
Young Minority MIT Grad Needs a Laptop to Code, can We Help Him? - pain_perdu
I recently spoke to a young African-American MIT grad who moved out to Silicon Valley a couple weeks ago to work on his startup in an (unfunded) incubator program.  Unfortunately, his machine is on its last legs and he&#x27;s unable to get another one at the moment.<p>I thought I&#x27;d reach out to the HN community to ask for any creative solutions to help this young man out.  Some of the other incubator members started a GoFundMe for him (email me for URL) but I&#x27;m not sure that&#x27;s the most direct approach for solving the problem.<p>Do you have any suggestions as to how we can get this young man a machine to continue his journey as a young entrepreneur?<p>Desired Specs: &quot;Any decent development machine. Preferably 8gb RAM and MacOS or Linux.&quot;<p>Note: This story can be verified with a well-known VC and other reputable folks around Silicon Valley, just ping me for details.
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godot
Just wanted to make some suggestions for ideas and not meant to critique --
one can get a fairly good laptop for coding nowadays at a fairly low price;
just don't stick with a Mac like what everyone thinks you have to. (which
costs $1000+)

I just randomly opened woot.com's laptop section
([https://www.woot.com/category/computers/laptops](https://www.woot.com/category/computers/laptops))
and there are already a few laptops under $300 with 8GB ram. If he really
dislikes Windows, he can install Linux on it like you said. (though Win10 is
pretty good nowadays with WSL) Can said well-known VC shell out $300 to buy
him one of these?

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pain_perdu
Thanks! This is a good tip.

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brudgers
Ebay, e.g. [http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-
ThinkPad-X220-Core-i5-2-5Ghz-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-
ThinkPad-X220-Core-i5-2-5Ghz-4GB-320GB-Webcam-
Windows-7-Pro-12-5-Laptop-/401180956323?hash=item5d683f96a3:g:YIwAAOSwMgdXyGKB)

With
[http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/thinkpad-x220/CT2294772](http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/thinkpad-x220/CT2294772)

Less than a business lunch for a well-known VC.

Good luck.

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pain_perdu
thanks!

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brudgers
An option in the Bay area, [http://www.crc.org/](http://www.crc.org/)

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bluedodger1212
Why is he starting a company and moving to Silicon Valley with no money?

Why did you have to indicate him as an African-American?

What does being a minority have to do with doing something so irresponsible?

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pain_perdu
I can't speak to his exact reasons for starting a company and moving here with
little money other than there was an opportunity to participate in this
incubator program.

I feel that silicon valley lacks racial diversity, particularly amongst
founders. If there is an opportunity to support under-represented groups I
thought it was worth mentioning.

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threesixandnine
Sory but this looks like the ad for the man more than shout for help.

And this : This story can be verified with a well-known VC and other reputable
folks around Silicon Valley, just ping me for details.

I am sure well-known VC can scratch 300 bucks for a few years old Thinkpad
that can serve the MIT grad for a year or two until the advertised startup
picks up and gets funded.

Call me a cynic...

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pain_perdu
Not quite sure what you mean by 'an ad for the man' but that doesn't strike me
as particularly accurate.

I heard about this young fellow who needs a laptop and so I made a post, there
are no ulterior motives here, just trying to help.

And yes, the VC is a billionaire would certainly could afford a machine but
that offer has yet to be made so here we are.

