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Ask HN: Sponsor my travel for Startup School

15 points by abraham ↗ HN
I have been accepted to Startup School (yaaaay!) but I don't have any money for travel (boooo!). So I am looking for someone to sponsor my travel expenses from SEA to SFO. According to http://www.hipmunk.com/startupschool the total cost of the flight will be between $220 and $320.

I have thought of several possible exchanges for the sponsorship but I am open to negotiations.

* Karma and a hug because you are awesome and have everything you need.

* A workday of consulting/contracting from me.

* Time spent coding or contributing to an open source project of your choice.

* An interview for a job at your company.

* A night of hacking on your project.

* A four month subscription to @therealcaro's baked good of the month club.

* Other stuff?...

Please feel free to contact me at 4braham@gmail.com or @abraham. I'm actively looking for a job/startup to co-found, preferably working with a developer community and an API.

30 comments

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gtracy
Do you have a PayPal (or similar) account setup for collecting funds?
abraham
4braham@gmail.com is a working PayPal account.
gtracy
I'm good for $20.

Consider it payment for your work growing the tech community in Madison, WI as well as a down payment for your future evangelism on the behalf of Madison.

Oh, and I wouldn't mind some baked goods!

therealcaro
Since you're nearby, you get a few options of baked goods: fresh baked bread; key lime pie with or without meringue; fabulous old-fashioned gingersnaps; oatmeal raisin and/or chocolate-chip cookies; or chocolate cake with cream cheese or coconut/walnut frosting. Pick one, and we'll coordinate drop-off when it's ready :)
gtracy
I would have pegged a Mainer to make a mean Fluffernutter Pie. :) I'd love the key lime pie (without meringue). Thanks!
abraham
We hippies aren't so into the fluff.
therealcaro
(Although I do have a jar in my cupboard at the moment... Don't tell Mom... :p)

Oddly enough, I didn't know about fluffernutter pie until just a little while ago, reading a cooking blog that's written by a New Englander. Funny what you learn about your heritage when you're no longer in it! In any case, I'll gladly make one for you, if you'd prefer that over the key lime--it'd be a fun challenge :)

ashedryden
I'm sending money to your paypal right now. Thanks for all of the amazing things you've done for the tech community in Milwaukee/Madison :}
therealcaro
You're a little further than @gtracy, so key lime pie is a little too squishy to send... But if you want some home-baked bread or cookies or cupcakes... (Also, I make a mean fruit bread with slices of orange and lemon rind!)
HeyLaughingBoy
Can't you just like, um, get a job?

Seriously, work at McDonald's for a week, mow a few lawns, wash a few windows, pick up dog poop off someone's front walk, rake leaves, etc. It's not hard to make $300 in the US once you decide to get your ass off the couch.

abraham
McDonalds is not going to interview hire and pay me in less then two weeks. No company will. I am looking into odd jobs though.
HeyLaughingBoy
I know; I just threw that out there.

Here's the problem I have with what you're doing. You're going to a Startup conference and asking that someone "sponsor" you. See the mismatch? You're off to learn about starting businesses, but really aren't showing any ambition or entrepreneurial thinking on your own. Someone sponsoring you has no reason to think that it would be a good "investment."

$300 isn't much to make in two weeks. Seriously. Around here you can charge $30/hour easily to scrub toilets/clean houses. I'm sure the rate would be higher in Seattle: just target rich neighborhoods and be polite. I just spent an hour on my riding mower and I'd have paid someone $20 to do the same thing using my equipment and my own gas.

abraham
How is what I'm doing any different then what you are suggesting? Instead of targeting a rich neighborhood I choose the HN community and Instead of lawn mowing I choose web development my current practiced profession.
HeyLaughingBoy
It could just be the way you phrased it, but your initial post came across as "here's this cool thing I want to do, can anyone send me some cash? Oh, BTW, maybe I can do something in return."

I don't know if that's the way you intended it, but it's certainly how I interpreted it.

jonhendry
Take a bus. Or Amtrak. It's not like you're coming from Florida. Or Estonia. Or Australia.
abraham
Greyhound says $230 for a round trip ticket with 48 hours of travel time. Four hours of flight time is hard enough for someone that is 6 foot 5 let alone 48.
jonhendry
Bummer. And there don't seem to be any services like BoltBus or MegaBus who are dirt cheap, offer wifi, and I'd think probably are more comfortable. (One of them was offering $2 fares between Boston and Philadelphia a while back. Right now it's $29. Not quite as far as SEA-SFO, though.)

My bad. As you were.

abraham
I definitely miss MegaBus from when I was in the Midwest.
nostromo
Sorry to be a downer, but you just took the spot of someone who cared enough to think ahead the tiniest amount, and now you can't go? Seems like not a very nice thing to do...
abraham
When I applied I fully expected to be able to go but sometimes things don't go as planned.

If it becomes certain that I won't be able to make it then I will RSVP no and Startup School can invite someone else.

nostromo
That makes sense. Maybe I misread your post as glib when that wasn't your intention.
therealcaro
Wow, people are kinda douche-bag-y. They're like, haha, you're really poor right now, that's hilarious and ALL YOUR FAULT. Funny, how people think they know everything about you after reading a single short post...
raster
Money sent... Thanks again for helping get Web608 off the ground, and taking part in Madison & Milwaukee's tech communities.
yemkay
Sent you $75, Abraham. I'm a big fan of your Twitteroauth library :)
limedaring
Just today I bemoaned the cost of a design conference and random people banded together to help offset the cost for me... so it seems like this is a good time to pay it forward. You should have additional funds in your Paypal account, and see you at Startup School. :)
dacort
Your comment influenced me to chip in a little to help Abraham get there. He's a great hacker and has already made an impact on the Seattle scene.

It took me a while to realize I wanted to build/run a startup - anything I can do, however little, to help somebody else get there faster is a great thing in my eyes.

limedaring
Kind of funny there are responses to the downers, but no thanks to any of the people who responded and helped out. I didn't feel like asking for money was a big deal like the others, but it's also nice to see appreciation (I'm a poor startup founder too :P). Ah well, c'est la vie.