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Steve Blank should stop lamenting and instead invest in Blueseed. Now THAT's hardware.

Blueseed is a visa-free startup community located on a cruise ship 30 minutes from the coast of Silicon Valley, in international waters outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

Instead of going through the effort to work on a ship of Bahamian registry, why not move to the Bahamas?

The value proposition is proximity to Silicon Valley - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley

See http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley. And again, Blueseed will host startups. The project that intended to host coders was Sea Code, http://sea-code.com/

Correct - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#laws and correction - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley

Correct - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#laws and correction - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley

Also, it's one thing to steal someone's wallet on a cruise, knowing you won't see them again, vs. on the ship that's practically the town you both live in.

VCs aren't after "offshore talent". They're looking for high-growth startups. Plus, Blueseed wasn't started by VCs, but by immigrant entrepreneurs (look at the bios of the founders). And please drop the silly argument about "enslaving". If someone doesn't like it on the ship, they leave. Do you realize the amount of press the ship will get? If anyone is in the least unhappy, that would lead to a PR disaster to Blueseed. Slavery? Please.

I should've linked to the Blueseed FAQ in my original post. It answers a lot of the silly counter-arguments (though not those as silly as "Pirates!!!" - When has anyone last seen pirates near California?). To sum up:

• * why not telework/conference call all the time: because that doesn't work for startups in their early stage, and because no investor will invest in a startup without meeting the team in person; also because you can't go to startup events via Skype
• * the whole libertarian red herring - Blueseed has nothing to do with a political system or another. It's an entrepreneurial solution to a very clear problem: the lack of visas for foreign entrepreneurs. AILA (the Association of Immigration Lawyer of America) explains it very clearly in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLCYfhZEFb8#t=3m15s: "There are simply no US visas available for immigrant entrepreneurs"
• * the whole tax haven or lawlessness red herring: Blueseed is JUST LIKE Vancouver, in the sense that Microsoft employees come to Silicon Valley all the time from Vancouver to conduct business, then they fly back. There's nothing radical about Blueseed, other than it being much closer than Vancouver. Also, the entire cruise ship industry has been functioning for years and is a clear precedent that laws do apply on cruise ships, and people don't just go murder each other.
• * International waters are 12, not 200 miles from shore. See UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, article 3.
• * the exploitation red herring: how in the world would you think that Blueseed will be on anything BUT best behavior when everybody on board is online pretty much 24/7, and the entire ship will be in the brightest press spotlight?

Check out the laws section of their FAQ... Laws. So, there will be American Common Law in place. They aren't claiming to be their own country. Actually, it looks like they are primarily saying "We're Googleplex on water. It's cool!". Whether or not that's enough incentive to actually move your living and working quarters there is another matter. It also appears to me that International laws will apply so folks hoping to run illicit activities from there may still find themselves in hot water. I don't think they are trying to get around laws, just provide a cool place to set up shop that would certainly have "fewer" laws.

Quoth the FAQ:

The Blueseed vessel will fly the flag of a country that follows English/American common law and that has reputable judicial systems, such as The Bahamas (English common law) or Marshall Islands (based on American Law).

The national law of whose flag they fly is the one that applies. Instead of going through the effort to work on a ship of Bahamian registry, why not move to the Bahamas?

Of course, a major reason why ships choose these flags of convenience is that, while information wants to be free, workers want to be paid. It's less about escaping the NSA and more about escaping OSHA.

We've done a lot of research about seasickness, and it won't be much of a problem for an accommodation barge of the size we're considering.

If anyone wades through the insightful comments up to this point,

1. Blueseed has an FAQ that answers a lot of concerns
2. Peter Thiel is now onboard

Seasickness is an important concern for the startup entrepreneurs aboard, and it will be vastly mitigated by the size of the Blueseed vessel (190m x 45m in one configuration).

More at http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#seasickness

http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#telepresence

Regrettably, the OP didn't include a link to our FAQ, which would have cleared up many concerns.

We'll be anchored 12 nautical miles (22 km) offshore. The water depth is around 250ft, as can be seen on Google Earth.

For internet connectivity, we'll be using solutions similar to the Ubiquity Solution radios and antennas - range 75km, bandwidth 150Mbps per combo. Satellite backup from Skycasters (6Mbps/1.5Mbps) is only $100/mo as long as your main line is up.

One of the accommodation barges we're thinking of is 190m x 45m.

SwedishChef, given your experience, we're definitely interested in your constructive input. Drop us a line if you'd like at http://blueseed.co/contact-us.html

Regrettably, the OP didn't include a link to our FAQ, which would have cleared up many concerns.

We'll be anchored 12 nautical miles (22 km) offshore. The water depth is around 250ft, as can be seen on Google Earth.

For internet connectivity, we'll be using solutions similar to the Ubiquity Solution radios and antennas - range 75km, bandwidth 150Mbps per combo. Satellite backup from Skycasters (6Mbps/1.5Mbps) is only $100/mo as long as your main line is up.

One of the accommodation barges we're thinking of is 190m x 45m.

SwedishChef, given your experience, we're definitely interested in your constructive input. Drop us a line if you'd like at http://blueseed.co/contact-us.html

Thank you for this comment. Yes, we wish the OP linked to our FAQ.

http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#seasickness - our barge will be 500ft or longer, hence quite stable. We've looked at several accommodation barges that have performed very well in worse conditions.

Please see http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#seasickness. The size of the barge we have in mind will be quite stable most of the year. In case of extreme storms, force majeure permits the vessel to come to store and preserve the jurisdiction of the open registry country whose flag we'll fly.

"Why not telecommute" is a good question, which we address in our FAQ - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley, http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#telepresence

Incidentally, since you mention Vancouver,

In November 2011, ABC News reported on the story of Amit Aharoni, an Israeli startup entrepreneur who, after creating 9 American jobs, received a letter from the US Citizenship and Immigration Serice (USCIS) denying his visa request and notifying him to leave the country immediately. Aharoni left for Vancouver and tried to run his company (an online cruise booking service) remotely via Skype. That didn't quite work out, so he set to work on making his story public. After ABC World News picked up the story, USCIS reversed their decision within 24 hours. The moral is that running a startup remotely can be big enough of a pain to warrant mounting a media campaign, and that unless they manage to attract massive media attention, a startup entrepreneur without a valid visa may have to relocate their operations outside of the U.S.

"Why not telecommute" is a good question, which we address in our FAQ - http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#silicon_valley, http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html#telepresence

Incidentally, since you mention Vancouver,

In November 2011, ABC News reported on the story of Amit Aharoni, an Israeli startup entrepreneur who, after creating 9 American jobs, received a letter from the US Citizenship and Immigration Serice (USCIS) denying his visa request and notifying him to leave the country immediately. Aharoni left for Vancouver and tried to run his company (an online cruise booking service) remotely via Skype. That didn't quite work out, so he set to work on making his story public. After ABC World News picked up the story, USCIS reversed their decision within 24 hours. The moral is that running a startup remotely can be big enough of a pain to warrant mounting a media campaign, and that unless they manage to attract massive media attention, a startup entrepreneur without a valid visa may have to relocate their operations outside of the U.S.

http://www.blueseed.co/

Now let's see if we can flood it :-)

Exactly. And there's a commercial seasteading venture (looks like a spinoff from the seasteading institute) that wants to do just that: Blueseed.