[SwellJoe]

"As soon as my apt. lease is up, I'm seriously debating about: leaving my job, traveling to another country to maximize savings and learn Spanish, code, code, code, put it out there.."

I'm just curious...are their any hugely successful tech startups that went the route of "maximizing savings" to the point of moving to a super cheap country very far out of reach of the tech industry?

I can't help but think that being far out of the technology loop and away from peers is good for literature and, maybe, art but incredibly bad for creating an application that people want to use. There's something about Silicon Valley that, despite the extremely high cost of living, leads to more successful tech startups than anywhere else. Readily available funding can't be all of it...can it?

[wallflower]

My definition of entrepreneur is someone who takes risks in a managed manner. Going on this trip is more about expanding my comfort zone (unfamiliar language) and adding more life experience to my non-work resume.

I agree that it's harder to start a successful company virtually without face to face networking. Silicon Valley will always be Valhalla. There are a handful of people on News.YC who are already living abroad and managing to code to support themselves.