It looks like a laundromat, but I make the most of it.
I have a lot of friends and I meet a lot of people,
that say, "Wow that's so cool what you're doing.
You're in technology, you're creating your own company, you're an owner,
you have 100,000 users, that's amazing," and I tell them,
"Yes, it looks amazing, the glamour, the fame,
but it really isn't if you look at what you have to deal with living in
very low conditions with no money."
I can't even go out and see a friend because I'm afraid that
splitting a dinner with them even is too much money for me.
I came to Hong Kong because of my startup,
it's a social dating app based out of Bangkok
but Hong Kong is where the capital investments are.
Does the world really need another dating app?
In Asia, it's a bit still taboo to be on a dating app directly,
which is why MoreMate, our app is a little bit more social.
My startup's young. It's not making much
of an income and any income it does make,
it's put back directly into the business.
I went on Airbnb and tried to negotiate a lower price,
especially as I was staying long-term to save on costs.
So this usually ranges I would say about,
you could get it as cheap as 20 to 30 U.S. dollars a night.
You can negotiate with the people that are renting off of Airbnb
and usually if you're looking to rent a longer term with them,
they're willing to give you better discounts.
Literally, I'm living out of my suitcase here
and moving from place to place.
Sometimes they give you a long-term stay
for three weeks for the discount but say,
"Hey, in July instead of June they have high season,
so we're not able to give you this price,"
but if I could find somewhere else, they give me the same price,
then I'm willing to move it.
If I needed to move different places, considering now this is
one of my four places I've already been here,
to move when there's off-season customers at some
Airbnb places or low-level hotels like this.
I model on the side. It provides a great flexibility for me
because it doesn't require much time for me.
I'm able to spend a lot of time working on my startup and my project and
I'm able to get cash flow in here and there.
Going out and keeping your comfort food
especially for an expat, getting your burgers
is gonna be $10, $20 for just a small little burger.
It's out of the question on an everyday basis
and so you really have to appreciate local food.
Even if you can't read the menu and I have trouble reading the menu
with my limited Chinese I just kind of point and say,
"Okay I want that noodle dish" at a cheap place and
be happy with what I get.
The hot desks at a co-working space,
that's a completely out of the question here.
It's extremely expensive, even at a café since
there's so many people in Hong Kong,
I've been kicked out of cafés before
because I'm staying more than two hours
and they have more customers that need to come in.
After that incident I was like okay, this is not gonna work
sitting in a café and working, so I was able to find
public libraries that are available all over the city,
that have fast Wi-Fi connections.
I could sit there drop in and do my work.
Gym membership?
I'm not gonna pay $200 to
get a nice gym membership here with space.
I usually just use my own body weight calisthenics.
I could go find a park with pull-up bars
or little things I could use as weights
or they even have public gyms available here
that you sign up for and do a training class and it's free.
Food and water?
Buying bottled water here every day gets expensive.
The costs add up and to save on those costs
I bought a water filter so I can just use
the tap because you can't drink the tap water here
and it filters and I have clean water.
Most of us have lived in the ditches, in the trenches,
like I have for many, many, many years.
Some even for 10 years, for 15 years.
And when you look at that, are you, okay maybe out of college,
two years, you're willing to sacrifice and live just
on a low-level budget like a college student,
but are you willing to do that when you're 10 years in,
30 years old and still working on trying to make it?
Is that the sacrifice you're willing to make?
Is that the passion?
And you really have to question yourself.
Am I willing? Can I do this?