Yes, and our goal is to pay people as close to Silicon Valley’s salaries as possible, so we can recruit very senior people, knowing that we don’t have equity to offer them. We pay engineers very well.
This alternative approach to creating big tech is remarkable. No investors, non-profit, but also not relying on volunteers, and paying big salaries.
She talks repeatedly about her main job being establishing long-term sustainability through endowments. I know Signal asks users for donations, but I can hardly believe that is their main source of funding (I have to look it up). It probably consists of huge philanthropic donations from very wealthy foundations or people. This isn’t an unicum in tech. Maybe it is at its scale, but foundations like FUTO and projects like Ladybird also exist.
I appreciate Greenberg’s incredulity on whether this model can be extrapolated to other organizations. In a way, living on huge donations, which were somehow originally gained through capitalistic activity, is still being part of a capitalistic system.
I also wonder: is Signal taking any money from governmental institutions? It’s remarkable that the EU Commission is recommending the service to its members. Do they give back in any way?
And, comparing with the current Telegram situation, does Signal cooperate with authorities which point out specific illegal activity by certain users/groups? Or is it really not able to do anything considering that everything is maximally encrypted?
This alternative approach to creating big tech is remarkable. No investors, non-profit, but also not relying on volunteers, and paying big salaries.
She talks repeatedly about her main job being establishing long-term sustainability through endowments. I know Signal asks users for donations, but I can hardly believe that is their main source of funding (I have to look it up). It probably consists of huge philanthropic donations from very wealthy foundations or people. This isn’t an unicum in tech. Maybe it is at its scale, but foundations like FUTO and projects like Ladybird also exist.
I appreciate Greenberg’s incredulity on whether this model can be extrapolated to other organizations. In a way, living on huge donations, which were somehow originally gained through capitalistic activity, is still being part of a capitalistic system.
I also wonder: is Signal taking any money from governmental institutions? It’s remarkable that the EU Commission is recommending the service to its members. Do they give back in any way?
And, comparing with the current Telegram situation, does Signal cooperate with authorities which point out specific illegal activity by certain users/groups? Or is it really not able to do anything considering that everything is maximally encrypted?
I didn’t get these answers from the interview.