
microPledge: new startup to help developers get paid - natonic77
http://micropledge.com/
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SwellJoe
I planned to build something very similar this about four years back.
Registered "Ransomware.com" just for the purpose (and still hang onto the
domain, because one day I might come back to it). This was about the same time
I started in on what is my current business, so it took a backseat.

Anyway, I think it's a solid idea--but the competition is stiff.
SourceForge.net takes donations on behalf of its projects, every Open Source
project has a PayPal link, Elance/rent-a-coder eats up the very specific work
where only one person/company wants it, SitePoint runs "contests" sponsored by
big companies. And, of course, your profit comes from taking a small cut, so
you have to do a very high volume--hundreds or thousands of projects per day,
if you want reasonable revenues for just a couple of employees. If it's a one-
man shop, it's a solid business. By the time you take investment, or hire some
additional employees, it could get ugly.

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tocomment
I agree with this completely. I had a similiar idea to this company a few
months ago, but only for fixing bugs. I called it "Bug Bounty". I even wrote
up a business plan. In the end the financials just didn't work out. I'd have
to have 1000s of bug bounties being created every day to make a few million
dollars a year. It's discouraging to determine that even if everyone used your
product, you'd still have a pretty small company.

If anyone is interested in seeing the business plan, just shoot me an email
gregpinero at gmail.com

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davidw
If I'm not mistaken, this is the "coasian solution" for the provisioning of
public goods:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good#Coasian_solution>

I recall this being discussed on the FSB (Free software business) mailing list
a number of years ago. It's one of those ideas that seems good, but doesn't
seem to work out in practice. Maybe all it will take is the right tweak or two
to make it functional?

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andreyf
The website looks aesthetically pleasing, and the idea is very good, if
implemented right. Even if it isn't the most original idea, that's not what
matters. Something worth thinking about if you already haven't:

What, exactly, is an "idea"? Will the person first creating the project decide
all of the specifications? What if there is an idea with $2000 pledged to it,
and I have a very similar idea (but slightly different) and am willing to
pledge $3000 more, but insist that it be different. Can people defect and re-
pledge to my idea? Since I'd be providing the most money, would that give me
power to change the specifications? Who is in control over making decisions
like this in production?

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benhoyt
We're going to start with a fairly simple negotiation scheme between pledgers
and developer, and we'll see how it works. A pledge is a commitment, so
pledgers can only defect if the developer's not doing his job over time
(pledgers vote on this).

As for bigger pledges having more voting power, we're considering this for
commercial projects. But not for open source -- part of the attraction of open
source is that it's not (too) controlled by money.

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staunch
Lots of features never make it into software because the developers themselves
don't need it. You could make it really easy for users to say to developers
"If I can get 20 other people to pay $100/ea will you implement this feature?"

Let them create really simple polls, without much registration or anything.
Pretty informal. Maybe a "stage 1" poll and then move to a payment-verified
"stage 2" poll if there was a good response for the informal poll.

I think the 1000 x $5 is not realistic. Most of the time when I need something
created it's for a business and I have hundreds/thousands of dollars to
available. I've underwritten projects for tens of thousands of dollars and
would love to share the load. I'd go for a smaller number of bigger buyers,
even if it seems less interesting. Business-related software because consumers
are cheap bastards.

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nickb
I'm highly skeptical of design by committee software. Most open source soft is
not done this way. Please form some kind of a structure on how to incorporate
features and how to prioritize them and WHO decides what goes in. Popular
votes might not be the best indicator...

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benhoyt
You're dead right about design by committee -- the idea with microPledge is
more like "funding by committee". Except that it's not a commmittee, it's a
group of loosely-knit pledgers. They'll have their say in the project, but the
design will still largely be done by the developer.

That said, very good point about some kind of way to prioritise and structure
how and when features are included. We're thinking about it, and have a few
ideas.

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Tichy
Sounds good. One question: how do you pick the developer? Or will it just be a
competition, whoever delivers first gets the money?

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benhoyt
Briefly, for now: developers can quote, and who's chosen will be based on both
the time they'll take and the amount quoted, as well as on the current
pledging rate.

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andreyf
Your blog mentions you are using Python. Are you using an existing web
framework or rolling your own?

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benhoyt
We're using web.py and Cheetah, but we've rolled our own database layer.
web.py's small and in a fair bit of flux, but we get a lot of control this
way.

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AF
I've thought of this before, but the issue is, what if people don't pay up? Or
what if the developer doesn't deliver? Those are tough issues.

~~~
benhoyt
Very good questions, but we've thought them through and come up with some
solutions. They're solutions we think are better than anything the
competition's got, but we'll see!

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NickDouglas
I like it, though I'll bet a hundred bucks it doesn't turn a profit in the
first two years.

~~~
benhoyt
Heh! Well, if we do make a profit, sounds like you'll be adding $100 to it.
:-) Curious what your reasoning is, though.

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NickDouglas
If 500 people are willing to pay $10 for a piece of software, a developer has
two options: 1. Make it on your site for $5000 (minus your cut) and feel good
about themselves; 2. Make it themselves, sell it on the web for $10, and make
much more money. So much for others' incentive to produce your product.

~~~
benhoyt
Our cut for open source will be zero, and for commercial projects small. We're
hoping the advantage of using microPledge will be that it's a central location
people know about and will build up trust in. And also that the developer can
focus on his project rather than on building a nice website with pledging
functionality. (Our site's much more than just a SourceForge donate button --
but you'll have to wait and see. :-)

~~~
NickDouglas
Good point; that's what I learn from making judgments about other people's
industries.

I won't back out of my bet, of course, but I can see how I might lose it.

