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Initial thoughts: not disruptive enough to justify the extremely low valuation. How are you different from a reputable angel investor, who also brings connections? $5000 lasts about a month in NYC or the Bay Area. I like the ambition (of disrupting the funding process) but, in all honesty, to me this sounds like "I just need an idea guy" (as opposed to "I just need a programmer").
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[thread flagged] To me, this is a red flag. The offer is set before the entire HN community. It has substantial financial and legal implications. You are competing with YC. Your track record is relevant to the ranking of this thread on HN.
Fair enough. I can see where you are coming from, although even if you found out my real identity (which might be possible if you look carefully enough through my history of comments), you would not find anything that would substantially strengthen the proposition. I'm no one special... just a techie with some moderate success who wants to help launch some cool new products.
Apart from that I think its a brilliant idea!
Wow. I'd rather go on fucking Shark Tank. If someone is willing to take $5,000 to do the heavy lifting up front (therein taking most of the risk) for only 50% equity, their idea is either terrible or they aren't committed to seeing it through.
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Or they live in a second/third world country, or they're a student, or...
$ 8000 is 1-2 months salary for a top developer in Brazil, depending on experience. To work on a side-project you're trying to get off the ground, it's fair.
Let me put it this way - if someone with money offered me 8K total for 50% of my side project, and that was it, I'd say no way.
If someone with talent, motivation, and a remarkable ability to get things done offered me nothing other than his or her dedication to making my side project a success in exchange for 50%, I might say yes.
So it isn't really about the 8k. Here's the thing. Suppose you're one of those highly motivated and effective people, but you know yourself and you just aren't the creative force behind a project. You know that there are lots of creative programmers who would produce an app if they could just get away and be funded for month or so. So you offer some money. Instead of finding prototypes and looking for one to fund and support, you're finding programmers and looking for one to produce a prototype. Instead of looking to join an early startup, you're offering a small amount of money to create a startup to join.
Maybe one way to modify this would be to say - if I pass, you keep the money and your prototype, and I give up on my share (or it is greatly reduced). If I decide your app is the one I want to run with, we are now 50-50 partners in the venture.