What convinced you California is out of the question?
If anything was possible, would you want to live in the Bay area, find a co-founder, and grow the bootstrapped product into a company?
I say this because your comment is contradictory. You "just" wanted to mention something important to you that may be frightening. And then you doubled up trying to convince us the entire of California, which includes the expensive Bay Area and all the other inexpensive areas, is "out of the question".
I think you want to start a company, and it's frightening as it should be.
If anything was possible, would you want to live in the Bay area, find a co-founder, and grow the bootstrapped product into a company?
I say this because your comment is contradictory. You "just" wanted to mention something important to you that may be frightening. And then you doubled up trying to convince us the entire of California, which includes the expensive Bay Area and all the other inexpensive areas, is "out of the question".
I think you want to start a company, and it's frightening as it should be.
You only live once. The choice is yours.