We did once fund a startup that didn't even get an apartment. They lived in a hostel in SF. They said it was nice and quiet during the day because everyone else staying there was a tourist and went out to see the city. They didn't make it, though. I don't think they ever launched. So maybe they found out where the edge of cheapness is.
I feel like it's a good idea to have a separate office from where you live, but why don't more (2-3 person) startups use the library for an office? It's quiet, you can rent conference rooms and equipment by the hour, and there's free wifi.
It wouldn't work forever, but it would be fine for the first few months.
If there's one thing I miss about college it's the 24-hour facilities. Even though there was always "home" it felt more entrepreneurial to work in a dedicated workspace, if a public one.
It's quiet. Too quiet. You can't hold whiteboard meetings and wave your arms a lot in a library, or they ask you to leave.
The conference rooms do exist, sometimes, but it's probably hard to consistently get one several times a week. When you find you really need a conference, the rooms may all be full.
The closing line "Dear Gabor, take note! Maybe starting a start-up isn't quite as impossible as they make it out to be" makes it seem like this is a revenge fantasy casting the recently departed VP Eng Gabor Cselle as a homeless person trying to get his new start-up off the ground. There may be considerably more bad blood around this departure than has come to light. Founders are best advised to avoid jokes or insults around departed employees no matter how they feel about their contribution or exit.
Actually, I'm not a founder, and Gabor's a friend of mine. He sits right across from me at work (he hasn't left yet).
He thought it was funny, since we often talk about how much people exaggerate the various barriers to building a successful startup. If anything, that line is meant to condemn any discouragement he faces.
