Re: [Gnu-arch-users] NPO Time?

[Tom Lord]

    > From: Andrew Suffield <address@hidden>

    > >     > This might not be the best time to sink that much money into a
    > >     > startup.

    > > "startup" implies, to me at least, a for-profit venture investment.
    > > That is not what this is.

    > It does? Creepy. Must be an American thing.

"separated by a common tongue", I guess.

If anything, I think the sustained downturn is a _good_ time for this
kind of endeavor because I think it's the kind of thing that can help
to create economic growth (as when software we make gives other people
ways to at least try to start for-profit businesses --- I think it
safe to say that arch is pretty much entering that stage).


    >> It gets more complicated than that for a number of reasons.
    >> Depending on your particular corporate form, executive officers
    >> may be required.

    > Ick. That could get horribly expensive in a hurry.

Not necessarily.  The officers aren't supposed to be drawing large
salaries and, in fact, face some legal constraints in that regard.
It's not that it gets expensive wrt officers but that it gets socially
compilicated.

    >> NPOs can be eligable for loans although that is only a realistic route
    >> to take if confidence in the prospects of the organization are quite
    >> high.

    > Eligable, sure - but convincing a bank to actually give you the
    > money is usually nigh-impossible. It's hard enough to get
    > anything less than $10m when you *do* have a conventional
    > business plan.

Sheesh.  Not nearly so -- not in this region.  Now, again -- I don't
think that loan-based-financing is the way to go for anything other
than very short-term tactical reasons with near-certain success,
but....

There's a wealth of programs designed to extend far smaller loans (and
grants, for that matter) to smaller organizations.   At least where I
live.

That (especially grants) is actually one of the reasons to want enough
seed to get experts to help bootstrap the thing -- because finding and
qualifying for these things doesn't seem to be especially easy but
there are people who specialize in that sort of thing.


    > >     > You might want to make a temporary arrangement with an existing
    > >     > organisation, like the FSF or SPI, to handle arch for now. That
    > >     > way you get tax-free donations and payment systems that won't
    > >     > make corporations scream and run away (they really hate personal
    > >     > cheques and paypal), without having to wait.

    > > In actual practice, such approaches are being attempted and obstacles
    > > are arising.   That's part of the inspiration to raise this topic at
    > > this time.

    > Hmph. What's going on there? There are other players in this game;
    > there's got to be *somebody* who could pick up the ball right the hell
    > now.

Mmmm... I have to beg off the question.   I've said enough.   Nothing
scandelous is going on -- just gross inefficiencies that are the
unsurprising and arguably appropriate result of various existing legal
structures that the NPO proposal is _in_part_ intended to help repair.

-t