I just posted the comment below on Hacker News (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3608968):
As someone who has been in the Internet business from the beginning with a number of startups under my belt and who "migrated myself to a non-US controlled country" (East and SE Asia) 25 years ago I would offer my the following formula for happiness:
1. Set up your company outside of the US.
2. Don't keep a bank account in the same country that your company is in.
3. Don't have customers in the same country that your country is in or where your bank account is.
4. Don't live in the country where your company, bank account or customers are.
5. Don't live in the same time zone as your in-laws.
I live in Thailand (for 13 years now) and have a company in Singapore. We are opening companies in Laos this year then Cambodia and then Burma over the next two years. My Bank Accounts are in Hong Kong. I try to find customers in any country other than those listed above, and the States.
Bandwidth is better out here than in most places in the States. And hardware is cheaper because you're buying closer to the source. And as long as you aren't living in Singapore, Hong Kong or Toyko, the cost of living is far cheaper than in the States.
This is not as difficult as it might seem. It's great living out here, and I would encourage everyone to do the same.
BTW our latest startup is an infrastructure for the semantic Web and about as cutting edge as you could hope for, so don't whine about how you can only do your startup in Silicon Valley. The future is here, not in the States.
I've never understood why newspapers hold on to their archives so tightly. I worked with several English and Chinese papers in Hong Kong and they seem to have the same approach as the papers in the States.
They will allow you to see new content on their web site for free but anything older than a month or so get's locked away unless you pay a license fee or buy it on CDROM.
I argued with them time and again that their older content is making them next to no money being locked away, but if it was all online, it would drive traffic to their site which would make them far more money than selling the archive on a CDROM with heavy DRM.
I never did get anywhere with them. That was over ten years ago and it seems not a lot has changed since then....
Advice
I just posted the comment below on Hacker News (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3608968):
As someone who has been in the Internet business from the beginning with a number of startups under my belt and who "migrated myself to a non-US controlled country" (East and SE Asia) 25 years ago I would offer my the following formula for happiness:
1. Set up your company outside of the US.
2. Don't keep a bank account in the same country that your company is in.
3. Don't have customers in the same country that your country is in or where your bank account is.
4. Don't live in the country where your company, bank account or customers are.
5. Don't live in the same time zone as your in-laws.
I live in Thailand (for 13 years now) and have a company in Singapore. We are opening companies in Laos this year then Cambodia and then Burma over the next two years. My Bank Accounts are in Hong Kong. I try to find customers in any country other than those listed above, and the States.
Bandwidth is better out here than in most places in the States. And hardware is cheaper because you're buying closer to the source. And as long as you aren't living in Singapore, Hong Kong or Toyko, the cost of living is far cheaper than in the States.
This is not as difficult as it might seem. It's great living out here, and I would encourage everyone to do the same.
BTW our latest startup is an infrastructure for the semantic Web and about as cutting edge as you could hope for, so don't whine about how you can only do your startup in Silicon Valley. The future is here, not in the States.
Why do newspapers think their archives are more valuable than what's on their front page?
I've never understood why newspapers hold on to their archives so tightly. I worked with several English and Chinese papers in Hong Kong and they seem to have the same approach as the papers in the States.
They will allow you to see new content on their web site for free but anything older than a month or so get's locked away unless you pay a license fee or buy it on CDROM.
I argued with them time and again that their older content is making them next to no money being locked away, but if it was all online, it would drive traffic to their site which would make them far more money than selling the archive on a CDROM with heavy DRM.
I never did get anywhere with them. That was over ten years ago and it seems not a lot has changed since then....
Where can I sign up!
Sounds good to me. I'll be happy to ghost write anything.
You can keep yer stinking bylines.
I want cash