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Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

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161–170 of 192 posts

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#161

It's pretty worrisome that they say "The Gigsters come from companies like Google or Stripe that are looking for some extra projects." Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything "along the lines of business of Google", which the company has in the past interpreted as "anything tech-related". There's a release process, but I really doubt they would…

Well, any contract between the dev and Gigster almost certainly requires that dev to certify they are permitted to perform the work and that performing the services (to spec, including the spec that they are work for hire) are not in violation of any other contract.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#162
Can anyone related to this explain to me why Yahoo Weather is listed under their "success stories"? As the PM on the project, I can say without a doubt this was not done externally. It was built through the sweat and tears of the wonderful engineers and designers on the team.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fie0qrk7ecpphib/weather.jpg?dl=0

This just seems like blatant lying to me.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#163
post #121

It's pretty worrisome that they say "The Gigsters come from companies like Google or Stripe that are looking for some extra projects." Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything "along the lines of business of Google", which the company has in the past interpreted as "anything tech-related". There's a release process, but I really doubt they would…

> Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything IANAL nor do I play one on TV but I don't know if I actually believe that is legal - and if it is then it's a huge legal nightmare. Take this project for example[1]. He worked on it before he was an employee of Google and after - does that mean Google automatically gets copyright over the project? What a…

Google gets copyright over any code contributed during the duration of your employment - that's what happened in the project you link to. If he doesn't touch it while working at Google, there is no such code. You're supposed to disclaim any open-source projects you wrote before Google employment - I did, and then didn't work on them while employed.

It is somewhat debatable whether this provision would stand up in court, but do you really want to fight a court battle with Google's legal team?

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#164

It's pretty worrisome that they say "The Gigsters come from companies like Google or Stripe that are looking for some extra projects." Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything "along the lines of business of Google", which the company has in the past interpreted as "anything tech-related". There's a release process, but I really doubt they would…

Well, any contract between the dev and Gigster almost certainly requires that dev to certify they are permitted to perform the work and that performing the services (to spec, including the spec that they are work for hire) are not in violation of any other contract.

Yeah, but I'd love to see the legal mess untangling that. There would be at least 4 parties to such a lawsuit - Google, their employee, Gigster, and the company who bought the MVP. IANAL, but I believe that such a release absolves Gigster of any legal liability, but wouldn't protect the client from having Google lay an injunction on them for using source code that belongs to Google. If somebody warrants that the goods you are receiving are not stolen and it turns out they're lying, that doesn't prevent you from having to give them back.

The way IP issues usually surface is during diligence for an investment or acquisition, anyway, and most investors won't go anywhere near a company that can't prove they own their IP.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#165

Can anyone related to this explain to me why Yahoo Weather is listed under their "success stories"? As the PM on the project, I can say without a doubt this was not done externally. It was built through the sweat and tears of the wonderful engineers and designers on the team. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fie0qrk7ecpphib/weather.jpg?dl=0 This just seems like blatant lying to me.

One of the main developers of the Yahoo weather app is a gigster (developer on the platform). The statement is that it was built by "one of our gigsters" and is intended to showcase the quality of work developers on Gigster have done. Had that developer been on Odesk or TapFame they would have listed Yahoo Weather as part of their portfolio. In this case they actually do list it as part of their portfolio. Definitely do not intend to take away from your hard work and appreciate you for it. Happy to do better in making this clearer but it's a bit unfair to imply that we cant showcase the work of developers on our platform as an indicator of developer quality.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#166

Can anyone related to this explain to me why Yahoo Weather is listed under their "success stories"? As the PM on the project, I can say without a doubt this was not done externally. It was built through the sweat and tears of the wonderful engineers and designers on the team. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fie0qrk7ecpphib/weather.jpg?dl=0 This just seems like blatant lying to me.

One of the main developers of the Yahoo weather app is a gigster (developer on the platform). The statement is that it was built by "one of our gigsters" and is intended to showcase the quality of work developers on Gigster have done. Had that developer been on Odesk or TapFame they would have listed Yahoo Weather as part of their portfolio. In this case they actually do list it as part of their portfolio. Definitely…

Sorry, I agree with the OP. I interpreted the "Success Stories" page, especially when it is sub-titled "Our prior work speaks for itself" as referring to the work performed through Gigstar. There is a difference between allowing somebody to claim work they performed versus assigning that claim to the body that employs them after the fact. This example, just because of the lack of clarity, presents itself as the latter which is a little unfair in itself.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Translation: we're burning other people's money so we can underbid anyone and build a customer book. Of course, at some point someone is going to want the business to be profitable and then, hey presto, you're a dev shop like all the other dev shops.

I'm disappointed in YC for funding this; I think it's destructive to the hacker economy/ecosystem. Excerpting a comment from a thread last year re: Marc Andressen's complaints about startup burn rates that applies: --------- I find it very hard not to get angry at these posts... ...One of the biggest problems facing my company right now is dealing with all of the venture-funded idiots coming after my customers, marke…

haha. Amazon requires vendors to provide 1 year of free service if they want to use Amazon's name in their bizdev.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#168
post #121

It's pretty worrisome that they say "The Gigsters come from companies like Google or Stripe that are looking for some extra projects." Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything "along the lines of business of Google", which the company has in the past interpreted as "anything tech-related". There's a release process, but I really doubt they would…

> Google is pretty strict about side projects done by its employees; its IP release claims ownership over anything IANAL nor do I play one on TV but I don't know if I actually believe that is legal - and if it is then it's a huge legal nightmare. Take this project for example[1]. He worked on it before he was an employee of Google and after - does that mean Google automatically gets copyright over the project? What a…

Greg was not in CA, and snap is open source, so this example is a non-issue and the author didn't care.

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the best developers, they will likely want to go get a better job at Google or Facebook than work in IT services.

They tout that their developers actually work for these companies on the side, which for me is (yet another) huge red flag for the whole thing in that if you're already making Google-money (which, even in SV, is "more than enough" if you're a talented developer) the $10,000-per-project side gigs you're working on are really easy to drop if even a bit of boredom creeps in, which it will since these are bound to be rel…

They probably have Google contractors, not employees. Or former employees, since their website has already shown to have proven deceptions (like claiming to have solely created Yahoo Weather)

Re: Gigster (YC S15) Does The Dev Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App

#170

What'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?

TC's business model is to publish startup press releases.
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