I can't imagine why anybody who is putting their heart into their work would take you up on this offer. It's easy enough to get a cheap place to live (i.e. rent a room) for a while, even in Boston, SF or NYC. Your offer of bandwidth of server space is probably worth $150/month, which is the cost of a cheap physical box somewhere. The other service you're providing is... food. You know, I just don't see any real value in what you'd be providing to people.

And, btw, there's very little that's academic about building startups. If that's how you're thinking of it, I'd suggest getting a bit of experience in this area first.

pg can suggest ideas like this because he can give real advice based on experience, star power, and access to his network. Your heart is surely in the right place, but cheap server space, food and a place to live in Richmond Indiana doesn't quite add up.

From your perspective, have you done the math on this?