4 ms·

You are perhaps placed very well to create an outsourcing company that serves the interests of Africans extremely well with entitlements, leave, healthcare, ret

You are perhaps placed very well to create an outsourcing company that serves the interests of Africans extremely well with entitlements, leave, healthcare, retirement, education and training and gives companies access to a lower cost workforce. You probably would need to lead all your corporate messaging around the points you have raised, and how much further your company goes than the minimum.

churchill 4y ago
I really haven't thought about this much but it's a brilliant idea. Maybe I can use it to get into YC & raise 1 bajillion from a16z?
- andrewstuart 4y ago
  No doubt Sam Altman is open to hearing about how to purchase African labor without any of the publicity downside - hit him up for a few mill. ChatGPT is riding high, it does not need Nike style bad publicity to bring the story down. You would need to be actually ethical rather than marketing ethical - I don't know you so I don't know if you know the difference. Certainly there's no shortage of Silicon Valley "characters" who don't. It's a very powerful "good news story" to sell to potential clients: --> lower cost workforce --> positive life benefit for the African people, lifting people to better lives --> western style work protections at African costs --> "publicity positive" for buyers versus "publicity negative" You would not believe the power of "lower cost workforce" in gaining new clients. If you know a bunch of African programmers then it should not be hard to find work for them at $x/hour to western clients. Any employer that wishes to show it cares for African people and wants to help them to a better life really SHOULD be buying services from your new company. Remember in places like Australia, the banks - who are the biggest buyers of outsources international programmer resources - would consider $40/hour to be an absolute bargain.
  - churchill 4y ago
    I understand what you mean & I 100% stand behind the idea of better-paying jobs for locals, in a way that makes affordable labor available to customers. It's not a zero-sum game - you don't have to treat people like trash to get any value out of their labor.
- akiselev 4y ago
  I think a16z et al only invest in crypto and other scams now.
- riezebos 4y ago
  I think about this every few months since 2016! It's been a bit of a "maybe some time in the future if the stars align" life goal to set up a data consulting company in a country with a lot of poverty. I did a project in Nairobi last year and it seems like there are enough people there that would be interested and have the skill potential. Internet was also quite good in most places. I'm also part of a small data science training company which could be used to teach data skills there. Maybe it's time to think about it more seriously?
jasode 4y ago
>You are perhaps placed very well to create an outsourcing company that serves the interests of Africans extremely well with entitlements, leave, healthcare, retirement, education and training [...] , and how much further your company goes than the minimum. One can try to build an alternative company with all those extra employee benefits you laid out but it still has to deal with the economic reality of clients like OpenAI not willing to pay more. If gp's hypothetical Nigeria outsourcing company costs +3x or more to label training data than Sama Kenya (https://www.sama.com/ https://www.sama.com/) -- because they have to fund those extra benefits, then game theory economics predicts that OpenAI would choose the less expensive Sama Kenya. This means the hypothetical Nigeria company doesn't have revenue to fund those extra wages and benefits. Just because a company has an alternative (and more expensive) idea to compensate employees, it doesn't mean customers will pay more for it.
- FredPret 4y ago
  The idea behind free trade is that the "OpenAI / the end user is not willing to pay more" part stops being a problem when there are no more poverty-class people in the world to employ at that ridiculous pay. They'll have to pay more or do without the labour. This is the virtuous upward cycle, slow as it may be.
  - _cenw 4y ago
    We're already seeing this with some manufacturing moving from China to India due to growing labor costs. Eventually the places with cheap labor to exploit dry up.
    - FredPret 4y ago
      In this instance, corporate greed is like a spreading storm that destroys the poor… by making them middle class. As a formerly underpaid third-worlder (I am now a Canadian) I would’ve LOVED more Western companies coming in to exploit me for my labour.
      - 4y ago

churchill 4y ago

I really haven't thought about this much but it's a brilliant idea. Maybe I can use it to get into YC & raise 1 bajillion from a16z?

andrewstuart 4y ago
No doubt Sam Altman is open to hearing about how to purchase African labor without any of the publicity downside - hit him up for a few mill. ChatGPT is riding high, it does not need Nike style bad publicity to bring the story down. You would need to be actually ethical rather than marketing ethical - I don't know you so I don't know if you know the difference. Certainly there's no shortage of Silicon Valley "characters" who don't. It's a very powerful "good news story" to sell to potential clients: --> lower cost workforce --> positive life benefit for the African people, lifting people to better lives --> western style work protections at African costs --> "publicity positive" for buyers versus "publicity negative" You would not believe the power of "lower cost workforce" in gaining new clients. If you know a bunch of African programmers then it should not be hard to find work for them at $x/hour to western clients. Any employer that wishes to show it cares for African people and wants to help them to a better life really SHOULD be buying services from your new company. Remember in places like Australia, the banks - who are the biggest buyers of outsources international programmer resources - would consider $40/hour to be an absolute bargain.
- churchill 4y ago
  I understand what you mean & I 100% stand behind the idea of better-paying jobs for locals, in a way that makes affordable labor available to customers. It's not a zero-sum game - you don't have to treat people like trash to get any value out of their labor.
akiselev 4y ago
I think a16z et al only invest in crypto and other scams now.
riezebos 4y ago
I think about this every few months since 2016! It's been a bit of a "maybe some time in the future if the stars align" life goal to set up a data consulting company in a country with a lot of poverty. I did a project in Nairobi last year and it seems like there are enough people there that would be interested and have the skill potential. Internet was also quite good in most places. I'm also part of a small data science training company which could be used to teach data skills there. Maybe it's time to think about it more seriously?

jasode 4y ago

>You are perhaps placed very well to create an outsourcing company that serves the interests of Africans extremely well with entitlements, leave, healthcare, retirement, education and training [...] , and how much further your company goes than the minimum. One can try to build an alternative company with all those extra employee benefits you laid out but it still has to deal with the economic reality of clients like OpenAI not willing to pay more. If gp's hypothetical Nigeria outsourcing company costs +3x or more to label training data than Sama Kenya (https://www.sama.com/ https://www.sama.com/) -- because they have to fund those extra benefits, then game theory economics predicts that OpenAI would choose the less expensive Sama Kenya. This means the hypothetical Nigeria company doesn't have revenue to fund those extra wages and benefits. Just because a company has an alternative (and more expensive) idea to compensate employees, it doesn't mean customers will pay more for it.

FredPret 4y ago
The idea behind free trade is that the "OpenAI / the end user is not willing to pay more" part stops being a problem when there are no more poverty-class people in the world to employ at that ridiculous pay. They'll have to pay more or do without the labour. This is the virtuous upward cycle, slow as it may be.
- _cenw 4y ago
  We're already seeing this with some manufacturing moving from China to India due to growing labor costs. Eventually the places with cheap labor to exploit dry up.
  - FredPret 4y ago
    In this instance, corporate greed is like a spreading storm that destroys the poor… by making them middle class. As a formerly underpaid third-worlder (I am now a Canadian) I would’ve LOVED more Western companies coming in to exploit me for my labour.
    - 4y ago