ok, here's what i like and dislike about living in argentina and starting up a consulting business and building a product on the side.
first, yes, it's cheaper, and yes, the wine i buy is better 100 fold than the states, and yes, i would say i've cut costs by about 40%. my kids didn't belong to a private club and take swimming and tennis lessons in seattle... so we're not taking advantage of the cost savings we could.
but it's still hard: hiring is hard. getting a good cultural fit is hard. building a business that works within the legal framework is impossible. i'm deathly afraid of hiring local talent because it's VERY easy to be sued due to the employment laws of the country.
but it's great: you get a lot of time back in ways i can't explain. it's like you get to ignore a lot of the BS that working in seattle or SF can overwhelm you. explaining the details of why that is would be a longer post, but every tech expat i know in argentina talks about the same thing - somehow you feel more in control of your schedule and your life.
do it when you can hire foreigners, keep your team small, keep your relationships and contacts with people back in the states or europe, and get paid in dollars or euros (or build a product that makes dollars or euros), and can come back once in a while - anything else and it's not such a great deal.
Ive lived, worked, created, operated and advised startups in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and briefly, Peru (apart from the U.S.)
In my opinion and limited experience, these are the top 3 places to launch a tech startup:
1. Chile: Government, (CORFO, specifically) helps out a lot with grants even for off the wall tech startups, something I dont see in the U.S., however, it is expensive compared to its neighbors, but living costs are at around $800/mo comfortably (no dependents)
2. Argentina: Amazing and large tech community with presedence, tech Angels and VCs, lots of tech and startup meet ups and events. Most, if not all the main tech startups have come out of Argentina. Great talent. Day to day living costs are more expensive than Chile.
3. Colombia: Best bang for your buck, more business friendly, extremely good engineering talent that is very affordable, easy cultural fit and work ethic. However, not a lot of tech startup presedence and capital. See: Results of: 7 developers, working 24/7 for 90 days, 1 house (in Colombia) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=730031
• The #1 obstacle for startups in Latin America (and I think most of the rest of the world) is the Government. In the U.S. it takes 1 or 2 days, $70, to incorporate an LLC, whereas in Latin America it can take from a week in chile to over 175 days in venezuela.
• Most countries demand that you have an actual physical office, killing the option of work from home/garage.
• There is correlation between the time it takes to incorporate and the corruption of a country.
No email in your profile, but I'm really interested in your experience in Ecuador- we're planning on heading to Costa Rica at the beginning of next month, but Ecuador might be a way better option. Do you know of any good three bedroom rentals on the coast? Figure we could get 3G cards and be off to the hour a day of surfing races.
However to his credit the OP prefaced with "ok, here's what i like and dislike about living in argentina and starting up [...]". And his advice was obviously meant to apply for the Argentinian situation.
first, yes, it's cheaper, and yes, the wine i buy is better 100 fold than the states, and yes, i would say i've cut costs by about 40%. my kids didn't belong to a private club and take swimming and tennis lessons in seattle... so we're not taking advantage of the cost savings we could.
but it's still hard: hiring is hard. getting a good cultural fit is hard. building a business that works within the legal framework is impossible. i'm deathly afraid of hiring local talent because it's VERY easy to be sued due to the employment laws of the country.
but it's great: you get a lot of time back in ways i can't explain. it's like you get to ignore a lot of the BS that working in seattle or SF can overwhelm you. explaining the details of why that is would be a longer post, but every tech expat i know in argentina talks about the same thing - somehow you feel more in control of your schedule and your life.
do it when you can hire foreigners, keep your team small, keep your relationships and contacts with people back in the states or europe, and get paid in dollars or euros (or build a product that makes dollars or euros), and can come back once in a while - anything else and it's not such a great deal.