Why not just move somewhere else? To me, the best part of an internet company is that you can work from anywhere. Also, the money you make is usually made online, meaning it doesn't scale to your cost of living. If you make $1000/mo in ad revenue from your website, it doesn't matter if you live in SF or Portland. It's not like a wage, which changes drastically on your location.
Why not move to an awesome, affordable city, live the lifestyle you want, and still make the same product? With the money you save, you could fly monthly to SF to have whatever important meetings are critical to do in SF. Is living in SF that critical? Maybe it is, I honestly don't know.
I think the allure of SF is its network of entrepreneurs and the natural tech ecosystem. Entrepreneurs can certainly work anywhere in the US, but you've got to admit that SF's place as a tech hub (and its proximity to SV--think investors, mentors, tech-strong univ like Stanford and Berkeley) is hard to beat.
Agreed. Whether it's Portland, or even somewhere like Myrtle Beach, SC - I'm working remotely for a Boston company, and my money goes so much further.
We're building a startup community at Startup.SC trying to do just what you're proposing: leverage the Internet to make higher income in a lower cost of living location. Agree also on flights into cities: we just had a demo-day pitch last night, and now I'm headed to Boston for TechStars Demo Day, Angel Bootcamp, etc. To make connections with our entrepreneurs.
Why not move to an awesome, affordable city, live the lifestyle you want, and still make the same product? With the money you save, you could fly monthly to SF to have whatever important meetings are critical to do in SF. Is living in SF that critical? Maybe it is, I honestly don't know.