Can you give examples. Also the good thing about nyc is the startup scene. There are lots of networking events which I've found very useful and also I'm single so I need a little social life.
In Lincoln, NE you can get a one bedroom apartment with utilities included for $425 and if you are happy with 15' x 20' one room apartment you can get one for $275. There is a college here so finding interns is fairly easy and there are lots of small startups. However, once you start growing you might have trouble hiring enough people since there just aren't as many people who want to be in Lincoln as there are people who want to be in Silicon Valley or the east coast. I'm not very social so I don't know how good the socializing is here.
Back in 2004, when I was living in St. Louis, two guys in a 3 room apartment near the Wash U shuttle line in a neighborhood which was 20-something friendly was $400 a month each. If you were content with the college kid lifestyle you could easily do it on $800 ~ $1,000 a month total.
Another option is doing the startup part time while working, which tends to make the difference between $800 and $1,200 pretty immaterial.
