Building a tech company far from Barcelona

Every time I say Foxnice is from Girona, someone asks when we're moving to Barcelona.

As if Girona were a waiting room.

It isn't. But I won't pretend it's paradise either.

I know both sides

I'm not talking from a village romanticising the city from afar. I studied at the UPC. I worked in Barcelona before making the jump to Foxnice. I know what it's like to have everything an hour closer: the companies, the events, the people who might hire you.

And I also know the other side.

In August 2012 I was programming an API for a Barcelona startup. From Olot. Their office was there. My desk was here. The code didn't notice the difference.

That's when I understood something I still believe. You don't need to be where the money is. You need to be useful to it.

The next spring I registered as self-employed in Olot. And Foxnice grew from here, between Olot and Girona, with Yeray.

What you lose

Let's be honest about the price, because there is one.

You lose chance encounters. In a big city, things happen to you just by being there. A coffee can turn into a project. A talk can turn into a client. Here, very little happens by accident. If you want something, you go and get it.

You lose a bit of credibility with certain people. There's a type of client who assumes that if you're not in Barcelona, you must be cheaper, or smaller, or less serious. Sometimes they're right about the first two.

And you lose a scene. The feeling of being part of something. Outside the big city, the "tech ecosystem" can feel like you, your partner and a very patient router.

What you gain

And yet.

Your costs are lower. That isn't glamorous, but for a company that started with 300 € and no investors, low costs aren't a detail. They're part of the difference between needing a funding round and not needing one.

Distance from the big city is expensive in contacts and cheap in everything else. For a company without investors, that's a good deal.

You gain focus. There's less noise. Fewer events you feel you should go to. Fewer people telling you what's trendy this quarter. You get on with the work.

And you get closer to clients who are often overlooked. Small businesses, clubs, rural accommodation, people who don't live in a startup newsletter. They have real problems and they pay for them to be solved. In my experience, nobody is fighting very hard over them.

Where I've landed

I don't think there's a right answer. There's a right answer for each company.

If you need a lot of money fast, maybe you need to be where that money moves. I can see that.

If what you want is freedom, being far helps more than it hurts. Less pressure to look like everyone else. Less temptation to grow just because the people around you are growing.

For us, it's been the second.

So no, we're not moving to Barcelona.

Barcelona is welcome to come to us. It already did once, in 2012. It just sent the work by email.

P.S. The train from Girona to Barcelona takes under an hour. I've never found a train that takes you from busy to free.