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

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

#351

Post by codeodor »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #182
gacba wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might consider that "building the product" is not really "most of the work" here. There are three things: - Product - A Market for said product (solving a problem for a customer who has money) - Getting your Product to that Market and convincing customers you solved their problem In reality, you are probably doing about 33% of the hard stuff (and the other 66% is hard too, making sure you have the correct MVP and…

You must not have read the rest of my comments... That said, reducing risk isn't what hmexx is doing. Since the risk of quitting your job and starting on your own product is failure to create a good enough product and NOT have a job to go back to. He's not made any warranties about you being able to resume your previous job (nor could he, or should he.) Again, look at my other comments, where I plainly state this is…

> the risk of quitting your job

Premise 3 was:

> Most freelancers will not build and/or follow-through with their ideas, because they perceive their opportunity cost to be too high.

I wouldn't quit my job for this (if I had a job), but as a freelancer I'd consider taking a month of no client work and building it at what amounts to a reduced hourly rate.

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

#352

Post by j0hnlucas »

ha! I've had a very similar idea when I was being bugged by so many co-founders who were looking for equity based tech co-founders.

I thought: so many startups have no skills to build their mvp so let's build it for them!

I've then created a lean landing page to get feedback about the idea of building mvps for startups: mvpeers.com. A full-stack dev friend of mine was also involved in the experiment.

I followed a totally lean approach: I started off with just a title and began posting my landing page in startup forums asking people what kind of information I should have put on the page. After a day I had a full page, signups and referrals. I've made a time lapse of the page itself for fun :) http://j0hnlucas.tumblr.com/post/22121212880/git-time-lapse

re premise 2: I believe a lone coder is not all it takes to create a successful mvp, you need to have experience with lean concepts. Building "just enough" and finding real insight from feedback are not easy tasks.

I spent a month or so gathering online and offline feedback and tried to close deals with customers but then gave up.

My takeaway:

1. first timer startuppers are so naive sometimes that they believe they are making you - an experienced coder - a favour by sharing their idea with you. So 50-50 is not even obvious to them (even without any cash!)

2. first time startuppers don't have much money.

3. more experienced startuppers who understand real value in mvps tend to partner up with someone who can code.

All this said, I still believe there must be a niche for selling these services if awareness is raised properly. It's important to find the right customers who are educated enough to understand the value of a good mvp and have up to $10k to put on an idea.

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

#353

Post by j45 »

I'm wondering if there's been an offer like this before on HN. It's so simple, reasonable, and plausible that I tried searching for more and couldn't find any.

hmexx, if there's a way a cofounder should find a technical co-founder, this looks to be one way. Please keep posting about your experience, I think it's eye opening and worthy of ongoing reflection.

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

#354

Post by freehunter »

taytus wrote: post #350
freehunter wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also - Startup: And you're going to be working on our project, with the documents and design we came up with. Dev: Great! This guy: Work on your own idea! Have your own dream! I'll just put in the money and experience to make the business a success. HN Devs: You're not offering enough to have a 50% share in the company that wouldn't exist without you!

> I'll just put in the money and experience What experience?, I don't know who this guy is!.

Well I didn't say it's true, just that he's claiming it's true.

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

#355

Post by freehunter »

flyinRyan wrote: post #345
freehunter wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting paid $25/hr, a $52,000 salary if the job were to last a year. Maybe not Silicon Valley money, but good money for anyone who can even begin to consider this deal. More money than I make in a year. That's good enough. The 50% is icing on the cake. He's hiring a programmer, and paying you to stay on as technical co-founder.

>He's hiring a programmer, and paying you to stay on as technical co-founder. Nonsense. He's doing an angel investment and taking 50%. That still might be attractive since he does more than just an angel investment but don't pretend he's doing anyone a favor, this is for his own benefit as well as the potential partner.

I wouldn't say hiring a programmer is doing them a favor any more than an angel investor is. The benefit from this comes in him letting you pick your own project, that's the difference between rent-a-coder and this deal. It's a rent-a-coder contract with the option of leading into steady employment.

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

#356

Post by rficcaglia »

orionblastar wrote: post #243

Ah how about no? As tempting as it seems, a big project like that requires a team. A Lone Ranger cannot finish it in two months and even so it would not be of good quality and patched potential security holes. By the time the 'beta' is released to the public after two months, who exactly is the target market? You don't know what I am developing, you don't know who is going to use it, or who will pay for it, and of co…

I really do appreciate your overall point and caution, BUT I wouldn't exactly hold up the Feds or Fortune 500 companies as icons of rapid innovation (yes i too have worked with them and speak from grey hair - much of which was torn out weeding out useful info from reams of Reasearch documents :)

The OP, has clearly touched on something, given the activity here, so kudos to him/her!

I dont think you should have been downvoted, lest we prevent open and honest discourse. That said I would not laugh at blind ambition, however naieve; I'll bet on that over inaction any day!

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

#357

Post by cjmagee »

wildgift wrote: post #320
larrys wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I remember when the Desktop Publishing market was new" So do I. Remember Pagemaker vs. Quark Express?

I thought it was Ventura Publisher vs. Aldus Pagemaker.

Ready Set Go! vs Aldus Pagemaker

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

#358

Post by rficcaglia »

Premise 2: (not being snarky - genuine scientific inquiry) do you have data to back that up? That would be very interesting indeed. Does AL have an API to get data on their portfolio?

PG - why not make a YC api available and put data out there....yeah i know the answer already (that was snarky)

Hey, there's an $8000 idea for some young buck - go build the data api for VCs/angels to submit each of their projects and update them with performance metrics .... Then devs and founders can slice through the powerpoints and see real data on the value they add .... and can compare to random chance. We promise not to share with CalPERS ;) wait i just saw a flying pig...

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

#359

Post by j45 »

dalore wrote: post #278
eranation wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it but I think the order should be reversed, before building the MVP, I would have built a landing page for each idea (after filtering the good ones), spend some money on marketing first and see if it gets beta sign ups traction (developer commits that if it does, they'll build it), only then pay for building it (I would also offer to sign an NDA with the developer protecting their idea if the deal doesn't exe…

So you've alienated all your early adopter customers by saying you have a product but you don't have anything.

Have you read the lean startup methodology

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

#360

Post by flyinRyan »

freehunter wrote: post #355
flyinRyan wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He's hiring a programmer, and paying you to stay on as technical co-founder. Nonsense. He's doing an angel investment and taking 50%. That still might be attractive since he does more than just an angel investment but don't pretend he's doing anyone a favor, this is for his own benefit as well as the potential partner.

I wouldn't say hiring a programmer is doing them a favor any more than an angel investor is. The benefit from this comes in him letting you pick your own project, that's the difference between rent-a-coder and this deal. It's a rent-a-coder contract with the option of leading into steady employment.

Again, you're seeing this dangerously wrong. This isn't an employment opportunity, this is a startup where one of the founders is using an interesting way to find a co-founder and the idea itself. You bring the idea, he brings the cash.

He's not giving you a job, he's playing the role of seed investor and co-founder.

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