I liked the idea. How long will you keep the offer up?
I'm currently moving to a new place and won't have time to do it right now, but would love to accept the offer in about two months.
Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
91–100 of 395 posts
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#92This is somewhat interesting, but I can always work half the speed and save that $3,000 for marketing on the way to completion of the MVP, get a friend to come along with much less equity to help out.
Then again you want the idea, you want the initial work and piggy back possibly on a billion dollar idea.
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#93I would love to do this... is this real? How would I go about applying?
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
[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.
It's not so much discovering something which would strengthen it, as discovering something which would weaken it.
Since your comments point to a trail which leads to a plausible individual, it is difficult to see a serious legitimate benefit which arises from not claiming to be that person. On the other hand, falsely claiming to be that person would have legal implications.
[Edit] on a meta-level, I believe that a precedent for this type of offer to be made anonymously is a hazard to the HN community.
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the $8k to build it enough to justify a 50-50 split? We're talking about ideas that would otherwise never see the light of day.
You have to question why the idea would never have seen the light of day. If it's strictly because you have a cruddy job that pays minimum wage but you are smart and capable then yeah this would be the kind of opportunity one would be able to take advantage of. If you are like many of the people here, in that we aren't making terribly low amounts of money and can save up then it's not money that's keeping you from yo…
The barrier to launching is rarely money - especially these days - sometimes just having one person pushing you is all it really takes - and it sometimes is worth paying for that let alone being paid.
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#96Wow. 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.
You think coding up the project is the heavy lifting?
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#97I'd personally be much more in favor of a case where you take 25% equity and the builder (or potentially, a builder / marketer team) handles all of the marketing.
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#98I'm uncomfortable with the "At this point, I'll take over ..." bit. I can foresee it becoming a mess if the project becomes successful and there is no chemistry between founder and investor.
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#99Why not just pay someone to code up your own idea and spend your time and money marketing that?
it doesn't have to be perfect to become a successful product. Dan Shapiro has built and sold a couple of products that way and it has worked out well for him. I don't see the value in paying someone a fee (and a minimal one at that) then giving them half the company for a relatively small amount of work.
Also, your email is not in your profile, so if someone wanted to contact you, you are already making that part of the process exponentially harder
Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
#100Why should someone do this instead of a KickStarter?
Kickstarter doesn't accept just any project. They're more crowd oriented whereas a regular investor would look more for business potential than anything else.
To be fair the OP won't pick just any project either... But it seems like he's thinking about just one project and of his personal involvement in it - so it's definitely very different than kickstarter.