Title: Here’s a software business model that helps engineers to retain control of their companies and aim for excellence, instead of having everything they build get hijacked by MBAs. It encourages engineers to build profitable companies rather than “get big or go home” (VC).<p>It’ll encourage mid-growth companies. See: bit.ly/16guxvy. I want this thing to generate some Real Technology, and focus on hard problems instead of social media bullshit optimized for instant results. It’s for the mid-risk 10-40%/year growth range that’s underserved by existing finance.<p>An Autonomy Fund’s like so: engineers get a base salary (say $125k) and the investors get a percentage (say 37.5%) of any profits they make. What do they work on? Whatever they want. Their own projects. Consulting. Startups. The fund owns part of it, but they have full autonomy over what they do.<p>One idea here is self-organization. If two teams decide to work together and pool resources, they can. Since they're collectives of autonomous individuals, they don't need to worry about the (morale-killing) processes of merging HR structures and org charts. They just pull together and work.<p>Who’d fund it? I think local governments might. (Am I right? Or off the mark?) It creates jobs, supports local businesses, and may build the next Facebook.<p>I see this as the ultimate symbiosis between cities and tech. They want to make their cities tech hubs instead of having all the action go to star cities. We’d vet programmers, something a non-programmer can't (cf. Design Paradox).<p>I'd aim for top-5% “10Xers”, with initial class size ~28 and a 2-year initial runway ($7 million). If the pilot succeeded, then similar funds could be launched all over the world, and there might be a business in setting cities up with their own Autonomy Funds.<p>Is this something that:<p>(a) local governments would support, and<p>(b) a substantial number of top-5% people would join, even if it meant moving to a small city (~50-250k inhabitants)?
Upvote: