This lines up with our experience running our first Nonlinear Network round. We received ~500 applications, most of which did not apply to other EA funders like the LTFF. Full writeup coming soon.
If you'd like to help out, you can apply to be a funder for our next round in Oct/Nov.
Hi, thanks for saying you liked the idea, and also appreciate the chance to clear up some things here. As a reminder, we’re not making funding decisions. We’re just helping funders and applicants find each other.
Some updates on that thread you might not have seen: the EA Forum moderators investigated and banned two users for creating ~8 fake sockpuppet accounts. This has possibly led to information cascades about things “lots of people are saying.”
Another thing you might not be aware of: the Glassdoor CEO rating of 0% was actually not Emerson (who left in early 2017), but his successor. Emerson’s reviews were actually above average for GlassDoor.
Regardless, I don’t think that this should matter anyway, because we’re just connecting folks with funders because we think it will help the ecosystem.
Yes, some funders are more interested in funding individuals and some are more interested in existing organizations.
If you apply here I'd also recommend applying to the Long Term Future Fund because they're always looking for more good applications.
Nonlinear spoke to dozens of earn-to-givers and a common sentiment was, "I want to fund good AI safety-related projects, but I don't know where to find them." At the same time, applicants don’t know how to find them either. And would-be applicants are often aware of just one or two funders - some think it’s “LTFF or bust” - causing many to give up before they’ve started, demoralized, because fundraising seems too hard.
As a result, we’re trying an experiment to help folks get in front of donors and vice versa. In brief:
Why apply to just one funder when you can apply to dozens?
If you've already applied for EA funding, simply paste your... (read 486 more words →)
I've been trying to stay out of this, but I'm honestly shocked at this claim you're making.
You say:
But this is, just, wildly false? You did not speak to dozens of other people working at Nonlinear.
And Ben himself contradicts you. In Ben's post, he says:
Ben thinks we’ve only had 7 total team members, but we've actually had 21 - extremely far off.
If you "extensively cross-checked the stories," how did Ben get such a basic number so... (read more)