Although Bengal sometimes visit some clients, he mostly works with them through Skype, e-mail, and the phone, sometimes even in the car.

"It's amazing what you can do on the telephone," he says.

When: Like many people who work from home, Bengal doesn't have a "typical" work day; there are some days he doesn't work at all. Then there are bursts of a few days to a few weeks where he does nothing but work.

"I like the challenge of creating something new, and having to figure out how to make it happen," he says. "Part of couch surfing is that if the people I'm staying with have some cool plans, I get snapped 'out of the zone' and I get to go do stuff. I generally don't keep track of what day of the week it is, and my best work is definitely done at night ... less distractions."

When did you start your company? Bengal's official LLC was started in early 2011, but he's been working for himself since 1997, with a hiatus in 2004 to late 2005, when he only did some work on the side.