Jesse Schoberg has the typical digital nomad profile. Since his departure from the United States fourteen years ago, he has stayed more or less long in forty countries while making his start-up prosper. Today, reports the channel’s site CNBChe does not see himself returning to the United States anytime soon when he has just applied for the Thai Elite visa, a key that should allow him to live for at least five years in Thailand, the country where he has finally decided to settle down.
As a teenager, Jesse Schoberg already wanted to leave, to leave Elkhorn, the town in Wisconsin where he grew up, “a typical small town of the Midwest, cramped, peaceful, without the slightest adventure to offer”. “I always knew I wanted to get away and see the world”he explains.
He skips college and doesn’t even try to get a desk job. It was in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, that he acquired his first skills as a web developer, at the age of 19, before joining Austin, the “New American Tech Capital”then Denver, then Panama City, in 2008, where he spent six pleasant years.
A business trip to Curaçao, in the Caribbean, completes the conversion to digital nomadism. Created with two friends before leaving the United States, his start-up is also perfectly suited to 100% remote work. Today, it still has no fixed offices, which does not prevent it from employing a dozen professionals.
Break away from the stress of American cities
When he got to know Thailand in 2015, Jesse Schoberg quickly felt at home:
“In Bangkok, I felt the same pulse as in Panama City, this incredible energy of people in the street. I knew straight away that Bangkok was going to become my Panama City 2.0.”
Since then, Schoberg has been living between Bangkok and Mexico – while waiting for the visa that will give him the green light to officially make Thailand his home port. Since December 2021, he has nevertheless shared with Janine, his fiancée – met in the Philippines – an apartment in the Thai capital. The building has a gym, a swimming pool, a coworking space, a restaurant and even cleaning staff. Cost: $2,700 (2,600 euros) per month. This rent is his first item of expenditure in Bangkok.
“The quality of life in Thailand is much better than in the United States – with a lot less stress. It is also much easier here to live very comfortably.”
The couple don’t deny themselves anything – Jesse Schoberg boasts of earning a six-figure annual salary – and spend the equivalent of $1,900 (1,850 euros) a month on takeout and restaurant meals. “The food scene is amazing. You find just about anything you want. Just around the corner from our street there is a Belgian sandwich shop and a Korean BBQ.”
There are two very different cities in Bangkok, he explains. He and his companion frequent the two with as much pleasure. “At street level, it’s the city of food vendors, people running to work, taxis, motorbikes. And then there is the city of chic bars and terraces, coworking spaces and shops and this one is housed at the top of the skyscrapers. The contrast is total between the Chanel store and the 20-cent grilled pork skewer bought around the corner.”
It remains to master the language. If English is spoken in Thailand in the busiest tourist areas – especially in Bangkok -, learning the Thai language allows you to have“a huge advantage” as a foreigner, explains Jesse Schoberg. He spends $270 a month on his Thai lessons. The best way, according to him, to immerse yourself in the local culture of “lead a richer life in Bangkok”.