1. Action Points
1.1. Develop a one-page manifesto that encompasses the most critical issues facing people and businesses in SV for 2015. The scope should incorporate goals and objectives that can be reasonably dealt with in a 12-month timeframe, and then reviewed for clarity for the following year.
1.1.1. Propose that each participating start-up and business make public all hiring data with regard to gender, age, race, nationality, and compensation.
1.1.1.1. Real-world example re- compensation: Wholefoods Market
1.1.2. Disclose all lobbying efforts, especially by large, multi-national organizations located here.
1.1.3. Disclose all campaign contributions by businesses, founders and CEOs of multi-national organizations.
1.1.4. Propose that all those who sign on to the manifesto agree to opt-out of the current adversarial legal system by agreeing to utilize binding mediation and binding arbitration, in order to level the playing field of financially burdensome litigation, and weed-out those with less than honorable intentions in their business dealings.
1.1.5. Propose the creation of an online community, along with a Yelp-type review site where people and businesses can post profiles, provide reviews, etc.
1.1.6. Propose the development of an annual awards gala for top-performing businesses who demonstrate a compelling track record of adherence to the guiding principles of the manifesto.
1.1.7. Propose the development of a 'giving back' strategy where startups and multi-national conglomerates contribute to a fund that would help address critical issues to our business culture here, including but not limited to the funding of future live events, and contributions to mental health services, homeless services, job training/reskilling, ethical leadership development, collaboration training, etc.
1.1.8. Propose policy revisions at the local and state level that would ease the burden on living here.
1.1.9. Other?
1.2. Require little to no overhead in terms of implementation costs. Seek well-qualified volunteers to help develop a rudimentary framework to get the ball rolling. Seek financial support from individual donations and angel investors who believe in the mission of this effort.
1.3. Maintain a strictly transpartisan approach in order to reach across all business and political ideologies, removing filters and biases against sound analytical decision-making and execution.
1.4. Other?
2. Ideas
2.1. Develop a clear set of metrics to measure progress
2.2. Create self-directed teams to research complex issues, and come up with solutions
2.3. Create demand by involving a high percentage of new and existing startups to sign onto this manifesto as a central operating tenet of their business.
2.4. Propose that businesses that do not sign onto this manifesto and show their involvement and support publicly should be boycotted.
2.5. Create monthly roundtable discussions, brainstorming and collaboration sessions, hackathons, etc., in order to flesh-out new and existing ideas, strategies, etc.
2.6. Other?
3. Major pain points?
3.1. Transportation
3.2. Housing
3.3. Taxation
3.4. Cost of doing business
3.5. Playing field for jobs
3.6. Cost of Living
3.7. Ignorance, elitism and indiffernce
3.8. Too many people in one place
4. Goals
4.1. To create a better sense of transparency and accountability for the way that business is done in Silicon Valley
4.1.1. to help alleviate a greater percentage of identified problems on an annual basis in order to influence quality of life and work issues in SV
4.2. Build momentum through new and existing networks for changing the dialog about living and working in SV.
4.2.1. Leverage the power of new and existing constituencies of stakeholders in order to play from our existing strengths, while seeking to identify and eliminate irrational policies, practices, and trends that are occurring throughout our culture.
4.3. Create a new framework for alternative legal jurisdictions and competitive governance to create leverage against the status quo of government and big business.
4.4. Other?
5. Pertinent Problems to SV entrepreneur community
5.1. Irrational thinking pervades SV culture; conformity to existing norms, biases and elitism all play a role in influencing how business is done here to the benefit of a few, while many others struggle to participate.
5.1.1. Top examples:
5.2. Very little thought is given to trends, norms, biases and ideas that have a detrimental impact on our overall health, including mental health issues.
5.3. Politics is downwind from culture
5.3.1. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
5.3.1.1. Cronyism in local, state, and federal government.