Pints and Pitches

Below are my ideas that I’ve presented at the Pints & Pitches event that the Biz Foundry set up at Red Silo.

Programmer Retreat

The Recurse Center, a self-directed, community-driven educational retreat for programmers in New York City. Essentially, you apply to attend a “batch” and if you’re accepted you spend 6 or 12 weeks diving into whatever field in computing you choose; only paying for living expenses. There are no classes, teachers, or curriculum. This is great for anyone looking to move into a different field of programming or those looking just to learn more and become better programmers.

Cookeville offers a fantastic place to replicate what is being done at the Recurse Center, but in a cost conscious fashion. According to Sperling’s Best Places, the cost of living in Cookeville is 57.3% less.

While the Recurse Center doesn’t publish acceptance statistics, they have a difficult selection process, with 6% of Recursers’ applying more than once. This shows that there is plenty of interest in self-directed, community-driven educational retreats. Providing an alternative to the Recurse Center would open up the possibility for many more people to grow and develop.

Between the general interest among programmers to grow and learn, combined with a vastly different location that is more cost effective, an educational programmer retreat based in Cookeville could provide an opportunity to those who may not want a New York City experience, while increasing tourism and exposure to Cookeville and the Upper Cumberland.

Ralph’s Donuts

Ralph’s Donuts, a Cookeville staple, is currently up for sale for the first time since it’s opening in 1962. Ralph’s is priced at $700,000 with the owners willing to stay on for up to 6 months for a consulting fee. My goal here, is to purchase Ralph’s and turn it into a publicly held, non-profit corporation, in similar fashion as the Green Bay Packers are set up. This allows for Ralph’s to continue on as a Cookeville standard, while operating as a non-profit and returning as much as possible to the community.

To make the sale price of $700,000, the plan is to sell shares of Ralph’s for $25 per share, which would create 28,000 shares. This cost of a share has a low enough price point that children could purchase a share, a share could be easily gifted, or people who may be indifferent to a higher price point may be willing to purchase at shares.

A share would not pay either interest or dividends, nor would it be allowed to be traded or have any protections under securities law. A share could only be sold back to the Ralph’s organization for the value of the share, adjusted for an increase in Ralph’s value. This allows for a share to be a small investment. Share holder benefits are to be determined, but could possibly include a discount on food and merchandise or voting rights.

Cookeville will benefit greatly from a nonprofit, publicly owned Ralph’s donuts as it provides another place of pride for Cookeville and keeps money in the community.

Cookeville Community Wood Shop

Cookeville does not have a rental work space with tools. There is already an AirBnb like service for this, (Book Garage Time)[https://bookgaragetime.com/], but the listings are sparse. With an assortment of tools and some open space, it would be possible to rent out work space and small tools to the Cookeville area. The only other small tool rental center in the area is Livingston Rental Center, which is a 30 minute drive from Cookeville.

Another source of revenue, given a large enough building, would be a lumber storage facility. Many people don’t have enough room at home to hold onto a piece of lumber or an unhewn log; by offering a facility where a member could store and cut their lumber. This would be similar to offering a storage unit, but being able to up-sell a member when it comes time to cut lumber or hew a log.

While the up-front cost of this would be expensive, it would be possible to “ease into” the cost by only purchasing a small assortment of tools for rental until we begin to find a balance between inventory and demand. Adding more expensive items like CNC routers could be slowly added as needed.

While not everyone may be interested in extra space to build a canoe, many people would be interested in a one time rental of tools for a project, like a Dovetail jig or more clamps, rather than buying said tools. Between the two primary sources of revenue, the Cookeville Community Wood Shop would fulfill a void and introduce new people to home improvement and general carpentry.