
Got an idea? We'll build it for $20k - darkpicnic
https://www.20kprototype.com/
======
throwaway2016a
Not the author here and I don't particular appreciate advertisement landing
pages on HN which this is. But as someone who routinely charges $50k for
similar projects, I'm curious...

The pricing in the software consulting industry is a bit opaque. Very few
companies do what this one does and advertise their price up front. Which I
respect.

So my question is, is this sort of pricing common? Am I over charging? Are
they under charging? Are we both over or under charging? [1]

[1] I know there are a LOT of factors and there is no way someone could say
for sure without due diligence but I guess you can take a guess.

~~~
darkpicnic
Hey @throwaway2016a, responding to some of your comments:

1) Not sure why you'd have complaints with this site versus, say, any business
on HN that attempts to make money being advertised. I originally put "Show HN:
" in the title, but it was changed by a moderator. Was mostly looking for
feedback.

2) Re pricing: I'd say in order to assume you are over/under pricing, I'd have
to know what you are building. Are you building simple 5 page static sites?
Probably overcharging, depending on the complexity. Are you building a
complicated clustercuss of interconnected API calls hooked up to a background
processor that munges the data and distributes it through multiple
channels?... it gets complicated.

The reason I made 20kprototype.com is because I see a lot of people who have
ideas, a decent amount of money, but no way to get from A to B. If they go to
an agency, the overhead alone will cost them near $100k. If they go to a
developer, the dev will say "Okay. Do you have a designer? Who's doing [insert
whatever they don't want to do here]?" Then who manages those people?... This
idea is: I'll take it from 0 - working so you can prove the idea or show
investors. All the work goes into the functionality.

Hope that answers your questions!

~~~
throwaway2016a
Thanks for the reply.

Re #1:

Typically said posts are under Show HN. So the fact you put it there
originally was right, I think the mod was wrong in that case. If it said Show
HN I would have objected as much.

But I think the other part is because the only piece novel here is the price.
There are a lot of services that do what you (and I) do. Unless there is
something I missed.

Again, that second part is mostly moot because I don't think I would have
cared if it was "Show HN"

Re #2:

Typically in that range I give the client an API, a single front-end (mobile
or webapp) and all the database and design that goes with it.

I do really appreciate you trying to cut the crap and focus on shipping
functionality. I also like how some things that people could call a negative
you turn into a positive (like cutting edge tech and lack of fancy sales
decks). I'm not calling it a negative mind you.

I do have one question, and feel free to not answer if it is prying too much.
What do you pay the developers? How many of these a year does it take to pay
their salary?

In the interest of transparency: our staff is all US based. Here it is $75k -
$150k USD and if we have them on 3 to 5 projects a year we've paid for them.

Again don't answer if you don't want to. I can hide behind anonymity which
lets me be a little bit more transparent.

Anyway, good luck to you!

~~~
darkpicnic
Thanks! I'm not sure I've conveyed this accurately enough on the landing page:
we don't route $20k to a bunch of developers that we find dirt cheap; a
_single_ seasoned developer takes the project from start to finish and they
get all the money. Now, how much money they make is based on how quickly they
can finish the project. This is where the vetting becomes crucial. If someone
calls me up and goes "I want to make the next Facebook!", I explain to them
this is beyond the scope of a $20k prototype and guide them to other agencies
that can help. Worst case scenario, they gain a little knowledge about their
project.

The price/time ratio is the key to making this work. I've done a ton of
prototypes that are near that sweet spot. Some will take longer than expected,
some will fly out in a few days.

The biggest obstacle I see right now is finding the right platform for
targeting the demo-graph I'm going for: people who have ideas, money and not a
lot of connections to tech.

~~~
throwaway2016a
Thank you for the detailed answer!

------
petraeus
If that landing page is any indication of what you'll get its not worth 1k let
alone 20

------
darkpicnic
Anyone know why this link got flagged? I'm confused.

~~~
dplgk
It's spam

------
benguild
“SansDegree LLC” ..?

~~~
darkpicnic
Hey @benguild, I'm the creator. What's the question?

~~~
throwaway2016a
I think he's curious about the origin of the name.

San usually meaning "without" and degree often meaning "Diploma from a higher
education institute" it is a rather interesting chose of company name. Not
something people typically advertise so explicitly if that is indeed what it
means.

~~~
darkpicnic
Ah, the origin is: I'm self-taught ;) So you hit it on the nail.

------
hawkilt
INR 12,60,0000

