

Ask HN: Would I be of value to a startup... remotely? - cheesedpm

After a few bad freelancing experiences I find myself flat broke and reconsidering a lot of things in my life. I&#x27;m not quite at the stage of giving up yet, but I was wondering if there is room for someone like me to work for one of these up &amp; coming startups. I guess it would have to be remotely as I&#x27;m in the UK.<p>The outside impression I get is that $TYPICAL_STARTUP goes for 20-something superstar college graduates - of which I am clearly not! I know that&#x27; a generalisation but how true is it? I&#x27;m sure I could of value to a company but would that matter in the end?<p>As for me, I&#x27;m one of those &#x27;unicorns&#x27; apparently. I can knock out a swish design, code up all the HTML, CSS, Javascript and make everything work backend too. My experience covers everything from Wordpress to custom e-commerce stores, CRM, MRP, vehcile tracking, intranet work and iOS apps. I&#x27;m even quite handy at SEO. You could say I&#x27;m a generalist, but I do have some depth in these areas too!<p>I don&#x27;t claim to the best or some rockstar but I do think I am pretty good and my breadth of experience gives me some advantages. I&#x27;m also a quick learner.<p>I can code HTML 5, CSS 3, Javascript (jQuery or not!), I&#x27;ve used SASS and the likes, AngularJS etc, PHP - I use mainly Codeigniter lately but also have experience in Zend, Cake etc. Wordpress is a given. I&#x27;ve also worked in Perl for a couple of years (with something called Interchange www.icdevgroup.org). More recently I&#x27;m building apps for iOS and Android.<p>As I mentioned, I&#x27;m totally broke now and I&#x27;m also in my early 30&#x27;s. This is possibly a red flag to some people out there, as surely I should&#x27;ve made it by now?! However, it is what it is.<p>To be clear, I&#x27;m not looking for untold riches, I&#x27;d just like to be able to enjoy life and not dread a knock at the door!<p>So, TL;DR: Could a startup use someone like me?
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willholloway
I'm going to give you my best advice, because I've been where you are now and
got out of it and I feel for you because there is nothing more soul sucking
than lacking cash to move your ambitions forward.

I put everything into bootstrapping a startup that had decent traction ( ~ 1
million visits in a month). The problem was that advertising revenue was very
low per user. merch was selling, but revenue per sale was low.

At the end I sold it for a small amount and was at the same place I was at the
start, but with greater knowledge and experience.

I know you feel really low right now, but you can beat this.

You could definitely be valuable for a startup. I find though that its faster
to find clients to consult for and get paid by them than it is to be hired.

Just this month I posted to the monthly Freelancer thread here on HN. Someone
from across the country called me, I modified my contract and they signed it
and the next day paid me via pay pal. The cash was in my bank three days from
first contact. In the first three billable hours I understood their system,
set up test servers and had the basic functionality they needed done. I
automated a task that was key to their core business thus saving a lot of
their employees time.

So if you need money fast I recommend consulting.

 __ __MOST IMPORTANT __ __

Forget that you are broke. It is irrelevant to your clients. It is not their
problem. You are being hired to help them. Communicating that you are broke
will lower their confidence in you, lower the amount they will pay you and
cause general animosity. You must be professional at all times.

You must have a solid but simple contract and a professional accounting
system. Freshbooks is amazing in this regard.

There is a certain kind of client that you are perfect for. You need to find
companies with revenue that need technical help for their core business. If
you can solve these problems for them quickly, communicate well and be
responsive and professional you will find plenty of work.

You are low on one kind of resource (cash), but have a wealth of very valuable
knowledge and skills. Do not forget that you are a wizard of the modern era,
capable of creating incredible wonders that are impenetrably complex and
confusing for the uninitiated.

Here are my actions steps for you:

1) Set up Freshbooks accounting for online invoicing and online payment

2) Draft a simple contract. Only bill for materials and time. I have clients
pre-pay for anywhere from 5 hours to one weeks worth of time. This way the
risk is low for both of you and you can avoid lengthy negotiation. They pay a
high rate for the flexibility and no long term commitment. You are like an on-
demand EC2 instance and thus are worth the highest rate per hour.

3) Work efficiently and be organized with records. Shell aliases, master an
editor like vim, set up git repos for skeleton projects in your stack of
choice, use git smartly, reuse existing code etc... Your clients will be
paying you a high hourly rate and you need to show results for them.

Treat every pre-paid block of time as a job interview. You must impress them
every time. Avoid unnecessary overhead like complex time estimation. Work for
at least somewhat tech savvy clients. Avoid small businesses that are cash
strapped. Don't charge flat rates for projects.

Even if it takes you a few extra hours to get something working for them in
the first block of time do it and don't ask for more money until you show them
something working.

It only takes one good client to change your outlook 100%. Follow these steps
and you will succeed and life will get easier. I went from being desperate to
having more work than I have time for and needing to turn people down.

Good luck and godspeed.

~~~
boothead
I love your site Will, it's a really nicely designed, to the point resume
page!

Just out of interest how do you find these types of clients you mention? I
guess you're looking for medium sized "real world" non-tech companies that you
can come into an sprinkle your wizardy tech magic over, to either save, or
make them more, money...

I'm thinking about going roughly the same route after I have some contracting
money built up to give me a buffer.

~~~
willholloway
Thank you! Building the site was easy with a template from wrapbootstrap.com
that I customized. It only took ~2-3 hours from inception to launch.

