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Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

prototypefor2345.com

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Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#51

Post by goatherders »

lobotryas wrote: post #38
_g2lm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, I'm hearing that a lot. Is $2,345 really that little? I've been living near the poverty line by choice, and $2,345 lasts me about two months. In either case, I guess it would turn off half the visitors if I just changed the price right now.

Yes, it's too little. Remember patio11's advice: you are not charging what the work or time is worth it TO YOU, you are charging what your output is worth it TO YOUR CUSTOMER :) Also, having a starting price in the 10k+ range will help weed out bad apple customers. Trust us when we say that you want fewer high quality customers than a lot of pain-in-the-neck customers. Finally, charge 1/4th upfront like another poste…

Having a starting price in the $10k range also weeds him out. In my market (Austin), if I have $10k for a prototype (even half that) I can throw a cat and hit a Ruby guy, a Python guy, a PHP guy, etc. The price as he has it is low enough that people with "an idea" might take the plunge to get a prototype going.

If I were to have one suggestion it would be for his site to spell out some parameters about what a prototype is so there are no later arguments.

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#52

Post by joshlegs »

zavulon wrote: post #2

Back when I was running a web development company, I toyed with this idea a few times, but couldn't find a way to do it and not lose money. Hope your experience is different. Good luck!

nightwatch was a terrific movie, btw.

just curious, but what kind of business model did you end up going with?

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#53

Post by al2o3cr »

My biggest concern with doing something like this would be that you'd burn all your time negotiating - because clients are going to show up with a "3 months to implement" idea, and you're may spend more (unpaid!) time stripping the thing down to a reasonable MVP than actually coding.

"We'll agree beforehand on a list of features" has a lot of complexity hidden inside; if a client shows up with an idea "be the next Google" and hands you a list "1. SEARCH TEH INTERNETZ", what will you do?

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#54

Post by joshlegs »

_g2lm wrote: post #16
ritchiea wrote: post #10

Question for you or Python users in general: Why web.py over flask or django?

I considered both when I first got started. Django was just too hard for me. When I read code using a framework I've never seen before, usually I can still kind of tell what it does. It might be my own stupidity, but when I read Django code I have no clue what it does. I did consider Flask, which is much more similar to web.py, but eventually chose web.py because I was a fan of Aaron Swartz' work at the time.

I know one of the main developers on Flask. He's an exceptional fellow and extremely talented. I havent used the framework before but I hear it's highly recommendable in general.

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#55

Post by _g2lm »

Thanks for all the helpful advice! Totally didn't expect so much feedback.

Question for the more experienced people here: if I changed it to "$2,345 per week, and it'll take 1-3 weeks" instead of "$2,345 for up to 3 weeks," would I lose anyone I shouldn't be losing?

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#56

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

As a simple rule, you can usually break MVP clients into two groups:

1. Cash poor wantrapreneurs who expect the world but can't pay for it.

2. Entrepreneurs with realistic expectations who are able and willing to pay a fair rate for labor. The founder of Groove is a good example[1].

The person interested in a 3 week engagement that costs $2,345 is more likely to fall into the first group.

You want to do everything you can to avoid the first group, even if you're starting out and trying to build a portfolio. These clients are far less likely to collaborate with you effectively and far more likely to be unprofitable to serve. Additionally, because they don't have the capital reasonably required to execute on their ideas, you'll probably never build long-term relationships, which are very desirable for solos.

In terms of targeting the latter group, which would enable you to charge a lot more, you're far more likely to be successful if you can demonstrate that you have some product development chops. A lot of entrepreneurs need help translating their knowledge and ideas into functional requirements; many of them are not going to come to you with ready-to-implement wireframes, user stories, specifications, etc. These entrepreneurs need a partner who is capable of being involved in the tasks that come before implementation.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7604055

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#57

Post by zavulon »

joshlegs wrote: post #52
zavulon wrote: post #2

Back when I was running a web development company, I toyed with this idea a few times, but couldn't find a way to do it and not lose money. Hope your experience is different. Good luck!

nightwatch was a terrific movie, btw. just curious, but what kind of business model did you end up going with?

Yeah, book is much better though, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!

I wasn't able to find a way to present what we were doing as a product, and kept going with a traditional model of getting project specs, doing discovery on requirements and budget and then putting together a quote.

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#58

Post by astrodust »

_g2lm wrote: post #55

Thanks for all the helpful advice! Totally didn't expect so much feedback. Question for the more experienced people here: if I changed it to "$2,345 per week, and it'll take 1-3 weeks" instead of "$2,345 for up to 3 weeks," would I lose anyone I shouldn't be losing?

Fixed price for a semi-fixed deliverable seems a lot better than "per week".

Re: Tell HN: I will build you a working MVP for $2,345

#59

Post by redindian75 »

I see a lot of people advising you to increase it. Don't. Its a perfect number with a simple idea "MVP for $2345". It has in-built chance of virality/wordofmouth for its USP - so you are getting free marketing dollars inside that number.

If you charge 10K+ like others are suggesting, then you are competing with 10000 devs ready to do that work. If you charge 1K, you will lose money and target the extreme low ballers, and no amount of free marketing can make it sustainable. Your number of ~2.5K is a perfect balance.

  But set a few hard-rules before you agree on a project:

  - wireframes, mockups with annotations to avoid scope-creep
  - design will be bootstrap quality (otherwise design is never-ending)
  - is designed for demo purposes, it will break if 10,000 ppl access it.
Remember your clients are "idea mongers" who want to validate an idea, but dont have the chops to do it themselves. So your clients will not be businesses or startups - but plain old business folks with ideas. Stick with it. If the demand is great, then outsource it or franchise it, but control quality by keeping it within your strengths (py + web.py) since you missed "1" here is a way to include it:

1 for $2345 :)

Great idea! Good Luck!

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