Title: So a little while back, I bought a big old brick house in Richmond, Indiana (for $8000).  (cf. http://big-old-house.blogspot.com for the blow-by-blow). It's really a whole hell of a lot more room than I need, and - the kicker - it's not alone.  There are a boatload of beautiful old brick buildings here, just no economic reason for anybody sane to buy them.  There's even a 23-unit building of single-bedroom apartments two or three blocks away from me, standing empty.  Lots of these houses are standing empty; there's just nobody left to live in them.<p>So I had this stupid idea, and I'm not even sure it's a stupid idea: why not sponsor young (or non-young) entrepreneurs by giving them rooms or small apartments, server space, good bandwidth, and home-cooked but free food?  In return, perhaps a percentage take of whatever they came up with during a certain fellowship period, or whatever other venture capitalists take as their cut.  Later in the game, actual capital would be available (it's not on the table, not from me, not right now).  But the idea is to build an active and close-knit, quasi-academic, community.  There was definitely an era in my life when I would have jumped at such an opportunity, and I'd still seriously consider it.<p>So tell me: in how many ways is it stupid?  I love these old buildings; given just a little economic rationale, they're eminently salvageable (people built to <i>last</i> in the 1880's and 90's).
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