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Digital Nomads are Storming the Startup World

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Oscar Waterworth
Digital Nomads are Storming the Startup World

Digital nomads are members of one of the most interesting subcultures in today’s world. They satisfy their lust for traveling and mobility by exploring benefits of advanced technology.

I hope that this will not sound like an overstatement, but for me they are somewhere in between Marco Polo and Bill Gates, although with much less wealth than Gates and ability to travel much further and quicker than Marco Polo did, in the time when horse carriage and feet were the only available means of transport.

Digital nomads tend to do work on various positions and projects while traveling. Although since their way of life also has a wide set of limitations they usually choose some of these occupations:

  • Design- logos, websites, commercials, banners etc.
  • Writing- travel writing, creative writing, content writing, copywriting etc.
  • Digital marketing- running AdWords and Facebook campaigns, community management etc.
  • Programming- building apps, writing code etc.
  • Various entrepreneurship projects- selling various types of online services, founding startup companies around different tech gizmos, etc.

Benefits of Leading a Digital Nomad Lifestyle

The digital nomad lifestyle comes with many benefits. Some of them are very obvious, like a chance to see exotic lands, while some others are known only to people who once in their life decided to say goodbye to their family and friends, and sail off with a laptop in their lap. These are some of them:

  1. Flexible work hours- this is the same for most freelancers, but digital nomads are known for using their free time in much more creative ways. They don’t do 9 to 5 jobs and don’t need to worry about toxic bosses and company dress code; If a digital nomad is a part of a larger, international team, then they make use of technology such as employee scheduling apps and various project management software.
  2. Geographic arbitrage- digital nomads are using world’s wealth disparity for their own good. They are earning Western salaries and living in countries with much lower prices;

Coworking Spaces

Although it sounds like digital nomads are working from buses, trains, tops of desserts dunes and jungles, they have much more comfortable work spaces. There are networks of coworking hubs and offices you can rent all around the world. This trend grew so big recently that there is a special kind of accommodation called a coworking hostel, made to satisfy all digital nomads’ needs.

You can find these establishments in many big cities across popular digital nomad destinations, like Thailand, Indonesia, and India and in some places like Amsterdam, there are whole neighborhoods inhabited by digital nomads.

Digital Nomads and Entrepreneurship

Although all other types of online work bring appreciable income and leave you with more time to explore places you visit, after working your 4, 6 or 8-hour shift, I somehow got caught up with nomad entrepreneurship. To me, this idea sounds quite revolutionary.

Nomad entrepreneurs are running entrepreneurship projects from all around the world and including various local and nomad people they meet in their company’s development.

One of the best ambassadors of nomad entrepreneurship is Pieter Levels, a Dutch programmer, designer and an entrepreneur, who launched 12 different startups in 12 different countries, which are all built around prototypes he invented.

If on the other hand, you would like to focus one startup and make it successful enough to finance years of round-the-world travels, you should look up to Jay Meistricth from San Francisco. This guy visited more than 20 countries while running his startup that deals with to-do list organization. Since San Francisco currently has one of the most expensive average rents in the country, his whole trip costs less than rent and food in his own city.

Digital nomads found a way to combine very active life with successful business careers. This way they don’t spend years of their lives in a cubical, and they still have a lot of things to write in their resume.

If this story about people who are running corporations from their backpack, made you think about leaving your home and traveling the world as a successful entrepreneur, you definitely have the potential to embark on this lifetime journey.

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Oscar Waterworth
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