I’m floating here an idea I started to formulate. It may be silly, sorry about that. Or it may be something that other have done already (so, thank you about it and sorry if I’m duplicating your effort).
Has anybody ever thought of a “social hub” for people that are starting (or thinking of) a startup (a consultancy, a product company, …) that pivots around the Julia ecosystem?
Nothing so full blown as a startup incubator, but something to find a community of people facing the same questions, exchange what worked, what didn’t, encourage each other, …
Does anyone feel the need for it? Am I the only one? Silly idea?
Not at all. Actually pretty awesome. However, please be warned, based on my experience, Julia natural environment seems to be science and research activities. Sometimes you may feel like out of space, almost like out of the comfort zone when talking startups. Also please be advised that it is true that Julia is Open Source, however, at the same time, so called Julia parent is a venture capital backed entity, so I believe one has to be careful not to cross any boundaries that may lead to potential conflicts of interest. However again, I think this might be a great idea, the case is to find a framework, an interesting one.
Yes, you are right about the natural environment. Yet, at the same time, I feel like a lot of the academia is looking with more interest about industry, so that is an interesting niche where to be!
As for JuliaHub, Inc. I’m sure they would be extremely pleased if the industry related adoption of Julia had to increase. There’s enough space for everyone out there
In return to your question, I just sincerely provided you with my point of view based on more than 12 months of participation in the Julia Discourse and the Julia Slack Chanell. I came here extremely empowered, with I do think challenging, science oriented topic, with I believe, top notch potential initial core team, top notch potential advisors and top notch potential initial venture capital investor. I directly contacted probably significantly more than 30 people here and indirectly I guess much more. I was hoping to receive at least one, rather firm preliminary express of interest, you know, like a willingness to participate, to become a team member of again I think an interesting project. It is not that I am disappointed, rather a bit surprised that I still have to do additional attempts to achieve my goal. And I consider myself rather a social person.
As for JuliaHub, Inc., please do not get me wrong, however, I would rather sustain that to make the project outlined by you successful in a sustainable timeframe, it is rather obligatory to be careful and to try not to cross any boundaries that may lead to potential conflicts of interest. At the same time, I fully share your enthusiasm and I do believe that both JuliaHub, Inc. and the General Partners of such prominent financial entities as Dorilton Ventures, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, and HighSage Ventures could potentially welcome your idea with a particular interest. All in all, depending on the maturity of their Limited Partners Agreements and availability of funds for Special Purpose Vehicles they may be particularly willing to pursue synergy focused growth strategies and offer a significant premium to founders who offer a positive net acquisition value.
