Returnee co-working houses in Colombo and Kandy, so that the first year is not spent alone

A first step

Find 3 returnees in Colombo or Kandy who work remotely, and ask where they work now and whether they would pay for a desk among others like them. Then rent a room with good internet in a house for one month, invite them and 5 more, and charge a monthly desk fee. How many stay on for the second month is your answer.

Who pays first

A returnee working remotely for an employer abroad, who pays for a desk because working alone at home makes the first year lonely.

What leaves today

Isolated returnees go back abroad with their foreign salaries and skills, and a full shared house is the proof that return can work.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

What the book adds

And a five hundred and first, which is not mine to write: the next five hundred, because this list is the country's.

In the book

• Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
  The first one through pays the whole price
• Ch. SeventeenOne Building
  Sri Lankans abroad given precise roles: sponsor, mentor, introduce

More from cluster 28

• 496A "first year back" service: the accountant, the school, the doctor, the driver, in a monthly fee
• 498A returnee investment fund that takes twenty small stakes in this list, run by returnees
• 499The Sri Lanka House desk that meets the returning professional at the airport with a list of who wants to hire them
• 500A licence-to-practise service for returning professionals: the doctor's, nurse's, engineer's or accountant's foreign qualification recognised at home, paperwork, exams and all, for a fixed fee

All 5 ideas in this cluster