No mention of the political risks though?
https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/10/21/kyrgyzstan-holds-a...
Even factoring that risk in, getting great talent so cheap seems like a win.
Hey, @dforrestwilson, thanks for the comment! I moved back to Kyrgyzstan last year to grow the Bishkek B12 Team. Our country has had some political instability in the past, but it has been stable during the last 8 years. I am grateful that Adam and Nitesh took a chance to grow our startup here. Kyrgyzstan's government also has been focusing on helping small businesses and IT sector specifically.
Do they really need to be mentioned? For most people, i.e. those who aren't getting involved with the country's politics and won't be seen by the government/regime as a threat, it's not going to even remotely be an issue.
It's like saying that I, as a non-American citizen, should be concerned if I ever want to start a blogging startup based in New York.
The moment 1/3 of your neighborhood in "downtown" area is heavily looted and internet is turned off completely(2005) or unidentified groups of people with AK shooting near your house(2010) is when you are involved despite your desire.
dforrestwilson made a great point about instability risks.
PS speaking from personal experience. I no longer live there
https://maddevs.io/en is quite a cool development consultancy based there, which has been involved in development of namba taxi, an uber type app.
namba itself has a whole host of projects similar to the more well known startups in Europe, e.g. Namba taxi, Namba food, and a video streaming service.
ololo (which was referenced in the piece) is a lovely community of different startups, and art projects fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
Feel free to ask if you have more questions
My intention was to try to hire few juniors as assistants, and UI devs. Seemed trivial at first, but the moment applicants heard of us being a foreign company, they instantly switched the talk to paid relocation package, hiring immigration lawyer, and if we can bring them a Chinese passport on a golden platter... This was the case with like 4 out of 5 applicants.
My advise, keep quiet about you being an overseas company till the last moment.