I work at another company in the building in question. Several of my coworkers have been in the elevator at the same time he has.

I can't wait to get my chance so I can ask him if computers are going to be chewy in the future.

You know, it's a perfect time for an elevator pitch too ;)

There's no way I could bring myself to do that. Between that, "My grandson is SO SMART he built his own computer from SCRATCH! You should hire him!" and "My niece is having open heart surgery and my cousin just lost her job" stories, I refuse to believe he doesn't take medicine to keep from falling asleep when people talk about spending his money.

Alternate answer: it might be nice to hear someone's pitch who isn't full of shit.

Best case: Funded with tons of money. Worst case: Someone who isn't going to give you tons of money is annoyed for thirty seconds.

Opportunity knocks. Your choice whether to answer the door.

Starts driving out other think tanks by bundling thoughts with Windows.

Idea Vista

There needs to be a term for the kind of agenda-less company founded by those with nothing to prove and no personal need for enrichment. "Sandbox corporation?"

'agenda-less' might not be a good description, but I see what you mean.

I'm not sure what a good term might be, but some good short descriptions might be 'altruistic endeavor' or 'pursuit of passion'.

Altruistic? He's got the Foundation for that.

Personally, I like the "Sandbox" notion (but maybe that's because I recently set up a company like that for myself, and hadn't thought of that term to describe it....)

Fascinating... I'm definitely interested in seeing what comes out of that "think tank." I also agree with the "Sandbox Corporation" classification... maybe shortened to "Sand Corp" or just "Sandy"....

Personally, I think its likely to turn into something like an incubator for businesses that are in Gate's area of interest (such as those areas the Gates Foundation focuses on, only for-profit). Then again, maybe I'm just hoping... =P

I'm hoping for a giant crime-fighting metal rocket suit.

/cue Black Sabbath

Ever have one of those moments where you thought "wouldn't it be cool if someone made/built/offered X?" bgC3 is where Bill Gates can do a brain dump of all his ideas and have some smart people try and make them.

Has this ever worked? I'm not being facetious - I just can't think of any good examples where one "idea person" has dumped ideas on a bunch of smart people and good things have come out of it.

Nathan Myhrvold and Intellectual Ventures? Not sure if that's quite what you're looking for, but it's the first thing that came to mind. It's not exactly "good" in a "for mankind" kind of sense, but apparently it makes boatloads of money.

I'd be curious to hear how things are developed at Apple. For instance, is Jobs an idea guy or more of a gatekeeper ("this sucks, do it better")?

The lightbulb I think.

Gates will try to apply his new start-up on the next YC event... Well, I can say it won't be easy!

If the bg stands for Mr. Gates, any idea what the C3 represents?

If you read the article. It says.

Half of a Protocol Droid?

"Catalyst three"? It sound more like an acronym for "Command and Control Center".

seems like gates is gearing up to take advantage of some of those Obama tax credits.