5 ms·
Bill Gates' mysterious new company
- zach 18y agoThere needs to be a term for the kind of agenda-less company founded by those with nothing to prove and no personal need for enrichment. "Sandbox corporation?"
- JayNeely 18y ago'agenda-less' might not be a good description, but I see what you mean. I'm not sure what a good term might be, but some good short descriptions might be 'altruistic endeavor' or 'pursuit of passion'.
- michael_dorfman 18y agoAltruistic? He's got the Foundation for that. Personally, I like the "Sandbox" notion (but maybe that's because I recently set up a company like that for myself, and hadn't thought of that term to describe it....)
- shadytrees 18y agoStarts driving out other think tanks by bundling thoughts with Windows.
- netcan 18y agoIdea Vista
- bigthboy 18y agoFascinating... I'm definitely interested in seeing what comes out of that "think tank." I also agree with the "Sandbox Corporation" classification... maybe shortened to "Sand Corp" or just "Sandy".... Personally, I think its likely to turn into something like an incubator for businesses that are in Gate's area of interest (such as those areas the Gates Foundation focuses on, only for-profit). Then again, maybe I'm just hoping... =P
- kirse 18y agoI'm hoping for a giant crime-fighting metal rocket suit. /cue Black Sabbath
- jdavid 18y agoseems like gates is gearing up to take advantage of some of those Obama tax credits.
- teej 18y agoEver have one of those moments where you thought "wouldn't it be cool if someone made/built/offered X?" bgC3 is where Bill Gates can do a brain dump of all his ideas and have some smart people try and make them.
- abstractbill 18y agoHas this ever worked? I'm not being facetious - I just can't think of any good examples where one "idea person" has dumped ideas on a bunch of smart people and good things have come out of it.
- antiform 18y agoNathan Myhrvold and Intellectual Ventures? Not sure if that's quite what you're looking for, but it's the first thing that came to mind. It's not exactly "good" in a "for mankind" kind of sense, but apparently it makes boatloads of money.
- davidw 18y agoI'd be curious to hear how things are developed at Apple. For instance, is Jobs an idea guy or more of a gatekeeper ("this sucks, do it better")?
- mwerty 18y agoThe lightbulb I think.
- iigs 18y agoI work at another company in the building in question. Several of my coworkers have been in the elevator at the same time he has. I can't wait to get my chance so I can ask him if computers are going to be chewy in the future.
- trapper 18y agoYou know, it's a perfect time for an elevator pitch too ;)
- iigs 18y agoThere's no way I could bring myself to do that. Between that, "My grandson is SO SMART he built his own computer from SCRATCH! You should hire him!" and "My niece is having open heart surgery and my cousin just lost her job" stories, I refuse to believe he doesn't take medicine to keep from falling asleep when people talk about spending his money.
- colinplamondon 18y agoAlternate answer: it might be nice to hear someone's pitch who isn't full of shit.
- trapper 18y agoOpportunity knocks. Your choice whether to answer the door.
- sgibat 18y agoBest case: Funded with tons of money. Worst case: Someone who isn't going to give you tons of money is annoyed for thirty seconds.
- sd 18y agoIf the bg stands for Mr. Gates, any idea what the C3 represents?
- fawxtin 18y agoGates will try to apply his new start-up on the next YC event... Well, I can say it won't be easy!