[kFW] Company formation and funding...

[Daniel Harris <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

So, picking up from before the lists went down... I'm going to set up a 
company, a foundation/structure on which to build Kendra Initiative: Kendra 
Foundation or KI Foundation or something like that. It'll be non-profit. 
I'll hire a small team (preferably <5) to keep things moving on and provide 
infrastructure to facilitate interested parties to come together as Kendra 
Initiative to build the Kendra system. So, really, nothing has changed in 
terms of the intent - we always planned this - see:
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-framework/msg00001.html
In fact that's all I've been trying to do is facilitate the building 
process. My thinking behind having Kendra Foundation a distinct entity from 
Kendra Initiative is so that people don't get confused about what's going 
on and how they can fit in.

It's become obvious that one can't sustain a project like this on favours. 
There's just no consistency. One can't really push volunteers. The core 
administration team has to be employed and the webhosting and support have 
to be paid for. The boring stuff (like maintaining the email lists and 
providing design tools) has to get done. I know you all saw this and told 
me many times but, I guess, now I feel the time is right for me to put 
effort into this side of Kendra, or at least, to be ready for Autumn (can't 
get too busy when the sun is shining, eh?!), which means we've got to start 
thinking about it now.

I must admit another reason I delayed is that I hoped some kind sole would 
arrive and take over the boring part of setting up a company and getting in 
funding or helping out with the organisational side of things in some way. 
There were germinations here and there but they must have been swayed by 
the bright lights of real employment. No worries. I'm quite looking forward 
to it, actually. Or perhaps that kind sole will come running to my rescue 
now - I can dream, can't I? ;-)

More and more I'm seeing signs that there is money available from the UK 
and EU to push broadband - I'm confident of being able to grab some of this 
for Kendra Foundation. I'm sure there's money in the US too. So, over the 
next few months I'm going to be finding out about non-profit companies and 
talking to potential funders (in UK, EU and US for starters). If anybody 
has any understanding of this area then please speak up. Obviously, we'll 
need to choose which solicitors and bank (first choice: The Co-operative 
Bank) to use. Also, if anybody has advice on obtaining funding (even seed 
stuff) then please yelp. Hopefully, all of this wont turn me into a money 
crazed, power hungry, control freak - whooops! Too late! ;-)

We need to find out what kind of organisation we need to set up and this 
mainly comes down to what the funders require. What kind of proposals / 
business plans do they need to see before they hand over cash? Also, 
looking at other non-profit companies would be a good way to go. So far my 
hit list looks like:

Apache Software Foundation http://www.apache.org
Nominet http://www.nominet.org.uk
Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF) http://www.bcdforum.org
International Webcasting Association - Europe http://www.webcasters.org.uk
Free Software Foundation (GNU) http://www.gnu.org
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) http://www.ietf.org
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org

So, that's who I'll hit initially. If you have any other ideas or can spare 
a bit of time to share the investigation then cool. We have contacts from 
the DTI but EU and US contacts will also be needed - so cough up.

A good way to go forward? As always, please comment!

Cheers Daniel