Exactly 6 months back from today, I moved to Goa from Mumbai. It wasn't a well-thought decision. I was here for a VC summit in December, a minister asked me why would I not move to #Goa when I was telling everyone about my chronic bronchitis & my team's reduced productivity...(1)

thanks to long hours stuck traffic, bad air and an overall bad lifestyle that comes at an exorbitant cost in the metro. At that point 13 out of our 20 people team was in therapy.
I didn't have an answer to "why not" of the minister. Next thing, we moved to Goa.

We work on the internet, so we really didn't 'need' to be in Mumbai. Whenever we have to, we take an overnight train or bus.

- Since then, my lungs are doing absofuckinglutely great.
- My 14-15 hour work day has been slashed to 6 hours. Evenings are for me, friends or books.

- But, this antithesis experiment from the glorified hustle culture of startups has increased team's productivity by 30-35% compared to same time last year. (Yes we measure productivity )
- At the end of workday, we meet our friends at Joseph's Bar – at University Stadium, Delhi University

We talk about our day, share some jokes and head back home.
- Could afford to grow our communication agency team from 23 in Jan to 40 people now. We are much more happier at work and so are our clients.
- I have not missed a single sunset in Goa ever since I've moved her.

Makes me take a pause everyday, recollect the day, the decisions I have taken good or bad, and retire for a night of peace or party or both.
- I had time & energy to fall in love!
- I have cried in summers because of no electricity.

There's really no point of this post, just me checking up on me if leaving the big city made any sense.

That said, I do really also love Bombay.

Someone on IG asked if there's an opportunity cost & loss of network for business.

Not really. I spend 5-8 days/month on avg in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore for sales/networking events (BNI etc). And then we just put our head down and work for next 20 days. No distractions.

Operational cost has come down by almost 30% simply considering the cost of real estate and some more. Living cost has almost halved. So taking 3-4 flights a month for meetings doesn't even hurt the pockets of the company. Meetings in metros are much more organized and on agenda

now since our clients know we are travelling on a schedule so no time to chill or reschedule.