Gallery: INTERVIEW: We Talk to Bluesee...

INHABITAT: Can you briefly tell us what you have in mind for your floating city off the coast of San Francisco?

Max Marty: Many entrepreneurs from all parts of the globe want to come to Silicon Valley to create their tech startups. In the past, this hasn’t been possible because the US visa system was not designed for it. Blueseed is going to change that. We’re creating a visa-free incubator for tech startups. A thousand of the world’s best entrepreneurs will get the chance to develop their ideas in an ecosystem designed for their success. And it’ll be just half an hour from the coastline by daily ferry access.

INHABITAT: Do you have any ideas for a name yet?

Max Marty: The company is named Blueseed, but we haven’t decided on a name for the ship yet. Perhaps we’ll crowdsource this in the near future.

INHABITAT: Paypal’s founder Peter Thiel is committed to helping you fund this project… any sense of how much funding you’re going to need?

Max Marty: Peter is coming in to the 500K USD “seed funding” round that we’re currently raising to do the R&D work needed. The project’s total up front cost will be around 15-35millon USD.

INHABITAT: This new set of concept drawings is being published for the first time today. How close are you to finalizing a design?

Max Marty: There are three options. Leasing an existing vessel, purchasing an existing vessel, and building a new one. The first two options would of course require some retrofitting to suit our needs. Each option has its pros and cons, but I’d say the first two options are far more likely than designing our own vessel. The more existing structures and technologies we can use the better.