

LA Startups: I want to work for you for free - evanmarks

If you are involved with a startup in the Los Angeles area, I want to come work for you for free.  No strings attached.  Heck, if it comes down to it I will make the coffee and clean the kitchen (really).<p>Here are some things that I can do besides make delicious coffee:<p>Development - Most of my recent web projects are written in Django and utilize Gearman for async jobs.  I also have one iOS app in the store written in Obj-C.  I setup and manage my servers on AWS for my own projects.  My current stack is Nginx, Green Unicorn, and Postgresql. Here are some things that I have built:<p>iOS Shared To Do Lists - http://www.ourtodolist.com<p>App Store Keyword Analytics - http://www.appstoredata.net<p>Marketing and Business Development - My background is in the nonprofit world, and for the past 3 years I worked as the Director of Marketing and Development (fundraising in this context) for a mid-sized symphony orchestra.  Further back, I was a music major in college.  I have an MBA with a focus in nonprofit management.  I am not the type of MBA that gets so much flak in the tech world.<p>Why am I doing this?  I want get involved in the LA startup community, meet some great people and learn a lot.  I am not ready to be a full-time software developer (I think...) but I want to get there and I can add value in a number of areas.  If are in the tech industry and don't have an opportunity for me, I would still love to take you out for a coffee or beer!
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evanmarks
Any advice on how to step into the tech/startup world? I just moved out to LA,
and have about 4 months before I must have some income coming in. I want to
use that time to experiment with some different career paths and to learn.

My work experience is not related to tech work, but I have a passion for it
and have been working on side projects for a long time. Where should I start
to get my feet wet?

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coryl
Why haven't you built out appstoredata.net ? Seems like a useful service.

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evanmarks
This is actually what I am working on right now. The current site has been up
for about 2 weeks and I am adding all of the other features behind the scenes.
I haven't had a lot of traffic to the site yet, but a decent number have left
their emails so it does appear there is some demand for the service.

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donfrancisco
Lots of good meetups for devs in LA. Let's grab a coffee sometime.

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Toshio
Have you given thought to issues with legal liability that your prospective
startup would get themselves into should they take you on board?

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evanmarks
Are you referencing the work for free portion of my post, or a general
liability that taking a new person onboard entails? I am not familiar with
California's laws on the former, but would certainly want to be in compliance.
My choice of the word 'free' was to highlight that I am looking for
compensation in the form of learning and connections rather than money. Not
sure how the latter would work exactly - I would hope to demonstrate to anyone
interested that I am competent enough to not interfere with the status quo of
their business and the legalities surrounding it.

Thanks for raising this issue, I hadn't considered it before.

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blacklooksgreat
So here's one perspective for you....

[http://work.ocregister.com/2010/04/05/working-for-free-
unpai...](http://work.ocregister.com/2010/04/05/working-for-free-unpaid-
internships-could-be-illegal/2061/)

Another way to do this would be to structure it as a contractor to be paid
$100/week for general consulting; something that insulates your friendly
employer from any risk with bringing you on board.

