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To those who commented on the financial or regulatory hurdles in serving these people: Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to s

To those who commented on the financial or regulatory hurdles in serving these people: Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to serve veterans or single mothers–why not create a startup that can employ veterans AND single mothers? One of the biggest problems facing single mothers is the high cost of childcare. In many instances, it makes going to work almost pointless because it eats 50%+ of your paycheck. So, why not a crowdsourcing service (a la mechanical turk/crowdflower) that employs single mothers at home in the United States? (personally I think people would eat that up and even pay a premium for US-based workers) Veterans could also do crowdsourcing work, on-demand security, and on-demand driving/moving off the top of my head. Yet another way to tackle this could be to go into an industry that already has the means/access to help these people and partner with them. I'm mainly thinking of education. California's community colleges (there are over 100) cater to these people already. They have night classes and veterans offices. They have programs for in-demand jobs like nursing. Yes, there's the same bureaucratic/regulatory issues since they're a government institution ... but if Starbucks can do a deal with Arizona State, surely a founder who is ambitious enough can get something done.

capisce 12y ago
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint and how the profits get distributed) there tends to be more money in replacing people with automation than in employing them. And even when employing them there is always the incentive to pay the least amount that the market will bear. Crowdsourcing etc also provides very little in the way of job security.
Nursie 12y ago
>> Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to serve veterans or single mothers–why not create a startup that can employ veterans AND single mothers? I have a friend who does something similar to this. It turns out to be really hard, and not exactly hitting the exponential growth she wants despite being in the media frequently. Keeping the cash flowing is hard. The reason the startup scene is comparatively easy is that everyone is motivated, energetic, young, very intelligent, able to work long hours, and the products can scale without needing a mirrored scaling up of staff, structure, management and materials. Aiming to employ large numbers of people is a very, very different proposition.
prawn 12y ago
A task that can be performed on a phone would suit mothers at home.
king_jester 12y ago
> Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to serve veterans or single mothers–why not create a startup that can employ veterans AND single mothers? An even better question is, why aren't businesses and start-ups today employing veterans and single mothers?
aianus 12y ago
A very obvious solution would be to have some proportion of single mothers watch the children of the other single mothers while they work outside the home. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if there's a metric shit-ton of misguided regulation around running home daycares that makes this impractical.

capisce 12y ago

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint and how the profits get distributed) there tends to be more money in replacing people with automation than in employing them. And even when employing them there is always the incentive to pay the least amount that the market will bear. Crowdsourcing etc also provides very little in the way of job security.

Nursie 12y ago

>> Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to serve veterans or single mothers–why not create a startup that can employ veterans AND single mothers? I have a friend who does something similar to this. It turns out to be really hard, and not exactly hitting the exponential growth she wants despite being in the media frequently. Keeping the cash flowing is hard. The reason the startup scene is comparatively easy is that everyone is motivated, energetic, young, very intelligent, able to work long hours, and the products can scale without needing a mirrored scaling up of staff, structure, management and materials. Aiming to employ large numbers of people is a very, very different proposition.

prawn 12y ago

A task that can be performed on a phone would suit mothers at home.

king_jester 12y ago

> Maybe another way to look at this is: instead of creating a startup to serve veterans or single mothers–why not create a startup that can employ veterans AND single mothers? An even better question is, why aren't businesses and start-ups today employing veterans and single mothers?

aianus 12y ago

A very obvious solution would be to have some proportion of single mothers watch the children of the other single mothers while they work outside the home. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if there's a metric shit-ton of misguided regulation around running home daycares that makes this impractical.