4 ms·

This is why you invest in twenty companies, not one.

GVIrish 13y ago
But what's stopping the majority of companies from just phoning it in and collecting free money? There would be only one winner so 19 of those companies are wasting their time anyway. If you really want companies to build prototypes, they have to have some skin in the game. Otherwise you are all but ensuring fraud.
- jroseattle 13y ago
  I might be misunderstanding. Is the suggestion here that several companies would induce them to be less competitive, but a single large company would be highly motivated to succeed?
  - GVIrish 13y ago
    No, I'm saying that in order to get the $15 million there has to be some sort of measures in place to make sure that people don't game the system. If you just give them $15 million with no strings attached, they might decide to do the bare minimum and pocket the rest. Maybe you could stipulate that each company has to meet a minimum bar in order to get that $15 million. Maybe advance some of the money up front, then pay the rest if they meet the bar. If they fail to meet the bar, they have to give back some of the money. In any system you implement you need to give a lot of consideration to how someone might abuse the system because someone absolutely is going to at some point.
    - jroseattle 13y ago
      I didn't expect it was necessary to spell out the details of the arrangement to support the validity of the approach. The purpose of the suggestion is to approach the problem differently to achieve a successful outcome. Administering this type of procurement arrangement, while certainly important to all the points you have raised, has very little to do with the success of building and delivering healthcare.gov.
stavrianos 13y ago
Surprise! I have twenty companies that all look about right. Net profit: 280 million. And the result is still shit. The solution is obviously to pick good companies, not lemons. Except, that was the whole problem in the first place.
- jroseattle 13y ago
  Ok, thanks for the snark. If we're so clueless that we can disambiguate from companies in this fictional scenario, then we're hosed anyway.

But what's stopping the majority of companies from just phoning it in and collecting free money? There would be only one winner so 19 of those companies are wasting their time anyway. If you really want companies to build prototypes, they have to have some skin in the game. Otherwise you are all but ensuring fraud.

jroseattle 13y ago
I might be misunderstanding. Is the suggestion here that several companies would induce them to be less competitive, but a single large company would be highly motivated to succeed?
- GVIrish 13y ago
  No, I'm saying that in order to get the $15 million there has to be some sort of measures in place to make sure that people don't game the system. If you just give them $15 million with no strings attached, they might decide to do the bare minimum and pocket the rest. Maybe you could stipulate that each company has to meet a minimum bar in order to get that $15 million. Maybe advance some of the money up front, then pay the rest if they meet the bar. If they fail to meet the bar, they have to give back some of the money. In any system you implement you need to give a lot of consideration to how someone might abuse the system because someone absolutely is going to at some point.
  - jroseattle 13y ago
    I didn't expect it was necessary to spell out the details of the arrangement to support the validity of the approach. The purpose of the suggestion is to approach the problem differently to achieve a successful outcome. Administering this type of procurement arrangement, while certainly important to all the points you have raised, has very little to do with the success of building and delivering healthcare.gov.

stavrianos 13y ago

Surprise! I have twenty companies that all look about right. Net profit: 280 million. And the result is still shit. The solution is obviously to pick good companies, not lemons. Except, that was the whole problem in the first place.

jroseattle 13y ago
Ok, thanks for the snark. If we're so clueless that we can disambiguate from companies in this fictional scenario, then we're hosed anyway.