Posted on 02/25/2013 6:27:47 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Start-up mania hits San Quentin prison as inmates turn entrepreneurs
One by one, the entrepreneurs, clad in crisp blue jeans and armed with PowerPoint presentations, stood before a roomful of investors and tech bloggers to explain their dreams of changing the world.
For these exuberant times in Silicon Valley, the scene was familiar; the setting, less so.
With the young and ambitious flocking again to northern California to launch Internet companies, there were signs one recent morning that start-up mania has taken hold even behind the faded granite walls of California's most notorious prison.
'Live stream has gone mainstream. Mobile video usage went up and is expected to increase by 28 per cent over the next five years,' said Eddie Griffin, who was pitching a music streaming concept called 'At the Club'.
He happens to be finishing a third stint for drug possession at San Quentin State Prison, near San Francisco, after spending the last 15 years behind bars.
Griffin was one of seven San Quentin inmates who presented start-up proposals on 'Demo Day' as part of the Last Mile program, an entrepreneurship course modeled on start-up incubators that take in batches of young companies and provide them courses, informal advice and the seed investments to grow.
According to business news website Xconomy, incubator programs - which it tracks - have tripled in number for each of the past three years, proliferating from Sao Paulo to Stockholm at a pace that has fueled talk in tech circles of an 'incubator bubble'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Go figure. California universities are turning out communist criminals and the state prisons now turn out entrepreneurs.
So ... should I encourage my kids to enroll at Corcoran State Prison?!?
I welcome these programs. Anything that breaks recidivism and teaches men to contribute to society is a positive development.
Not every criminal is going to change their ways but those who are willing to do so - it gives them a second chance. With what the taxpayers spend to lock up people, they should get some return on their investment.
Its seems to me here is a clear path to doing that in California’s prisons.
I suppose that I agree with you.
The point is that all of the rest of Kalifornia seems opposed to entrepreneurship ... I find this very ironic.
Yep. Gotta make the best of a bad situation.
When I was a paint room foreman, almost my entire crew were non violent offenders from a halfway house and they were the best damn crew in the shop. I hammered pride into them daily. I saw the car thief a while back and he’s doing good with a family, buying a house etc.
I think there are maybe 10,000 jokes in this story —they will write themselves.
Strange, I can’t seem to put my finger on just why this makes me nervous.
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