I've though of this as a business. Find a rural place in beautiful surroundings, fit it with a bunch of high quality workstations, a fast internet connection, meeting area, lounge area and small but private sleeping quarters. Fill the fridge with good, healthy food and have someone come in and cook dinner. Breakfast and lunch is self-serve.
I'd market it as a place for get-stuff-done-retreats for entire teams (I thought of the name "CramCamp") rather than the semi-luxury-relaxed setting of traditional conference resorts.
You're in the middle of nowhere, so physical distractions are few, but in nature, so clear-your-mind/10-mins-of-privacy walks are right out the door.
There could be something there, I imagine more than a few companies would pay very generously to trim 7 months from their timeline. Of course the cost of all that white board paint might add up :)
I'm a nerd, I've had my share of overnight music blasting pausing for the occasional ping-pong game pizza eating soda pounding programming sessions. I've even gone several months working > 60 hours a week, but still thats not near the intensity of this. My point is, it sounds like they have all their needs met except for one... for me I have a girl friend to take care of it, what do these guys do?
I've always wanted an office in some beautiful, hilly area, like western Virginia. It would mimic a barn, sit on top of a hill, and have huge doors which would stay open facing the beautiful landscape.
That's pretty much what TrailBehind did. We moved to a house in Lake Tahoe from our small apartment in San Francisco when we started full time development. It's great, rent is half what it would be in San Francisco, and we can hike or ski from our front door when we need a break. The fridge is full of healthy food from Costco, we have to take turns cooking though.
I'd market it as a place for get-stuff-done-retreats for entire teams (I thought of the name "CramCamp") rather than the semi-luxury-relaxed setting of traditional conference resorts.
You're in the middle of nowhere, so physical distractions are few, but in nature, so clear-your-mind/10-mins-of-privacy walks are right out the door.