4 ms·

I would love to see something like this. I think this shouldn't just be limited to one city or industry though. Assuming that this is successfully attempted in

by epenn 13y ago

I would love to see something like this. I think this shouldn't just be limited to one city or industry though. Assuming that this is successfully attempted in one city, it might be a good idea to try it in other cities while focusing on various industries that speak to the existing core competencies of that city. So for example, a Detroit version of the Autonomy Fund could focus on funding autonomous individuals within the automotive industry. As for choice of initial tech hub, my vote goes to Pittsburgh. The population size is [roughly] what you're going for at ~300K. The housing market here is great. It already has a tech-friendly local government. Plus Carnegie Mellon is here, ready to feed top young CS talent directly into the autonomous positions. For what it's worth Pittsburgh was also voted as the most livable city in the U.S. a couple years ago [1]. I might be biased since I live/work in Pittsburgh and take CS classes at CMU, but by that same token it also means I'm speaking with first-hand experience. [1] http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/news-brief/its-official-pittsburgh-most-liveable-city-us http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/news-brief/its-offici...

michaelochurch 13y ago
Pittsburgh would be a great choice, I agree. Do you think the local government would invest? As I work on the idea, I'm starting to realize that it needs to involve public and private investment. The problem seems to be to convince investors that we can audit the programmers. I'd probably need to hire a well-known programmer as, at least, an advisor. Even if he didn't want to make the decisions and conduct the interviews, it'd be huge to have his name on the letter. The cities where I see the best odds of this taking shape are: Austin, Pittsburgh, Madison, and Portland. Apologies if I missed one; there are plenty of other good places, but those are the 4 that would be the big targets. I agree that one city is just a start. The concept needs a pilot, but ultimately the goal isn't to make one specific city a new Silicon Valley (if that happens, I've failed) but to encourage more equidistribution of talent and, as a nice side effect, also squeeze out the real estate assholes (who take advantage of the fact that our career needs force us to crowd into expensive cities). Once it's going multi-city, though, I'd need someone else to run it. I could be the lion for a couple years, but eventually I'd want to get back into code.
codewright 13y ago
I don't think Pittsburgh has the funding to do it. You're looking at a budget of ~$450mm. I think the funding, rather than the locale, is the blocker here.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  How much money do you think it'll take? I'm thinking single-digit millions per year. First class would be about 28 people. So that's $3.5 million per year. Salary plus tech budget is $125,000. That's half-decent but not great, and by design. I'm looking for entrepreneurs, not salarymen (who'd command $150-250k at the level I'm looking to hire). It's not the extreme low salary of bootstrapping (negative including business expenses) but it's not cozy either. That's sort of what I'm aiming for: a middle path between might-fuck-up-your-family-life-bootstrapping and not-really-an-entrepreneur-VC-funded-salaryman. I'm also thinking that it would be useful to find private investment with 1:1 matching. So local governments would only have to kick in half the initial funding requirement
  - mblakele 13y ago
    But doesn't it cost more than $125k to pay a $125k salary? I've been told that it's about 1:1 if typical benefits are involved. So a $125k salary costs $250k.
    - codewright 13y ago
      Not sure why you'd think benefits are involved here. And a $125k salary does not cost $250k.
      - otoburb 13y ago
        It would be great if an HR director could weigh in on how much a $125K salary might cost in total compensation with a "standard benefit package" range for a technologist/programmer/engineer role. The only other data point is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (BLS ECEC) where it shows at the bottom that benefits accounted for around 30% of total compensation and 70% going to wages & salary[1]. On average, this means that a $125K salary would cost a company $179K overall. [1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm

by epenn 13y ago

michaelochurch 13y ago

Pittsburgh would be a great choice, I agree. Do you think the local government would invest? As I work on the idea, I'm starting to realize that it needs to involve public and private investment. The problem seems to be to convince investors that we can audit the programmers. I'd probably need to hire a well-known programmer as, at least, an advisor. Even if he didn't want to make the decisions and conduct the interviews, it'd be huge to have his name on the letter. The cities where I see the best odds of this taking shape are: Austin, Pittsburgh, Madison, and Portland. Apologies if I missed one; there are plenty of other good places, but those are the 4 that would be the big targets. I agree that one city is just a start. The concept needs a pilot, but ultimately the goal isn't to make one specific city a new Silicon Valley (if that happens, I've failed) but to encourage more equidistribution of talent and, as a nice side effect, also squeeze out the real estate assholes (who take advantage of the fact that our career needs force us to crowd into expensive cities). Once it's going multi-city, though, I'd need someone else to run it. I could be the lion for a couple years, but eventually I'd want to get back into code.

codewright 13y ago

I don't think Pittsburgh has the funding to do it. You're looking at a budget of ~$450mm. I think the funding, rather than the locale, is the blocker here.

michaelochurch 13y ago
How much money do you think it'll take? I'm thinking single-digit millions per year. First class would be about 28 people. So that's $3.5 million per year. Salary plus tech budget is $125,000. That's half-decent but not great, and by design. I'm looking for entrepreneurs, not salarymen (who'd command $150-250k at the level I'm looking to hire). It's not the extreme low salary of bootstrapping (negative including business expenses) but it's not cozy either. That's sort of what I'm aiming for: a middle path between might-fuck-up-your-family-life-bootstrapping and not-really-an-entrepreneur-VC-funded-salaryman. I'm also thinking that it would be useful to find private investment with 1:1 matching. So local governments would only have to kick in half the initial funding requirement
- mblakele 13y ago
  But doesn't it cost more than $125k to pay a $125k salary? I've been told that it's about 1:1 if typical benefits are involved. So a $125k salary costs $250k.
  - codewright 13y ago
    Not sure why you'd think benefits are involved here. And a $125k salary does not cost $250k.
    - otoburb 13y ago
      It would be great if an HR director could weigh in on how much a $125K salary might cost in total compensation with a "standard benefit package" range for a technologist/programmer/engineer role. The only other data point is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (BLS ECEC) where it shows at the bottom that benefits accounted for around 30% of total compensation and 70% going to wages & salary[1]. On average, this means that a $125K salary would cost a company $179K overall. [1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm