Does this seem... incredibly lame?
[deleted]
My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
51–60 of 131 posts
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you think about the governance of cults, do you think the latitude society could've worked if the authors had been upfront about their intentions from day 1? That is to say, if the invitation had said "we are building a secret society for the elite", would that have sufficiently filtered the population such that monetization would've been possible? I'm thinking of this from the perspective of startups which have…
MIT Sloan has a great article about converting visitors into subscribers that I think is arguably relevant here: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/turning-content-viewers-i... I think that if you're trying to build a product that you want to charge for, then it's worth signaling that aggressively from the beginning (building what they call the "ladder" in that article). That said, Latitude did send some signals (e.g…
What kind of grants? I think using public funds for a private secret society could be quite controversial.
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#53I'm curious. "I'm asked to surrender my possessions. So in go my iPhone and wallet"... and yet somehow there's photos of everything beyond that point.
That might be the creepiest part. I never would have done that.
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#54Does this seem... incredibly lame?
it reminds me of dungeon and dragons
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you think about the governance of cults, do you think the latitude society could've worked if the authors had been upfront about their intentions from day 1? That is to say, if the invitation had said "we are building a secret society for the elite", would that have sufficiently filtered the population such that monetization would've been possible? I'm thinking of this from the perspective of startups which have…
MIT Sloan has a great article about converting visitors into subscribers that I think is arguably relevant here: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/turning-content-viewers-i... I think that if you're trying to build a product that you want to charge for, then it's worth signaling that aggressively from the beginning (building what they call the "ladder" in that article). That said, Latitude did send some signals (e.g…
[deleted]
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
MIT Sloan has a great article about converting visitors into subscribers that I think is arguably relevant here: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/turning-content-viewers-i... I think that if you're trying to build a product that you want to charge for, then it's worth signaling that aggressively from the beginning (building what they call the "ladder" in that article). That said, Latitude did send some signals (e.g…
What kind of grants? I think using public funds for a private secret society could be quite controversial.
It may have been controversial, and I never investigated it thoroughly as a possibility, so I can't be sure. But the Latitude did a very good job of making members approach and think about the city of San Francisco differently, in an arguably artistic way. There are funders and orgs that are interested in that sort of thing (for instance, SFMOMA has a recent interest in games as art, and has placed immersive game designers as artists in residence).
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean the experience of running tech for a "secret society" or of my going through the immersive/interactive experiences?
At this pace, those secrets that were just welling up inside you won't ever make it out. Why not just answer one or both of those since either one would prove to be interesting to the readers you've hooked with your original post.
Thanks. That was what I needed. Hard to know where to start.
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of grants? I think using public funds for a private secret society could be quite controversial.
It may have been controversial, and I never investigated it thoroughly as a possibility, so I can't be sure. But the Latitude did a very good job of making members approach and think about the city of San Francisco differently, in an arguably artistic way. There are funders and orgs that are interested in that sort of thing (for instance, SFMOMA has a recent interest in games as art, and has placed immersive game des…
That last is very interesting. What do immersive game designers do as artists in residence? Has anyone written anything covering those stories?
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this pace, those secrets that were just welling up inside you won't ever make it out. Why not just answer one or both of those since either one would prove to be interesting to the readers you've hooked with your original post.
Thanks. That was what I needed. Hard to know where to start.
I hate to say it, but the sump pump story was more interesting to me than the original secret society article. I guess I can empathize more...
Re: My Year in San Francisco’s $2M Secret Society Startup
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't fool yourself, the student run co-ops are no different from the venture capital that runs any other co-living/"nomad house" you speak of. Because, in a way, the student is the "start-up" and the money paid for tuition is "venture capital," put up in hopes to see an ROI, in terms of money or societal contribution, from the student. Speaking as a former UC Berkeley Cloyne co-oper, I've seen a handful of former co…
I'm not holding up the co-ops as some sort of paragon, but I think they're clearly a stepping stone in the right direction. At the very least, the cooperative business model has allowed them to (more or less) self-govern and adapt to a rapidly changing populace over the course of many decades. In my experience, they also have a much more diverse population on campus than the dorms or greek houses. While it's true tha…
> The institution itself, as it's currently structured, does not require an outside source of funding to prop it up: the business is a closed loop, and the incentives are aligned.
This is categorically untrue. The BSC receives large subsidies from Cal in different forms. To my knowledge the main form is through Cloyne Court, which is owned by the university and leased back to the BSC for a dollar a year (seriously). Meanwhile, the university still pays things like property tax, insurance, and some other expenses on the building.
Because of this sweetheart deal, Cloyne is a huge profit center for the BSC and the funds are used subsidize unprofitable houses (mostly all the smaller ones). CZ runs a small profit, but no where near as big as Cloyne. If the BSC lost Cloyne, the entire BSC would either fold, or have to raise prices so dramatically it would eventually fold. They would definitely close all smaller houses like Davis, et al. Also the land for Rochdale village was a subsidized deal as well, which helps those stay profitable.
But my point is that the success of the BSC is due to "venture capital" in the form of students "investing" in their education. And the fact that undergrad and grads at Cal for the most part are very like minded and in similar "stages" in their life which makes co-habitation relatively easy. Which is why I say that when you look a few levels deeper, the BSC not a replicable model outside of academia.
However, I agree with you that the BSC is fucking awesome for all the reasons that you stated.