Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 395 posts

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#291

Post by crucialfelix »

robomartin wrote: post #217

OK, I'll put something concrete on the table to get away from the hypothetical. Here's one of my MVP's (yes folks, I am working on more than one idea at a time): http://www.tommyteaches.com/ Go on, check it out and come back. This is actually a finished product. There's nothing new to build at this stage except for additional installments of Tommy Teaches apps (additional subjects) and a few that will require slightl…

Some feedback: very very very wordy ! I would not explain how it works (GA) but show some examples right away.

Your audience is the parent and they are viewing on behalf of their child. So they want to have an immediate experience of how their child is going to shortly learn and have fun. Need to get them to feel the game right away. Their brain is going to be in "playing with child mode" during the time they are shopping.

So you could use somebody who really gets this kind of communication and sculpting down the landing pages and text (much shorter !) and so on. That's real marketing : not just pestering blogs or magazines. Its communication, an intrinsic part of the product itself.

> I am more than willing to consider a partner for Tommy Teaches. However, this partner needs to bring to the table a really convincing value proposition that goes beyond money.

Totally agree. Would any of us hire a programmer without anything more than "I'm a programmer !" ? A successful product is not just an idea and an implementation.

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#292

Post by damian2000 »

Why not save up the $8000 yourself. Take leave (without pay) from your day job and pay yourself a regular wage from that $5000. Work on your MVP for two months. When you're done, use the remaining $3000 to crowdsource some beta testers, get feedback and start some initial marketing to gain customers. Who needs the OP?

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#294

Post by greghinch »

r0s wrote: post #266
zbruhnke wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vesting means that each owners shares of the company will be given to them over time so right off the bat neither of the people own an outright 50% stake. for example a common scenario is a Four year vesting with a one year cliff, acceleration up any sale or liquidation event. What this means in every day terms is that you own more shares each month you work, but if you leave before a year is up you own nothing. So i…

Thanks for the explanation, I've got a couple questions: Say two founders begin a vested company and one drops out, does total ownership transfer to the other founder? If BOTH drop out, how are assets divided? Lastly, it seems that the disagreements over ownership will merely shift to disagreements over 'time worked', and weather the effort was legit.

You would lay out how things are divided in your paperwork when you form the company. If there are no outside investors, it's simpler for a company to fold.

In the case of one person leaving, all their invested shares fall back into the management pool and are distributed proportionally amongst the remaining co-founders (but not investors, they always only have the number of shares they paid for).

Also make sure you do an 83b election (in the US) for vesting shares. Otherwise you pay income taxes on the value of them as they vest. Google it for lots more info, it's pretty straightforward

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#295

Post by MarcM »

I like the spirit of this opportunity. It is not for everyone, but it feels like a micro incubator that could work for some. It would be great to have a legal structure that is the equivalent the MVP you are asking your developers to build--the simplest agreement that works. Forming a new company for each seed project is too much overhead, but there are other techniques that could be cheap and effective.

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#296

Post by brudgers »

jacquesm wrote: post #264
brudgers wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike much of Western Europe, the US has pay to play model for elite youth sports. It is largely a side effect of the role colleges play in amateur athletics. There is no La Masia. There are no schoolboy contracts. I referee youth soccer. My son plays. I see the way the business works. Dreams of college scholarships fill the trough at which professional youth coaches feed. All premised on the misconception that wome…

So, we're all youths and we need a daddy to look out for us? Hmexx is putting his money on the line. You counter with paranoia and paternalism. If hmexx wouldn't be $55000 short on what two months are worth to me I'd happily take him up on his offer and I don't think I'd need you to look out for me on the contractual side of things. If there is just one person here whose price tag is a bit more modest and who is shar…

If hmexx is looking for a cofounder the numbers make sense. If hmexx is creating an incubator they don't because there is no meat on the bone at 50% equity. The founder has no way of getting more runway without becoming a minority shareholder - there aren't any good choices once the $5000 is gone.

Maybe, hmexx has structured his offer without considering the ramifications of 50% stake as an incubator. I'm somewhat inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. No level of ethical intensions makes 50% equity make sense either for entering or accepting a project into an incubator.

50% equity is what investors demand to keep an enterprise from dying. Flowers are appropriate for a first date.

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#297

Post by trvlngwlbry »

jacquesm wrote: post #280
orionblastar wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but doing this without: A NDA, a No-Compete Clause in a contract, and even nothing written down and signed and witnessed by a notary public just rings alarm bells in my head. What stops him from taking your MVP project and doing it with someone else? What stops him from telling others about your project so they can copy it or do it better?

> What stops him from taking your MVP project and doing it with someone else? Nothing whatsoever. But then again, since we're talking about ideas that would be on the shelf anyway not a whole lot would be lost. And the OP would be outed and burned beyond recovery. Anybody stupid enough to risk that on a forum as widely recognized as this one would be seriously out of their mind. > What stops him from telling others a…

I agree. Ideas are a dime-a-dozen, especially ideas that are the type to languish on a shelf indefinitely.

Startups are all about execution. It's with this in mind that I find the OP's proposition interesting. In my opinion, the more important part of the proposition is not the money or the marketing work, but the kick-in-the-ass that he's providing to someone who would normally fear taking the leap to execute.

Having someone to whom you are accountable (i.e. a cofounder) is huge for executing. Being accountable only to yourself makes things incredibly hard to continue to execute through all the difficulties of starting a company.

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#298

Post by brudgers »

jacquesm wrote: post #202
brudgers wrote: post #22

Earlier 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.

> The offer is set before the entire HN community. It has substantial financial and legal implications. So? If you're not going to take the OP up on his offer then what business is that of yours? Or are we little children that need your protection? > You are competing with YC. And YC can't deal with that competition? It has to be shouted down so nobody knows about it? > Your track record is relevant to the ranking of…

The OP got a chance to address the concern I had about the specific offer. He did so. This page kept its upward momentum. Call the fouls which matter.

Re: Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP

#299

Post by Mz »

vik1211 wrote: post #115
jmathai wrote: post #51

Earlier 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.

Seed money plus active involvement in growing the business and creating traction could warrant such a split -- especially for an idea that was sitting on the shelf. Fifty percent of something is better than zero percent of nothing.

I think you mean 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. :-) Same dif though, I guess.
Post reply on HN