It’s no secret that there are sound reasons to migrate to Silicon Valley to found a tech company. But there are also practical reasons to head elsewhere — like, say, the highest housing costs in the U.S. So perhaps New York or Boston?

Try Bahrain — a small Arab nation with big dreams of developing a bustling startup scene.

Bahrain has tapped Amazon Web Services Inc. to help bring it into the digital age. AWS opened its Middle East Region in Bahrain in July and has collaborated with the University of Bahrain on a B.S. program in cloud computing. Projects like these are fertilizing the nation’s burgeoning startup ecosystem.

“It’s really a nationwide initiative — from the founders to the private entities and investors like us, and to the governmental agencies — where we all are really dedicated towards making this a startup hub,” said Saleh Abbas (pictured, right), marketing and outreach manager at Flat6Labs, a startup accelerator in Manama, Bahrain. 

Abbas and Sam Dolbel (left), co-founder and chief executive officer of Sinc Ltd., spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS Summit Bahrain event. They discussed what Bahrain has to offer entrepreneurs from around the globe (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Highs and lows for tech newbies

“Bahrain’s in a very unique position where we have a cultural mindset that is very easy for a lot of foreigners and expatriates to adapt to. I think we’ve even been ranked number one in the world as a place for expatriates to live, several times,” Abbas said. 

What may be pleasantly unfamiliar to them is the low overhead involved in setting up a business there, according to Abbas. Both rent and hiring are relatively inexpensive, and subsidies are available for hiring newly graduated Bahranis.

“You have a high quality of life, but at the same time, it’s the best starting point for a lot of startups because you can extend your runway, you have a much lower cash burn, and at the same time you’ve got one of the biggest marketplaces right next door, which is Saudi Arabia,” Abbas stated.

Flat6Labs provides a business-development network, mentoring and capital to entrepreneurs. Last year, it invested in 23 startups. One of those is Sinc — a maker of software as a service for employee management. Flat6Labs encountered Sinc in the startup’s early stages and persuaded the team to move to Bahrain.

“The access to talent here is just amazing, the costs are very low, and we’re able to do a lot with a very small amount of money. So far, we’ve got to a total of four-and-a-half thousand U.S. businesses using the platform. And we’ve done that all here from Bahrain,” Dolbel said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit Bahrain. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Summit Bahrain event. Neither Amazon Web Services, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE