Show HN: The Shanti Fund is investing $200 per project in startups

[jordancampbell]

This is cool - well done to you.

Even more than the money, just having someone tell them that their idea isn't terrible will be a great help.

[sbraford]

Hi. Shanti here from The Shanti Fund.

I'll just leave this here for more visibility.

I've always been passionate about startups and working with founders. Wanting to get involved but not having "Angel VC" type of money has been my issue lately, so, I decided to start The Shanti Fund.

I know $200 isn't much (to you and I). But it IS to some people. They may be down on their luck, or they may just live in a part of the world where $200 goes a long way.

I know some might criticize my efforts here, so I'm 100% open to feedback. Please tell mw how I can improve The Shanti Fund. Thanks.

[dollar]

This is either a really funny joke or the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. I really can’t tell which, but I’m hoping for joke.

[sbraford]

I'll accept that it might be "dumb" to you, but it's definitely not a joke.

More than 1.3 billion people live on less than $1.25 per day. Sure most of them will not have computers/Internet access. But $200 USD could mean a lot to some poor community college kid in India, for example.

Or even a struggling, aspiring (or down on their luck) coder in America who doesn't have a cushy software gig.

[jordancampbell]

There will be people for whom this literally decides whether or not they start / keep working on a side project - it's a great idea.

[ozfive]

I'm hoping for a joke as well. $200 for 3% is a scam!

[matt_the_bass]

This is a cool idea.

$200 is probably not that incentivizing to most us/Western European based entrepreneurs. However it may be a big deal in other regions.

Perhaps you might want to consider marketing in geographic locations where you think $200 would make a difference to the entrepreneur.

[cjbenedikt]

Congrats, great idea. Not too dissimilar from Yunus' microloans or his Social Business concept.

[sbraford]

Thanks. I'm actually a huge fan of Muhammad Yunus' microloans program. I've had ~ $400 on a loan rotation at kiva.org for some time now.

[antoinevg]

Nice.

$200 is eight raspberry pi's or a really nice FPGA development board.

Love this idea!

[sbraford]

That would be cool if that's all a project needed to get off the ground.

Also wouldn't be surprised if someone just needed it to buy ramen noodles or hosting for a few months.