now that i have your attention. I’ll clarify. it’s not a startup. It’s federal funds allocated to California to build it’s healthcare exchange portal.
“The state’s exchange, recently named Covered California, has already received nearly $240 million in federal funds to create an online portal where people can shop for insurance.”
Sigh. One thing I can tell you is you don’t need $240M to develop, build and ship a web app in california. I’m guessing about $10M of that is going to development and the other $230 is going to the usual shenanigans. And no, I’m not being cynical, I’m just getting amazed that no one seems to blink an eye when the CA government says there is no money for schools, yet a web site costs 1/4B… to begin… but what do I know, I just build web sites for large companies and have seen executives get RIF’d, over wasting MUCH less than that.
And are we really doing this as one off portals, on a state by state basis, not as a skinnable platform.
Sigh, you know i’m not a hard ass conservative, but when the state comes crying to me for more taxes and then says, well, you see it costs like a 1/4 billion dollars to build a web site, i have to give them the side eye. i just have to. i’ve seen the DMV site. i’m pretty sure an intern did that over the summer for $25K and ‘resume building experience’. Okay, that was cynical.
These are my opinions as of today. I reserve the right to change my mind based on new experiences and information. And that is not flip-flopping because I'm not out here saying what I think you want to hear. I'm saying what I think, as of riiiiiight now. 
aliseya