Ask HN: Should I start a software foundation (goal: help emergency services)?
by strgcmc | 2025-12-17 23:58:04+00:00
I've been on a business trip this week, and sitting on the plane, I was randomly browsing NYT and read this article which really REALLY pissed me off: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/fire-department-software-private-equity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8k8.yzeR.NwSK3PTQeXQj&smid=nytcore-android-share

TLDR: Private equity is buying up all these software vendors, and preying upon vulnerable fire departments; one rural department with a total budget of $130k/yr saw their software costs go up 3x in one year (from $4k/yr to $12k/yr).

I want to do something. I have not worked in the emergency services domain before, so I know that I am naive. I do have experience with oncall and mission-critical software maintenance and highly available/durable services, but when I say mission critical I mean millions-of-dollars at risk, not human lives.

I want to solicit HN for very early directional advice, of any and all kinds.

- Are there some existing open source projects or foundations with a mission like this, to serve and protect critical services like emergency response?

- Is it feasible to build incrementally, i.e. ship small components of incremental value, and would fire departments be open to trying an open source option?

- Are there things like certifications or regulatory hurdles, that might be expensive to get?

- Does anyone randomly happen to have experience in this industry, and would be willing to write up their perspective?

My early initial thesis is something like this: I personally cannot stomach the idea of simply passively "letting" private equity invade this aspect of society, to hold emergency services departments and by extension taxpayers hostage. They are essentially extorting and exploiting society's inelastic demand for emergency fucking services. So I don't care about making profit, I only care about actually solving the needs of the emergency departments and of protecting human life (knowing that I am naive still, I definitely do not want to overpromise and put lives at risk). But my personal feelings aside, I do think there is a useful insight here: if useful software can be made reliably and cheaply, by engineers motivated to help their communities instead of profit (or just to poke private equity in the eye), then ultimately private equity cannot compete against an adversary that doesn't care about profit -- we actually CAN WIN, because eventually they will give up and exit these industries if they see that there is no profit to squeeze.

I am looking for like-minded builders. I seriously think the software foundation could simply be a vehicle for early-retirement rich FIREd ex-techies, to add some new purpose in their lives, by using their skills to solve a targeted and well-scoped set of problems.

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world [NOT] burn [because the fire departments should have cheap reliable emergency services software]." -- Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight

"Beware the fury of a patient man." -- John Dryden

I am a patient man, with a newly gained cold fury. I am willing to write code. Or organize a software foundation. Or be an investor/funder for someone else to write the software. Or whatever form of help I can give.

Appreciate any and all help or feedback (positive or negative)!