Blueseed
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| Private | |
| Genre | Startup incubator |
| Founded | July 31, 2011 (incorporated March 29, 2012 as Blueseed, Inc.) |
| Founder | |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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3 |
| Website | blueseed |
Blueseed is a Silicon Valley-based startup company and a seasteading venture to create a startup community located on a vessel stationed in international waters near the coast of Silicon Valley in the United States. The intended location (outside the territorial seas of the United States, 12 nautical miles from the coast of California, in the so-called “contiguous zone”) would enable non-U.S. startup entrepreneurs to work on their ventures without the need for a US work visa (H1B), while living in proximity to Silicon Valley and using relatively easier to obtain business and tourism visas (B1/B2) to travel to the mainland. After the conclusion of their incubation on the vessel, successful startups may relocate to Silicon Valley and employ local workforce. The project received wide media coverage and the promise of funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who also supports The Seasteading Institute, who ultimately did not invest in the seed round. Blueseed later obtained US$300,000 in seed funding,Bitcoin investments, and $9M from an undisclosed investor and planned to lease a ship for its platform. Launch was planned for summer 2014, provided that $18M more was raised.
Blueseed is now on hold due to insufficient funding and the founders are working on different projects.
Blueseed was co-founded in July 2011 by Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija, who had worked together at The Seasteading Institute as Directors of Business Strategy and Legal Strategy, respectively. Blueseed's CIO/CTO (later COO), Dan Dascalescu, who joined the company shortly after its incorporation, is also an ambassador for the Seasteading Institute.
The stated motivations of the project include providing an entrepreneurial alternative to the Startup Visa Act, which has not seen any progress in Congress, and creating "a vibrant workplace for innovative industries to bloom, unencumbered by onerous regulations on new technology-sector businesses". On November 30, 2011, venture capitalist Peter Thiel offered to lead Blueseed's seed financing round. The number of startups that expressed interest in locating on Blueseed grew from 31 on November 14, 2011, to 60 a month later, to over 100 by February 2012, 133 on May 7, 194 as of May 9, more than 250 as of June 6, and 336 on December 13, 2012.
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