
Ask HN: Would you respond to requests like “I have an app idea” - chamoda
How would you respond to not technical people (could be friends, family, co-workers) proposing &quot;I have an app idea, let&#x27;s share 50&#x2F;50&quot;<p>Assume I&#x27;m supposed to do all the development work. They are not ready to do any kind of investment.<p>How would you respond politely in a situation like this?
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smt88
It's easy to think of their "offer" as, "You do work for me for free, and
maybe we'll make money."

It's more charitable to think of it as, "You invest some time into this, and I
guarantee that both of us will make money."

They think that including you is giving you something, because you wouldn't
have had the idea on your own.

You can respond politely in many ways:

\- "Sorry, my financial situation doesn't give me the freedom to do unpaid
work right now."

\- "Here's an app I found that already does what you're talking about. What
would you improve about it?" (It's often the case that the idea itself is
unoriginal, and finding that out will kill their enthusiasm.)

\- "Most engineers at my level are given salary and equity. If you can raise
some seed money, I'd be happy to talk about being a founding engineer."

\- "I like to consider every idea people present to me, but in my industry, we
never write the first line of code until customers are lined up. Do you think
you could get the first 10 customers/users in the next month?" (This will also
shut people down because they don't actually want to start a business -- they
want a get-rich-quick scheme with no investment on their part.)

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davismwfl
I usually show them an app that does most of if not all of what they are
describing. Or will say I am just too focused on what I have going now to add
another thing to the list.

I have also used the same basic idea of "I don't have enough time right now,
but if you have customers lined up already or can get them and show me that a
real business opportunity exists I am happy to look more into it."

Generally, I try to be polite about it overall and I don't dismiss people or
their ideas outright, I listen politely and then judge based on merits
(exception would be drunk cousin Eddie who won't remember in the morning so I
just walk away).

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latexr
> How would you respond politely in a situation like this?

“No, thank you.”

Ideas are worthless without execution. It’s unfair to ask for 50% ownership of
a result where your contribution was a few sentences to describe the _initial_
idea[1].

> They are not ready to do any kind of investment.

Investment doesn’t have to be monetary. It can also be design or marketing
work, or even knowing the right people to give it traction. Assuming they
won’t do _any_ of those, it’s an easy “no”.

I’d bet money the idea isn’t even good/profitable[2], because people who think
an idea is worth 50% tend to not have any clue of the amount of work it takes
to bring it to life, and that just making it is not enough. I’ve had people
who refuse to spend money on apps come to me with ideas for apps to make
money. My answer was to confront them with that fact: they have zero
understanding of what makes a person spend money on an app.

[1]: It’s common that to find success an idea has to suffer several
iterations, ending up a different beast.

[2]: Maybe I’d be wrong this time, but odds are on my side.

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muzani
I just tell them my usual rates to build their idea. Tell them I have a no
equity policy unless they can prove their commitment or pay their pound of
flesh. I actually got a great partnership with my current client this way.

I once tried to scare off the person by highballing on equity. Didn't work as
he agreed to the deal.

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mtmail
I've used this comic once
[https://dilbert.com/strip/2015-09-11](https://dilbert.com/strip/2015-09-11)

But seriously I asked questions on market research, mockups, customer
interviews, potential investors because maybe the friend already spent a lot
of time on it. In this case no, it was really just an idea, or rather copycat
of a service that already existed in another language.

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cheeky78
so..their part is to just give ideas? Just tell them that you will only
partner with someone willing to invest X amount of money in the idea/product.

In my younger years, I actually partnered with a few friends that told me
this. Both times ended in disaster.

The main problem is that when someone has no skin in the game, you can work
for a few months on the development side of an idea and they get bored and
either aren't interested in the idea when you are finished (which happened the
first time for me) or the person thinks that being a business owner means that
they get to dictate ideas and you complete them..and try to become your
manager/boss (happened the second time).

Ideas are the easiest part. I have tons of good ideas. If someone either can't
provide the cash or the work involved in implementing these ideas, they
shouldn't be part of the business.

Sean Parker is a good exception to this. He's the richest 'idea guy' I've
heard of.

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tomjen3
If you care about the future relationship then say either "I don't really have
time" or "that is not a good fit for me right now".

If you don't, say "sorry, that would amount to me working for essentially no
pay, which I am not willing to do".

Neither of those cases are lying btw. If you had infinite time, you wouldn't
mind taking a crack at their idea.

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RaceWon
Simply say you have your own ideas that you're working on... which I'm
guessing is more or less true, and you simply have no spare time. You might
point them towards an commercial app dev shop, probably a big favor to them as
they'd have to do their own leg work and learn a bit about the economics
involved.

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enz
I say: "Sorry, I am just an engineer, not a VC :)" (with a smile)

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quickthrower2
Polite answer: I have a lot of commitments at this time and couldn’t invest
the time required to make this project succeed.

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ioddly
I just tell them I'm too busy with work...which is eventually true.

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Cannibusted
Not 'response'. The word is 'respond'.

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wolco
Tell them they don't have $100,000 to market it.

