Paul Graham is putting his money where his mouth is with the Summer Founders Program. The idea is simple:

The first project is to fund a bunch of new startups this summer. Summer is a good time to start a startup. Robert Morris and I started ours then; Robert was still in grad school, and he probably wouldn't have had time for that initial burst of work during the school year.

We're going to call this project the Summer Founders Program, and it preserves many of the 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.

From Summer Founders Program
Referenced Tue Mar 22 2005 20:14:19 GMT-0700 (MST)

This sounds like a remarkable way to do economic development. I'd love to see someone like FundingUtah put together a pool of money to do this in Utah.

Bonus link: How to Start a Startup