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by verdverm 107 days ago
There are many existing projects like this, I'm not going to pick the one started by a former VC

Ask if those have not changed things, why would a VC run thing make things better? The last 2 decades have shown us what VC centeredness has brought us
3 comments
dewey 107 days ago
Can you point out some existing ones with traction? I'm looking more at the list of people who are on board with it ("Trusted by open source creators" section) than who is actually running it, which I think is more important to get buy in than whoever is pulling admin strings in the back.
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verdverm 107 days ago
> Can you point out some existing ones with traction?

That's kind of the point, there are none. The question is why? If people cannot even click a button to support when it's right there...

I don't think people coming out of the VC world are going to fix it, call me cynical if you like

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dewey 107 days ago
You said: "There are many existing projects like this", directly followed by "That's kind of the point, there are none." when asked for an example. Which one is it?

It's seems like a pretty thankless fundraising job but one where having connections to companies, banks and experience with distributing funds comes in handy. What's in it for a VC? I'd assume incoming deal flow and connections to new open source companies.

Seems more promising to me than a technical open source maintainer stepping up to do it on the side. But time will tell.

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verdverm 107 days ago
there are many existing, none with meaningful traction

it looks like there are no direct connections, they are investing, taking fees, and distributing the leftovers

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whit537 107 days ago
Former VC!?

KV ... you gonna take that lying down? :P

> There are many existing projects like this

Also please link, we're not aware of any other endowments exclusively focused on Open Source.

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verdverm 107 days ago
Look at OP's profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kvinogradov

https://runacap.com/

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kvinogradov 107 days ago
Not the former VC, but an active venture capitalist: https://kvinogradov.com. I earn money by investing in open source / AI / infra software startups, and I spend money by donating to nonprofit open source projects :-)

Also, it is not a VC who run things, but the team which consists of people with diverse backgrounds (founders/executives/devs x OSS/nonprofit) and the donor community (which everybody can join): https://endowment.dev/community/

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verdverm 107 days ago
It's the VC "class", similar to the Epstein Class, nowhere near as bad or vile, but have definitely been one of the primary reasons the wealth gap and inequality have risen and continue to rise
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dewey 107 days ago
With your strong feelings against VC, I hope you are aware that HN is the message board of one of the leading VC firms?

> but have definitely been one of the primary reasons the wealth gap and inequality have risen and continue to rise

That's a pretty big leap you are doing there.

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verdverm 107 days ago
You can click my handle to see I've been a part of the HN community longer than yourself, I'm fully aware of the many associations

I have /rant'd on YC and the dilution of help to their startups after they stopped heeding their own advice to "do things that don't scale"

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whit537 107 days ago
> I've been a part of the HN community longer than

Dang, got me beat, too. :) gg

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verdverm 107 days ago
It's not a competition, but it is faux pax for GGP to make the comment the way they did. I would hope you all would know that having been here more than a decade
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