopping $7.

For the first 6 months I lived here, I did so on around $600 per month, and I didn’t really need to budget too much. Due to the success of other projects, I have been able to up my monthly income a little bit, so I was able to buy a motorbike to get around, and a new 27 inch iMac, as well as have a little more fun. None of which was completely necessary.

The point is, that if I were to be back in the States, nonetheless in the Valley, I could not have made SHERPA happen. Not unless I came into some money or had enough connections to get my idea across to some VC, or at best get in one of the startup funds. I didn’t have the luxury of money, but i did have the perseverance to make shit happen. If you cannot work in your surroundings, or make your surrounding work for you, then change your surroundings.

Maybe one day in the coming future we will have solid revenue, or a bit of venture funding, and things may be a bit different, but don’t let money get in the way of your idea’s. Not only can living in other Countries around the world make for a good ‘lifestyle design’ case study, but it could be a viable option for up and coming startups.