He paid $1,600 for a room with 9 roommates, now his rent is 10x cheaper

Before moving to San Francisco, Koby Conrad had a 2,000-square-foot house with a $900 monthly mortgage. Once there, he moved in with nine roommates, paying $1,600 for a tiny room. Today, the founder of AI sobriety companion Sunflower lives in Buenos Aires, where he says his rent is 10 times cheaper.

‘I love the food, I love the culture, and I love the fact that my rent is 10x cheaper,’ Conrad told Business Insider. ‘In SF, if I’m making $300,000, I’m still stressed about money. Here, you can make $100,000 and think: Cool, I’m set for the rest of my world.’

Conrad, 32, moved to San Francisco at 26 after his younger brother encouraged him to join the city’s startup scene, eventually entering Y Combinator. He said he still loves the city and considers it unmatched for technology innovation, but that it revolves almost entirely around the tech industry, with ‘90% of the circle’ made up of highly technical people working at tech companies.

After weighing New York and Buenos Aires, Conrad picked Argentina, drawn to its culture and lower cost of living. He acknowledged safety concerns in parts of Latin America, recalling that he once nearly got kidnapped while visiting Medellín, but called Argentina ‘one of the safest places in Latin America.’ He now splits his company across both cities, keeping the technical team in San Francisco and New York while basing the go-to-market team in Buenos Aires.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Luis Argerich