The other rCommunity so far is rEnchilada.

About a month ago Jose Contreras, a dear friend, told me about what he and Dr Mike Ybarra wanted to do. It was crazy talk, but I always listen because Jose often turns out not to be so crazy after all. He wanted to help people on probation get started on careers in the technology space, in particular in the area of sales. He wanted to help them shift to a virtuous circle that could keep them out of jail.

He personally went through the experience of being in jail and later turning his life around. I hired him as the first sales person at Nearsoft. Throughout it all, he kept going to school, all the way to an MBA. Now he wanted to create something that would help people get financial wealth in this Valley. I’ve had my ‘aha!’ moment when I realized that I can change my life, and I want other people to have that chance, too.

We are just starting with this, and we already have two paying clients.

We are also thinking of also lining up companies that would be willing to take these folks as paid interns. We had a program at Nearsoft where we took in recent graduates and put them through a six month program, with the last two months working with a client. It has worked fantastically well. Graduates from the program have grown to be superstars.

With rEnchilada we hope that as Sales folks we can enable people to benefit from the Silicon Valley economy. Once we get this smoothed out, we will go after other talents (e.g., artists).