Following the destruction of Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean, David Bogaty – owner of WorldNet, a local broadband service provider in Puerto Rico – commented on CNBC that Irma is only one small blip compared to the devastation of prolonged economic hardship.
Puerto Rico is clawing back from a $120 billion public sector debt and pension obligation crisis, while its most capable skilled laborers and, hence, taxpayers are fleeing the island for higher paying jobs in the mainland, because, as David points out, most Puerto Ricans are trained to look for jobs in these large corporations. This made sense when network effects, through inter-company interaction, was only possible in densely populated cities, but the digital age has crushed that argument.
Digital Nomads can live and work anywhere. As pointed out by Marc Andreessen, Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, anyone with a laptop and internet connect can launch and run a business. Startup cost have fallen by a factor of 1,000 since the 1990s, encouraging younger people with fewer resources to set up shop.
Parallel18, Grupo Guayacán, and similar programs have spurred local entrepreneurship and enticed foreign founders to the island, because if you can work from anywhere, why not choose the beach?