I’ve been a casual LW fan off and on for a while, probably over a decade (friend introduced me to The Sequences either shortly after or shortly before completion) and this is the first time I’ve heard of Lightcone. A link to your main page might have been useful in addition to (not instead of; the summary is good) the summary. Yes we all know where Google is, but it’s like not stamping a return envelope
We used to just be called the LessWrong team, but then we expanded our operations into more than just LW and changed our name.
Yep! We are a fiscally sponsored project by the Center for Applied Rationality, which is a 501c3 organization in the US.
How much are you asking per individual? I know it’s a broadcast but I still strongly advise organizations on whose boards I sit to include a number anyway. “Whatever you want” is a bad answer. Also if someone asks for $1k “no” sometimes looks like $100, but if I’m willing to give $5k to my local fire department and their top ask is $50 I’m not writing a check for more than $50. (actual situation. After a few years I asked and it turns out they just don’t need more money. Good on them.)
I think $1k seems like a reasonable ask for people who are heavy users of LessWrong and have benefitted a lot from it over the years. Though to keep existing I think some individuals/foundations would definitely have to give a bunch more than that.
Are there any investor incentives? Naming opportunities are fun, raffles maybe aren’t a fit (though I was just talking with a friend about what an hour of EY answering a stupid question would auction for). MIRI’s leaderboard always struck me as cool.
Not currently, though I also like the leaderboard! We do have a physical campus now, and it somehow never occurred to me that we could name rooms or buildings or other structures after people.
My guess is if someone donates $10k+ there is probably an option of having a room or some structure on the campus be named after you or some other name of your choosing.
Up and down. What would you do if your current operating budget doubled? How much of a cut/shortfall is probably game over?
If our operating budget doubled we would probably hire slightly faster, though not enormously so (since I think hiring too fast is a very frequent way for organizations to fail). There are also a lot of projects that I would love to take on that would come with having access to more money. I’ve been wanting to run more AI Alignment events and conferences.
But I think mostly it would lead to us having more runway, which would open us more generically to taking risks, and what exact risks we would take is really very uncertain right now. I didn’t expect to be working on a hotel renovation for the last few months, and I didn’t expect I would be doing a bunch of mechanism design for grantmaking a few years ago.
Are your financials public, and if not could you generate some manner of redacted-as-you-like p&l and balance sheet (and a lot of folks care more than me about cash flow statements. I don’t, in most cases, but that’s a whole other conversation)?
Our expenses for the last year are really very heavily loaded towards renovation and construction (most of which ends up capitalized in the property value on which we have a mortgage on), and looks roughly like this:
Campus renovation
$6,250,000
($3,200,000)
Also includes salaries for 2 core staff plus two contractors for 9 months. This also resulted in around $3,200,000 of assets for Lightcone (in increased property value)
Lightcone Offices & Lighthouses
$2,250,000
Includes salary for 0.5 core staff plus one contractor for 12 months
LessWrong
$1,200,000
Salary for 3 core staff plus one contractor for 12 months as well as hosting costs, equipment, prizes, etc.
Admin, overhead, misc. projects
$800,000
CFAR fiscal sponsorship, some of my salary, legal expenses, books, Palmcone, immigration, etc, office supplies, food, team retreats, etc.
Total
$10,500,000
($3,200,000)
However, this table is pretty misleading, in that it doesn’t amortize our renovation expenses (which I think you want to amortize over something like 5-7 years to get an accurate sense of costs), does not take into account property appreciation, and also is really not very representative of future spending (this was a year of spending heavily supported by FTX, and we’ve made massive cuts to reduce that spending).
Here is a rough breakdown of how I expect us to spend money over the coming year:
Salaries
$1,600,000.00
Core team salaries (9 staff)
Software
$100,000.00
Web-hosting, licenses, etc.
Interest
$1,000,000.00
Mortgage payment for campus
Maintenance + Supplies
$600,000.00
Utilities, taxes, repairs, food, etc.
Renovation
$700,000.00
One-off renovation expenses left
Rental revenue
-$1,000,000.00
Renting space to allied organizations
Total
$3,000,000
And then I expect those expenses to further go down next year, since we won’t have any renovation expenses left, and revenue will have gone up, since we’ll have more of a track record.
Your bullet points are great. Better than half I work with easily
We used to just be called the LessWrong team, but then we expanded our operations into more than just LW and changed our name.
Agree that a link to our website would have still been useful. Just for posterity, here is one: https://www.lightconeinfrastructure.com/
Yep! We are a fiscally sponsored project by the Center for Applied Rationality, which is a 501c3 organization in the US.
I think $1k seems like a reasonable ask for people who are heavy users of LessWrong and have benefitted a lot from it over the years. Though to keep existing I think some individuals/foundations would definitely have to give a bunch more than that.
Not currently, though I also like the leaderboard! We do have a physical campus now, and it somehow never occurred to me that we could name rooms or buildings or other structures after people.
My guess is if someone donates $10k+ there is probably an option of having a room or some structure on the campus be named after you or some other name of your choosing.
If our operating budget doubled we would probably hire slightly faster, though not enormously so (since I think hiring too fast is a very frequent way for organizations to fail). There are also a lot of projects that I would love to take on that would come with having access to more money. I’ve been wanting to run more AI Alignment events and conferences.
But I think mostly it would lead to us having more runway, which would open us more generically to taking risks, and what exact risks we would take is really very uncertain right now. I didn’t expect to be working on a hotel renovation for the last few months, and I didn’t expect I would be doing a bunch of mechanism design for grantmaking a few years ago.
Our expenses for the last year are really very heavily loaded towards renovation and construction (most of which ends up capitalized in the property value on which we have a mortgage on), and looks roughly like this:
Campus renovation
$6,250,000
($3,200,000)
Lightcone Offices & Lighthouses
LessWrong
Admin, overhead, misc. projects
Total
$10,500,000
($3,200,000)
However, this table is pretty misleading, in that it doesn’t amortize our renovation expenses (which I think you want to amortize over something like 5-7 years to get an accurate sense of costs), does not take into account property appreciation, and also is really not very representative of future spending (this was a year of spending heavily supported by FTX, and we’ve made massive cuts to reduce that spending).
See also this comment on my thinking on the economics of a large real estate project like this: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9iDw6ugMPk7pmXuyW/lightcone-infrastructure-lesswrong-is-looking-for-funding?commentId=ZijNLGtN9KAD2i8hi
Here is a rough breakdown of how I expect us to spend money over the coming year:
And then I expect those expenses to further go down next year, since we won’t have any renovation expenses left, and revenue will have gone up, since we’ll have more of a track record.
Thank you!
Thanks, just what I sought and quite timely. I appreciate that.
I’m good for the $1k. I’ll put a check in the mail (swipe fees are the devil) and keep an eye out for future opportunities