Just because you hide a software consulting shop behind an app doesn't mean you can change the fundamental difficulties with software consulting. I wish Gigster luck, but ultimately this approach isn't much different from what many offshore dev shops do today. I can get a quote in under an hour from a half dozen places today; but it doesn't mean it will be accurate or what I want.
Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
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Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#72So, a consulting shop with some MIT, Google buzzword thrown around?
Well, if they get the processes right, this could be a good place to work. I mean, the biggest problem in consulting isn't the coding, it is to work out what the customer wants. If they give you a spec and you're just bound to that spec, it could be a good thing. Code the stuff, get your money, don't care about the rest. They have to meddle with the customers, if some misunderstandings happened.
Misunderstandings always happen. Meddling with the customers is the entire problem with this type of work. If you don't meddle with them then they are unhappy and refuse to pay their bills and you end up in litigation up to your eyeballs. But meddling with them is expensive and time-consuming. Pick your poison.
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#73I keep reading Gangster.
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#74Very interesting that a well-marketed agency/service biz got VC funding to the tune of $2.5m. Service businesses are notoriously hard to scale and run on thin margins, not usually of interest to SV investors chasing 10x'ers. What's the secret sauce here that makes it more scalable than the traditional agency/dev shop model?
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi! A good developer can expect to make $10K - $20K per month on Gigster :) The developer also can expect to do no sales or management work on the project. You just write code on interesting projects and get paid :) Much like Uber hands drivers rides and they just have to accept them.
$20k/month is $240k/year, which is some serious money. Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of these numbers.
Hold on, are we talking employee or contractor? If it's the latter, I'd consider at least the following two points:
1. $20k/month every month? Unlikely.
2. Self-employment taxes + other business expenses.
edit: formatting
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#76What's up with Techcrunch? Is this article an advertisement? It seems like an advertorial, though a lot of TC seems like that these days. Is this the writer's friends company?
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
$20k/month is $240k/year, which is some serious money. Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of these numbers.
Hold on, are we talking employee or contractor? If it's the latter, I'd consider at least the following two points: 1. $20k/month every month ? Unlikely. 2. Self-employment taxes + other business expenses. edit: formatting
Does it matter for the context of my post? $240k is a hefty income either way for a freelancer who needn't live in an expensive metropolitan area. And it seems you agree with me either way with the way you ended your first bullet point.
A lot of startups in the sharing economy space have been guilty of grossly exaggerating how much their contractors/employees actually make. Is this just yet another instance of that or are these numbers legitimate? I think that's a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#78How does Gigster differ from a typical software house that hires its workforce to others?
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#79Not really seeing how this is anything more than a fancy outsourcing company. Yes, they can say "We're different because we have the best developers," but really, lots of outsourcing companies say that.
A few other differences - you don't interface with developers, price is guaranteed, costs are lower because dev talent isn't in house (no holding cost).
You mean just like I can get with Infosys or any of the boutique software dev consultants? Most of those guys don't even bother with the type of rapid prototyping it seems like you guys do because the margins are crap and the collection rate is abysmal. The client always expects more than can be delivered at the price point and then refuses to pay on the basis of non-fulfillment. Sure, you can go after them, but a single lawsuit will cost you half of the value of one of your projects.
Prepayment isn't an option because you'd need to use something other than credit cards -- the chargeback rate would be far too high for any payment processor to keep you as a client.
Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
#80Just because you hide a software consulting shop behind an app doesn't mean you can change the fundamental difficulties with software consulting. I wish Gigster luck, but ultimately this approach isn't much different from what many offshore dev shops do today. I can get a quote in under an hour from a half dozen places today; but it doesn't mean it will be accurate or what I want.
This. Nothing has changed from going to upwork or freelancer or whatever, except rather than many bidders to chose from you just have one.