When Julie Arsenault decided to turn her side hustle into a full-time job, she did something few fledgling entrepreneurs would consider: She moved out of San Francisco.

After working at multiple high-growth startups in the Bay Area, she packed up her belongings in 2016 and moved to Reno, Nevada, where she expected her living expenses to plummet. She figured lower costs would help her devote more time and resources to Panty Drop, an underwear subscription service that she had been trying to grow since 2014. “I could cut my rent and other living expenses in half, which was a big selling point,” she adds.

Arsenault is part of a growing contingent of entrepreneurs choosing to move away from established startup hubs like San Francisco, San Jose, and New York City. While such a move may make a founder less attractive to potential investors, there are few other downsides, say those who’ve made the leap. And even that difficulty is becoming less pronounced in certain pockets of the U.S., which have been plowing increased resources into building up burgeoning innovation centers.