You basically plonk a team in Singapore, pay their payroll out of Singapore, and every 3 or 6 months, get reimbursed up to 50% of their base salary. This might be a good way to stretch startups’ existing venture-backed dollars in such tough times.

Does it makes sense? Thoughts guys?

Joe

One book you might be interested in is “Winner Take All: How Competitiveness Shapes the Fate of Nations”. The author tells stories of how the US is losing its competitive edge because our financial system rewards short-term profits, rather than a long-term strategic view on how to maintain long-term global competitiveness.

Basic economic/business theory tells us to outsource parts of the value chain to countries with a competitive advantage in a particular area (i.e. assembly in China) in order to maximize profits. However, if a country is trying to build an industry that is able to thrive long-term and remain competitive, then some of the initial assumptions need to be re-examined.

While the US has already lost the lead for TVs, cellphones, MP3 players, etc., I hope there is an opportunity in the energy technology area for us to learn from past experience.