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I'm not sure you'd need to lock people in geographically. If you retain some equity in their venture, and it succeeds, it builds the community no matter where
by Vivtek 17y ago
I'm not sure you'd need to lock people in geographically. If you retain some equity in their venture, and it succeeds, it builds the community no matter where they end up relocating. And if there are enough people doing cool things in Richmond or Timbuctu, then a certain number of them will stay anyway.
Ultimately, enough would stay that they'd influence the local economy. Frankly, any one startup here would influence the economy. It's a small town and hasn't had serious industry since about WWII. Although when my house was built, it was one of the richest towns in this part of the country, and the architecture shows it.
They built cars here. Pianos. Louis Armstrong and Gene Autry recorded here. It was an actual place. It wouldn't take much to make it a place again.
- shortformblog 17y agoThat's the kind of spirit I like to hear. If I was in a different spot, I would probably roll the dice on this endeavor. Alas, I actually have a career. One other idea for you: Maybe you could hitch your wagon onto the Knight News Challenge somehow? http://www.newschallenge.org/ http://www.newschallenge.org/ They just extended their deadline until December, which is plenty of time to build something. And a town like what you're describing seems like it'd be a great testbed for something like that.
- lupin_sansei 17y agoIt's worth you finding out why all that industry left the area in the first place, in case you fail for the same reason. Seems to me the close shop system doesn't help among other things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt#History