>Texas? Arizona? North Carolina?
Romania. I know this may seem like a shameless selfpromotion, but have a look.
(I don't know anyone from the article, nor do I have any connection with them).
>While searching for a home for his startup, Knapp noticed that several Silicon Valley businesses had their tech teams based in Romania. He saw that tech giants, banks and startups had R&D offices across this eastern European country, so he figured there must be a rich tech talent pool out there.
>He also understood that the cost of living and the salaries paid to software devs is much lower in Romania than in Germany, and dirt cheap compared with Silicon Valley.
>Knapp did the math. His €100,000 would run out in Silicon Valley or London in a few months, yet in Romania, he could make his dream happen. "If you want to run an internet startup, you can basically do it from any location," Knapp says.
>In Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, a junior developer starts at about €700 ($800) a month take home pay, while an experienced one can reach up to €3,500 ($4,000) a month, according to recruitment agency Adecco.
>For a tech company, costs associated with salaries are low, as developers don't pay income tax and there are many incentives to encourage the country's growing tech sector. As for living expenses, rent is usually about €350 ($400) a month for a one-bedroom apartment close to the city center, and a pint of beer is about €1.30 ($1.50).
>Costs in Bucharest in general are roughly half those in Berlin so "every euro that we generated [operating] in Romania was worth two euros compared with Germany," Knapp says. "You can sustain a business with little money for a long time. Everybody can bootstrap."
zdnet.com/article/forget-silicon-valley-building-a-startup-in-romania-may-make-more-sense/