(From Crash Test Dummies “Superman's Song”)

Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
…

Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank
In the United States, he had the strength, but he would not
Folks said his family were all dead
Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself
To carry on, forget Krypton, and keep going

Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes
I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back
On man, join Tarzan in the forest
But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes
In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through
And nothing to do but go on home

I think we should have launched it at one of our monthy hacker nights, where we get the community together to work on projects (or at a BarCamp or Startup Weekend we host).

It can be done well, and it can be done poorly.

We will put extra attention to make it quality. And do a good job highlighting the great people that come out for the summer. Boulder rocks in the summer.

2-3 hours a day working for one of ten startups you find interesting doesn't sound like the slave labor to me.

If you want to hang out TechStars, work for early, early stage startups, see all the mentor sessions, perhaps sit in some meetings and work on the most exciting parts of a startup, HackSpace is for you. You have office space to do a full work day of contract work. This while getting better, with a low risk situation.

Spec= motivating many with a chance of a monetary prize to get them to do custom work.
Internship= goal of learning. Give and get.

Most of the startups that HackStars are working with are raising money at the end of the summer, and the first thing they will likely look to do is hire more technical talent. Guess who would be first in line?

I know, like you said, they get nothing.

I think there is a balance. I worked with a founder last year that underpaid himself so much that is stressed his relationship out, slowed productivity, and almost folded his company. Upping his pay actually extended his runway.

I'm with you on sweat equity. There is a balance. If we are asking for 2 hours a day of you working on a team, we should make sure there is a ton of value for the other 10 hours the office is active.

I will do my best to reach out to folks that have applied or are thinking about applying and know we will work hard to make it a kick ass experience.