Took a deep dive yesterday comparing a few tagging/classification algorithms to the Google Cloud Natural Language and AWS Comprehend APIs, and I have to say I'm impressed.
I've been searching for the right tool to try to add tagging to a large dataset of charitable data, and while I couldn't find anything off the shelf at Algorithmia, the GUI allows for easy forking and adjustment of existing algorithms. As a primarily front-end developer, never thought machine learning would be this accessible. Great work!
You might be able to pull off the payments side using cryptocurrencies. Check out the CharityCoin directory for Bitcoin addresses: https://github.com/charitycoin/directory. You also might want to check in with the Stellar folks (http://slack.stellar.org/). They're working on some cool international projects dealing with financial inclusion, though there's a good chance you'll have to build the necessary connections to the Stellar network yourself.
@pc - curious if you have plans to integrate ACH into your Checkout product. Seems like an incredibly difficult UX problem, but I'm sure your folks are up to the challenge :)
I agree with others the look and feel can be improved. A great solution to that problem is the open source project JSONResume [0] and its brother-from-another-mother HackMyResume [1].
The exercise of entering your information as structured data may be beneficial in itself (both projects run off a JSON file), as the schema forces you to adopt generally accepted best practices (e.g. each job should contain a short intro summary with a few bullet points to showcase accomplishments/highlights). The primary benefit is it gives you access to dozens of well designed templates, many geared towards recent CS grads.
This is a fantastic idea @trevyn, love it! Reminds me a bit of the Awesome Foundation [0], a community of independent chapters around the world that give $1k to interesting people and projects with absolutely no strings attached. No tax breaks, no catches, some people just want to sponsor cool stuff. Good on you!
Personally though, I've found getting to know a local nonprofit can be most rewarding. In my experience, almost all nonprofits can use a soundboard for general web development...feedback on an agency's statement of work, integrating 3rd party donate buttons, assessing new CMS's, etc. If you have the time to do the work yourself, all the better.
The short story is you're likely looking for a payroll provider that offers an "internationally-based employee" feature, but (correct if I'm wrong payroll SaaS service providers!) I can't think of one that does. A few offer a US-based employer / different state employee offering, but with a foreign employee you need a highly specialized offering. Insurance is a whole other story, but easier...just give them a stipend for their local insurance rates (if any).
This may sound ridiculous, but Basecamp (formerly 37Signals) has likely had this problem in the past/present, so consider just reaching out and asking them. In the past I've contacted [insert name you know here] with a very specific, quick-answer type question a few times and they've been super responsive and awesome.
IMHO, one of the often overlooked use cases for Meteor is rapid-prototyping. If anyone remembers DHH's video 10 years ago demonstrating Rails' scaffolding [0], Meteor is the 2015 version.
As a manager I love seeing people have side projects. I've also learned it's pretty easy to figure out where their priorities lie. So, I think letting them know is generally a good thing, just be prepared to let them know everything if you do.
A direct answer to your question is 'anything is possible these days', but I'd like to leave you with a quick thought:
Stop trying to
>[come] up with a business model for the investors
and really drill in on
>we aggregate quality data
In my experience, the times we focused on what the investors 'might' have wanted we failed. The seven figure seed rounds came when we focused on innovating around [insert secret sauce here].
GroupTalent (https://grouptalent.com/welcome/) used to be circling around a similar pain point (helping co's hire teams of developers that have worked together in the past).
Haven't checked them out in a few years (not sure what to make of their expired SSL cert), but I thought the model was interesting nonetheless.
In my past experience with hiring the first few engineers at tiny startups, I viewed Github profiles valuable for the same reason Facebook, Stripe, et al didn't need product managers for their first [x] years: full-stack developers with product minds are tremendously valuable for startups. An active Github profile is a great way to flush that trait out.
https://github.com/PineappleFund/pineapplefund.github.io