Entrepreneurs often go to great lengths to raise money. Steven Hall will go naked.
Hall, CEO of Raleigh startup TechSys America, said he will survive naked and alone on an uninhabited tropical island for 48 days as part of a $2 million crowdfunding effort for his company. If TechSys reaches its fundraising goal, Hall said he will donate $250,000 of the funds to the Pediatric Brain Tumor foundation.
TechSys is developing what it claims will be the world’s first true, web-based operating system. Codenamed “Frabjulous,” the cloud-based service service – free to the public – will include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools as well as graphic tools, web publishing and communication tools. All of the tools will be accessible from a web-based desktop interface.
The crowdfunding campaign launched on Indiegogo on Dec. 5 and will continue through Feb. 3. There, Hall describes the project and his goals, which include making software and services available to people who currently cannot afford them.
“If they don’t have money to buy the latest systems, you can be sure they have no money to buy expensive software that is vital in todays technologically savvy environment,” Hall said. “These people are increasingly being left behind. The children will be the ones to suffer the most.”
Hall’s “Naked Survival” effort is part of a series of what his company calls Adventure Challenges. These challenges will be filmed in full digital HD and will be available online through its video streaming service, which TechSys says could compete against YouTube. You can watch Hall explain his effort in a YouTube video.
