At one point in time I was the person writing these emails. Now, I'm the person getting these emails.
It is hard to be an entrepreneur when you can't make things. If you're good at selling, you still need something to sell.
Dear Programmer, I have an idea
11–20 of 143 posts
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#12I don't think I've ever received the kind of email the poster is talking about. Is there something wrong with me? Edit: I do get a reasonable number of cold(ish) recruitment emails, but they mostly seem to be for real jobs. I'm not seriously worried about not receiving lame proposals, although I appreciate the sympathetic thoughts :-)
Well, even the "create a wordpress blog for $100" kind of programmers get this kind of mails these days.
Don't dishearten him. I think this is more location based. As someone in Tel Aviv I get a lot of these. Friends in less "Startupy" regions in Israel don't.
To be more general - these "founders" know they have a bigger chance to find a technical-co-founder (I'm using that very liberally) is in a place with lots of programmers.
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, even the "create a wordpress blog for $100" kind of programmers get this kind of mails these days.
Don't dishearten him. I think this is more location based. As someone in Tel Aviv I get a lot of these. Friends in less "Startupy" regions in Israel don't. To be more general - these "founders" know they have a bigger chance to find a technical-co-founder (I'm using that very liberally) is in a place with lots of programmers.
actually i was refering to entrepreneurs, not programmers. some of them think "important thing is founding the idea, any programmer can code it".
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#14I don't think I've ever received the kind of email the poster is talking about. Is there something wrong with me? Edit: I do get a reasonable number of cold(ish) recruitment emails, but they mostly seem to be for real jobs. I'm not seriously worried about not receiving lame proposals, although I appreciate the sympathetic thoughts :-)
That just means you're not hanging where the cool kids are. Then again, judging by the quality of most things on github it is probably better. You may catch a GTD (Git Transmitted Disease).
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#15Mostly, I want to hear that they know that their idea is not the end of their contribution -- that they are going to spend as much time as I spend on technical things getting market validation, building traction, creating content, acceptance testing etc.
Usually, I get the sense from these kind of emails that they think the idea is so great, that just by itself, it's more valuable than the time you will spend implementing it (or even comparable).
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#16I don't think I've ever received the kind of email the poster is talking about. Is there something wrong with me? Edit: I do get a reasonable number of cold(ish) recruitment emails, but they mostly seem to be for real jobs. I'm not seriously worried about not receiving lame proposals, although I appreciate the sympathetic thoughts :-)
I too have never received this kind of email, though have been asked about it.
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#17Incidentally, i had a discussion with a colleague(non techie) of mine, who wanted to learn programming so that he could make apps and earn money. People actually think if they learn programming or have an app out there in the market will get rich. At least this has been the reason I have seen quite a few people drifting towards programming, they see it as a shortcut to realize their million dollar dream overnight. Bu…
Honestly, someone's willingness to learn programming just to implement their idea (if they stick with it) would be a huge positive to me. It is the people that think 99% of the work is having an idea that dishearten me. "Oh, if you implement my idea I will let you have 10% of the profit." Great...
"Yep, the only reason I'm not rich is that I couldn't think of the idea for a social photo gallery for cat pictures. I am just not creative enough to think of such amazing ideas."
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#18I don't think I've ever received the kind of email the poster is talking about. Is there something wrong with me? Edit: I do get a reasonable number of cold(ish) recruitment emails, but they mostly seem to be for real jobs. I'm not seriously worried about not receiving lame proposals, although I appreciate the sympathetic thoughts :-)
I get them, but not on a weekly basis. Possibly 3 per month, usually not phrased explicitly like that. But I'm not in the Valley and not that well-known. (If you're outside of California, it cuts the number you get in half, at least.) It's becoming a star economy where if everyone knows you're a 6, you're golden. But there are 7s and 8s and 9s out there who few people know about. In New York, you find a lot of them doing high-frequency trading in quant funds.
Cold-calls don't mean much and you shouldn't take a lack of them to be indicative, especially if you're far away from that scene. Hot girls get a lot of mail on dating sites but it doesn't make their lives easier. Same principle.
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#19I hate that font, unreadable.
There's a lot of blogs with bad fonts that show up on HN. Readability chrome extension is my savior (no affiliation)
Re: Dear Programmer, I have an idea
#20[deleted]