Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Guy Who Wanted To Split California In Six Pieces Launches Contest To Keep It Together

The linked story in our July 2014 post, "Silicon Valley: Venture Capitalist Tim Draper Has a Cringworthy YouTube Channel" began:
This is a post about Tim Draper. Tim Draper is a billionaire tech investor of no particular importance who has decided that he wants to disrupt geography....
Here's the latest from the Mercury-News' tech blog, SiliconBeat:
Tim Draper launches a contest for fixing California
He tried and failed to divide California into six states.

Now Tim Draper, the venture capitalist, is at it again trying to upend state government. This time he has launched a contest on FixCal.org inviting others to submit their ideas for fixing the state. He announced it on YouTube:...

...“My idea was six Californias,” he says. “What’s yours?”

The site works somewhat like Product Hunt, which I wrote about earlier this year, with ideas voted up or down. A panel of judges will decide the best ideas based on criteria such as “transformation,” “representation” and “accountability,” according to the site.

As for winners? They “receive the opportunity to seek financial and strategic support from a select group of ‘investors’ for the purpose of proposing and enacting the proposal as law, by the enactment of legislation or by the initiative process.,”  says Innovate Your State, the non-profit behind the endeavor....MORE
Related:

Dec. 2013's "Venture Capitalist Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State"

Mr. Draper is also the recipient of the prestigious Climateer Line of the Day Award:

Climateer Line of the Day: Mammary Edition

...Detroit has “lived off this automotive tit long enough.”
-Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson's Tim Draper
as quoted by Forbes' Eric Savitz.