Paul Graham, author of the wonderful essay “Hackers and Painters” has teamed up with early stage investor Y Combinator to found The Summer Founders Program. A wonderful idea, the program remixes how one goes about seeding startups.
The Summer Founders Program preserves many features of a conventional summer job. You have to move here (Cambridge) for the summer, as with a regular summer job. We give you enough money to live on for a summer, as with a regular summer job. You get to work on real problems, as you would in a good summer job. But instead of working for an existing company, you’ll be working for your own; instead showing up at some office building at 9 AM, you can work when and where you like; and instead of salary, the money you get will be seed funding.
What happens at the end of the summer? That’s up to you. If you want, you can mothball or dissolve your startup, and no harm done. If you want to keep going and we think your company is promising, we’ll probably be able to help you get more funding.