proposal: Even though I’m hiring you, he said, I’d also like to do some work for you. Stokes wanted to develop open-source software and learn how to code for the cloud.
“I told Dan I’m going to apprentice myself by working on my project even though I’m a paying customer,” Stokes recalled. “I knew how to write and manage an editorial team, and I studied computer engineering in undergrad, but I didn’t know the mechanics of the coding business. We’re living in a time where 50 coders can make a billion-user app. I like making code with people who are good at it, which is why I’m at Collective Idea.”
Morrison explains the arrangement like this: “We put him in over his head on different projects and he survives really well. He’s also helpful on blog posts, and we plan to harness his entrepreneurial mind to work on internal startups. The goal is to do that without hurting our core business.”
After a long career spent mostly in Silicon Valley, Stokes now lives on a ranch outside of Austin, TX. (He works remotely for Collective Idea, though most of the company’s employees are in Michigan.) He said he’s noticed a pipeline of talent between the Bay Area and Texas, partly because it’s getting harder to make a go of the startup life in one of the most expensive regions in the United States. He noticed recently at a neighborhood playgroup that he was surrounded by former San Franciscans.
“People are leaving San Francisco—there’s a big migration happening,” Stokes said. “I was in San Francisco for a long time, but I couldn’t keep engineers. I’d hire someone and they’d trade up immediately. That doesn’t happen so much in the Midwest. There’s been this bubble in Silicon Valley; it’s really crazy right now, and it’s not sustainable.”
So, in other words, a Silicon Valley veteran working for a small software shop in Michigan is not the most off-the-wall idea in the world, even for someone as well-known in the industry as Stokes. And while Collective Idea may not have a cafeteria filled with free, organic food or an on-site masseuse, it does offer some amenities.
“We recently added a small fleet of bicycles for the team to use around town for trips to the lake or restaurants and festivals,” added Brian Ryckbost, Collective Idea’s vice president. “Our employees like the high quality of life and low cost of living. We can work for Silicon Valley startups and still make it to Lake Michigan for the sunset.”
