Ask HN: I will hack on your startup for a place to sleep | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I will hack on your startup for a place to sleep

12 pointsintx5 comments

Hey HN,

I'm a hacker/CompSci student studying at a top 3 school in CS (easy to guess), and feeling a little adventurous. I don't have much planned this summer other than side-projects and research, and have been rather bored in school. I want to do some real work and build something. I don't need money; I just want to work with smart people. All I need is a place to live (preferably in the bay area). If you think there's a place for me, I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers,

intx

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"I want to do some real work and build something. I don't need money..."

This kind of deal doesn't sound like it would be legal in the U.S.[1] Minimum wage laws apply to interns who are doing "real work" that benefits their employer as opposed to work that's just providing training for the intern (there are exemptions that allow non-profit organizations to have unpaid interns doing "real work"). So the intern would need to be on the payroll, taxes would need to be withheld, etc. (Also, if the intern took direction from the employer on how to do the job, they wouldn't qualify as an independent contractor.)

[1] http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/community-blogs/business-...

Are you currently located in the Bay Area? Here there are things known as "Hacker Hostels" where you basically pay for room and board to be surrounded by other people in a similar situation.

I'm not too keen on what sort of projects or companies have come from staying at one, however. As for price, based on this airbnb listing it's about $1600 a month (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1836165).

There's also this website that you can look at the different rooms on as well: http://chezjj.com/

Someone should make a subreddit for people looking for other hackers to live with.

(I'm in a similar situation)

As am I

If you find yourself saying, "Someone should make a ..." and research concludes that a sufficient solution doesn't already exist, then you should explore the possibility of being that someone. I haven't created one myself, but my impression is that creating a subreddit is quite simple. Give it a try, and see what happens. Good luck if you do!

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