Me and my startup co-founder are planning a 3 month business trip to the States where we are going to live in The Valley and/or San Francisco. We are from Denmark and of cause want to get as much out of the trip as possible.<p>We are both in our 30's with a couple of startups behind us already. We are outgoing and would love to meetup with fellow hackers and entrepreneurs.<p>We have a place to stay in Palo Alto for the first week or so and we have a few friends in The Valley in other startups that we hope(!) can set us up with desks for some of the time. But we are also more than willing to get to know new people, work from cafes etc.<p>The official purpose of the trip is to network, bootstrap and ultimately meet with a lot of investors to pitch our project.<p>I'm writing here in hopes of getting some good advice of how to survive 3 months in The Valley or San Francisco. I of cause have a huge amount of questions, and I bet you can tell me stuff I didn't know I needed to know. But to get the started here are my most burning questions:<p>- Where should we go to meet and hang out with other cool startups?
- How do we get internet?
- How do we get SIMs without a contract for our iPhones and iPads?
- Do you know of a friendly startup with one or two extra desks that we can use for a limited time?
- How do we get around cheaply (transport)?
- And of cause, do you have a spare bed or couch? ;)
I was in a similar situation.<p>- For the sim cards. Any monthly prepaid plan like the $50 T-mobile 4G with unlimited data, text &talk is fine.<p>- For internet try check verizon, att, t-mobile or timewarner. I currently have time warner. It's a bit expensive. FIOS with 20mb/s for $45 a month.<p>- For the event checkout <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.eventbrite.com</a> & <a href="http://www.meetup.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com</a> and search for the events.<p>- Fro the transportation, get a cliper card. You can take the bart and the bus with it. Unfortunately a car is a must have for the bay area if you are planning to driving around palo alto, ...<p>And, it's a good idea, we should setup an hacker news meetup !
As far as places to stay and network, take a look at Chez JJ (<a href="http://chezjj.com/" rel="nofollow">http://chezjj.com/</a>), a "home for itinerant hackers". I haven't stayed there to do a startup, but I've been there several times and I know the folks running the houses; they're good people, and everyone who stays there seems to enjoy it.
Hej! Always great to see Danes down in the valley. I lived in CPH for three years, interned at Podio for some time, and have been rooting for the Danish startup scene since. While I can't offer much in the way of networking or a place to sleep (new to the Valley myself), I'd love to meet and get mocked for my Danish again ;)