

Review my new business idea, Friday. Coders for $2000 a month. - toblender
http://www.monthlycoder.com

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dshankar
A $12.50 per hour wage for skilled programmers for 1-12 months?

First of all, the wage is ridiculous. Second of all, the wage is ridiculous.

How do you do your sourcing? Vetting? Matching? I'm skeptical and don't
believe this would work. Many startups would pay $10,000-30,000 just as a
referral fee and double that as a signing bonus.

~~~
gexla
Keep in mind that's what the company is being paid. The developer isn't making
this. I would think you would have to make twice what the developer is being
paid to cover overhead and make a profit.

~~~
toblender
It's true the programmer isn't getting the full amount, as there are cost for
keeping the developers at a desk with electricity and high speed internet. As
well as managing to make sure they are working on your project and not
slacking off :D

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gexla
For 2K you aren't getting world class developers. World class developers won't
work for that, let alone what you are actually paying them. I assume you would
have to make twice what you are paying the developers to pay overhead and make
a profit. So, I'm betting these developers are making somewhere around 5 - 7
dollars per hour.

I live in the Philippines and I know how hard it is to find good talent here.
I know of a number of startups and dev agencies which have tried. The
Philippines isn't exactly the tech hub of Asia. I'm assuming this is located
in Manila, because you wouldn't be able to find people anywhere else.
Unfortunately, the wages that these guys are making is barely enough to scrape
by, even in the Philippines.

Working a straight 8 hours doing dev through the night (working on U.S. time
zones) is too much to ask for what you are likely paying these guys. I have
done that shift many times and it's hard. By the time the sun comes up you are
a zombie and it only works if you are single and living in a man cave (block
out all the windows.) If you have a family and want a somewhat normal life
then forget it. Your developer would quickly burned out. Better to give them
more flexible working hours.

The cost of the development is just one of many factors (code quality, time to
market, etc) so cheap development isn't really a selling point. I get a lot of
work cleaning up after crap developers. In the end, your ROI is likely far
better with strong developers.

However, the average Joe with a low budget who knows nothing about development
probably doesn't think about these points. So, you are probably asking the
wrong crowd.

~~~
fredsanford
He's probably using the batch of people Motorola is about to lay off... If my
experience with the Motorola Phillipines "developers" is any indicator, I'd
run very far away.

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k-mcgrady
$2000 per month is very low. Even when I take the most basic freelance jobs
(from elance/odesk etc.) I get paid at least $30 per hour (on more serious
projects, the sort where the client came to me, I get paid at least double
that). Where are you sourcing the programmers from? Programmers just starting
out can get paid more than you are offering.

~~~
toblender
We have an established team in the Philippine that do projects for around this
much a month. I created this concept as I was getting tired of sharing my
coders with other companies.

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kellros
Cool idea, dislike the stock photo though :P.

Even at South African rates, that's low considering risk and other factors
towards the programmer.

Furthermore, freelance is generally by billable hour or fixed rate. By
billable hour, I mean something built of worth for that hour - that's usually
around 80% of actual time spent.

Unfortunately at that rate, the only programmers I can see that will find this
offer attractive is: 1\. Those who did crash courses and have no real world
experience. 2\. Programmers who lost their jobs and need something for the
interim. 3\. Freelancers trying to get into the market (or get clients).

My standard freelance rate at the moment is about $40/hour and I consider
myself a pretty good developer with 4 years commercial development experience
and have done quite a few freelance gigs (I have been coding for 6 years prior
as a hobbyist). I consider this money as my 'spending' money.

~~~
toblender
The team is currently located in the Philippines. I've done projects with them
before.

They are quality programmers, but you have to understand that the cost of
living is much lower here, looking at 2 dollars a meal, and an apartment for
$100 USD a month.

LOL you are the 3rd person who said the stock photo needs to go. Too busy
trying to get logistics down atm to redo the site. Done is better then perfect
as I have to keep reminding myself.

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bearpawz
Where are these guys located? I'm interested in knowing more please.

~~~
yataa
This: <http://defyent.com/#profile> (via footer link) might answer your
question:

"...Design, out sourced coding to india."

~~~
toblender
LOL that was one project as a pilot... but the team will currently be in the
Philippines.

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sil3ntmac
Trust me when I say this, _you don't want the kind of customer that pays
$12.50 an hour for writing code_. There is a large chance they will turn out
to be an idiot.

~~~
ljw1001
bad customers for a cheap programming service seems like a good match to me.
That would be the market working efficiently - and cosmic revenge.

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idodevops
Perhaps "lowpaidinterns.com" might have been a better domain. No adequately
skilled coder that I've worked with would work for McJob rates.

$4k might get you some young and hungry coders keen to get some work on the
CV, but is the job market really that oversupplied?

~~~
toblender
Haha great name, need to squat that :P Though in our case, the developers have
been trained to used GIT, Bugzilla, and good software engineering practices.
They have completed multiple large scale projects each. Not quite novice.

Though your comment about CV is a good idea. We will likely have a section
with CV for each program you can hire monthly.

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threeio
I used to pay 995$ a month US for a fulltime programer in Manila through a
contracting firm.... completely good code for the basic project proof of
concept stuff we were doing at the time (1999-2004'ish).... This seems no
different, just adjusted to reflect cost.

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ljw1001
I have a better idea. Two better ideas, actually:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4396091>

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stef25
The picture of the woman is pretty awful, looks like a plastic surgery /
barbie doll.

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plinkplonk
don't vote this scam up, please. This seems to be an ad thinly disguised as a
"review my idea".

~~~
toblender
Not an ad. Really starting to source in the Philippines, have a team here
already. Add your email to the site if your interested. Still working out the
details.

~~~
plinkplonk
the reason I said it looked like an ad (I did say "seems") is that there are
really no details about how it works. Just a sales pitch-ey page. So there
isn't anything there to "review" (your post reads "Review my idea").

That said,If you can get "battle hardened" ( to use a phrase from your landing
page) developers to work at these pittance rates, more power to you.