I love the picture of the Triborough bridge because its just a short walk from
where I am and gives the viewer an instant location for me which is important
because one of my advantages is that I am a quick subway ride to Manhattan.

I have gotten good clients from referrals from family and from people I meet
at parties and in bars. Sometimes you have to do it Ricky Roma style, but with
ethics.

Here in NYC there exists a cornucopia of entrepreneurs with revenue that
absolutely need someone who can guide them through a world of technology that
they desperately need but do not understand.

Watch Glengarry GlenRoss, internalize the essence of Al Pacino and Alec
Baldwin's characters, then throw out all of their manipulation and abuse and
apply idealistic hacker ethics. Be a good person, but realize that this
business is for closers only.

Some of my best clients though are from Hacker News Freelancer threads, but
theres nothing like the thrill of closing a contract with someone you just met
at a bar.

My best advice to you if you go this way is to have multiple clients that need
~10 hours per week of work, or always have short projects in the pipeline.
This way you are less needy for the client and your income is diversified. I
believe that there are a lot more businesses that would benefit from ~10 solid
hours of a smart developers time per week than there are that need something
brand new built from scratch. This also makes you more affordable.

Clients are running businesses and are busy and this way when they get caught
up with stuff and can't get back to you for a couple days you just work on
another clients stuff or your own side projects.

I love working this way, but I might be taking a short term on-site contract
soon because it's a chance to work with very cool, very smart people in a
great environment and collaborate.

------
mjankowski
Maaaaan, What is wrong with you? I mean... I'm Polish so please excuse me
going straight to the point without English politeness :-)

I don't know the quality of your code and how fast you can build stuff, but to
me your skillset looks exactly like a technical (co)founder. The world is full
of broke 30somethings who are yet to figure out what they want to do with
their life (including me)

In a startup world it's you who defines the terms - If they don't want to hire
you, you build your own startup or hire them.

I'm currently working on two projects and there is always room for more
(smart/handy) people. Let's have a chat and talk about opportunities we have.

~~~
kfk
Where are you from in Poland? I have been there 2 weeks in June (paddling down
the Vistula from Krakow to Gdansk). Very interesting country, I really liked
Krakow(I live in Munich).

On which projects are you working on? I am coding a group purchasing/ecommerce
platform in flask, foodtypically, the site will be up soon (hopefully).

~~~
mjankowski
Glad you liked it! I'm from Ełk (Lyck) and love this town - it's small but not
too small and very scenic. We've had German tourists coming since 15th century
:-)

Poland is... a 'special' country in so many ways - ppl taking pride in
outsmarting the officials by exploiting all possible loopholes.

Currently working on two (not so sexy) projects: 1\. an application for
moneylenders to manage their customers and contracts (which looks like a
hugely underserved and quite rich market)
[http://dkpro.azurewebsites.net/demo](http://dkpro.azurewebsites.net/demo)
(google translate should help)

2\. quick & dirty app for filling out monthly contracts.
[http://smieciowki.azurewebsites.net/](http://smieciowki.azurewebsites.net/)
Aimed at small business. Alternative to messy MS Word forms). Ideal target:
~8-12 contracts monthly where it's already a headache to keep all the
paperwork organized but not too big to hire a payroll professional. I did that
process myself at my last company: it was at least 3hrs/month wasted in
frustration, chasing ppl to correctly fill out and sign the form. So the pain
is real.

IMPORTANT: Looking for someone to help me with 1. (coding and marketing) I'm
very close to finish and I would LOVE to adapt and sell it in other countries!
I'm willing to give a generous share of revenue!

------
fecak
To echo some of the sentiments here, I don't know why you even question your
potential value to startups. Assuming you self-assessed properly, your skill
set falls directly in line with what many companies are seeking (JS, HTML, CSS
are all relevant, as is iOS/Android). Being in your early 30's is certainly
not going to exclude you from being hired, and having some experience should
be a positive for you. I don't think people are yet to see early 30's as some
red flag (but I'm over 40 so what do I know?).

Why do you feel you would be restricted to only working remotely? It appears
you are not aware of any startup scene in the UK. In talking to some
recruiters in the UK, I assure you that there is a vibrant tech scene in at
least certain parts of the UK.

Dedicate some time to finding a job. Take it seriously, get a portfolio of
code together and be able to demonstrate what you are able to do. I don't
think your age is a factor at all, but the ability to write good code trumps
(almost) all.

------
rsto
Why wouldn't you? Your skills fit the technology stack of many web-centric
companies out there.

If it's your age you are concerned about: Being far away from Silicon Valley
myself I can't tell you if age is that important there. Given that there seems
to be a shortage of skilled hackers I doubt it. Besides: I read somewhere that
the average age of YC founders is around 28.

Regarding work from remote: I don't know if it has to be a startup, but if not
you might also consider applying at Mozilla or Canonical, both of which offer
a range of remote work opportunities for tech people.

------
wisty
Yes. Ask them. You can find start-ups pretty much anywhere (maybe try
[http://www.crunchbase.com/](http://www.crunchbase.com/)), they don't exactly
try to stay invisible (especially if they have funding). I'm willing to bet if
you sent in emails to 10 of them (personalised, pointing out how you know
their stack) one of them will have stuff you can work on.

All that crap about 20-year old rockstars is just that - crap.

------
samchung
I am thinking about starting a start up. No funding or anything. Its in the
initial phase. If I had the funding you would be the kind of guy that I would
want to hire. Its not age, but the skills that you have that is important.
However, your location can also factor into you being hired. We should talk?

