7 ms·

I live and work in London. I was born and grew up here but lived away for a while too. It's a great city but for anyone wanting to do something entrepreneurial

• k-mcgrady 12y ago
  As a recent transplant to London I was surprised at how 'cheap' it is. Obviously it's more expensive that other places but not prohibitively. I'm living in a decent flat share in Zone 2 and with rent, food, and travel to/from work each day it's costing about £1000 per month. Working from home working on a startup I could shave about £250 from that. And my living conditions are much, much better than some of the people I've read about on HN trying to get a startup off the ground in SF living off noodles and sharing a room with several people.
  • notahacker 12y ago
    Depends on the lifestyle you're looking to lead. If a rented room in a shared house is adequate for your needs then the annual premium you're paying for that room to be in central London is probably less than the cost of an annual train ticket from outside London, or the lower salary you'd expect in a different city. If you're a young family, on the other hand then you could buy the freehold of a three bed house somewhere like Burnley for little more than the annual rental of a similarly unremarkable small house or flat in a not-especially-fashionable Zone 2 suburb. You'd just then have to cope with living in Burnley :-) The ramen-eating room sharers in SF will probably also be better off than their London counterparts when they get funding (more likely) and can afford to pay themselves salaries linked to a much higher market rate for developers.