
Show HN: Betatype - A freelance site where clients pay $3,500 for prototypes - brandonhsiao
http://betatype.io
======
aculver
As someone who is a member of both of this site's target audiences, I'd be
curious to actually see some live samples of products that were developed on a
$3,500 budget. I think that would help give "idea people" a realistic
expectation for what the scope of their project should be in it's first
iteration, and it would set some expectation for the developers as to what
they should be able to produce on a $3,500 budget.

Another thing I'd like to see Betatype providing is some sort of franchised
coaching and guidance to both the product owner and the developer on how to
best set themselves and the other party up for success.

~~~
7Figures2Commas
> Another thing I'd like to see Betatype providing is some sort of franchised
> coaching and guidance to both the product owner and the developer on how to
> best set themselves and the other party up for success.

Coaching and guidance isn't a substitute for experience. You can learn about
the product lifecycle by reading a book or taking a class, but that doesn't
mean you know how to manage it in the real world. Frankly, the number of good
developers who can also credibly wear the hat of product manager is much, much
smaller than the number of good developers.

~~~
woah
No way I would wear the hats of a product manager and a developer at that
price point. The spec better be really good, and no "little changes".

If they have a way to make this happen, then it's an amazing product. If not,
then there will be a lot of disappointment on both sides.

~~~
netcan
To all the people dismissing the site based on low potential earnings for the
developer.

From a quick look on elance. There are currently 10,344 "Web Developers" with
a listed hourly rate. The cutoffs for 50/75/90 percentiles are $15, $25 & $40
per hour. Obviously dance doesn't represent the top earning developers. Elance
covers the low end, mostly.

The hourly rate of developers ranges a lot. So does the hourly output. Silicon
Valley veterans expect $100-$200 per hour. On a worldwide scale, that's high
end free lancing. Jobs usually come by way of personal introductions and
relationships.

I totally agree that few are going to turn down a job at Google to build $3500
prototypes.

The gigs you can get as a freelancer for a SV company are not something that
most elance developers can compete for. You can't cold call your way into them
and you can't get them through a website. Part of the reason is skillet, some
of it is cultural. The ability to relate to the person hiring, sell yourself
and a whole bunch of other soft reasons play a role too. They can't get to the
high end.

A lot of the startups in this space seem to be trying to crack the middle end,
which IMO is underdeveloped. My guess is that's the $25-$60 per hour range.
This is (as mentioned elsewhere on this thread) rational in the context of
average developer salaries in some parts of the world. BTW, $50 per hour X
20-40 hours per week will buy you a great lifestyle.

Also, a freelancer on his 26th $3500 prototype may get pretty good at it.
They'll be using suitable tools have methods for coxing ideas out of clients.
It is it's own skillet.

------
dangero
I look at it like this: There are 4 directions that a software project can be
constrained: Time, price, scope, and quality.

1\. Elance or ODesk can offer you fixed time, price, and scope, but highly
erratic quality.

2\. An expensive contracting agency can offer you fixed time, scope, and
quality, but with high costs.

3\. This site promises fixed cost, and quality, but makes no promises on scope
or completion timeline.

All that's left is for someone to make a site that has fixed timing, like
"Software Prototypes in One Week". I'll wait for that one to hit the front
page of HN. As a developer I'd actually prefer that because I know when it's
going to be over.

~~~
ville
"All that's left is for someone to make a site that has fixed timing, like
"Software Prototypes in One Week"."

Looks like someone already did that too:
[http://protoverstas.com](http://protoverstas.com)

~~~
jpatokal
10,000 EUR + 2.5% equity (o_O);

~~~
tluyben2
More realistic though; you really cannot do anything for $3500 (E2500). Well
you can do something but it won't be very nice I don't think. E10k is good for
a proto.

------
sethbannon
Neat idea. Initial thought is that I have trouble seeing this be profitable,
given how little Betatype is taking. Betatype itself is only getting $140 /
project and for this is promising to "help clients flesh out their idea into a
clear list of requirements." That alone could take many hours of back and
forth.

~~~
aculver
Agree. One strategy would be to do the upfront project analysis at a loss
until they get the hang of it and identify the patterns, then create automated
tools that product owners can work with to get the same work done. Or maybe
they already have automated tools.

However, my bigger concern is that working out the requirements is being done
by someone other than the developer that's going to be working on the project.
If you're trying to get something done on a budget, fewer people in the mix is
better.

Furthermore, the conversation about product requirements needs to be a two way
discussion. Developers are often in a unique position to guide a product owner
into what's easy to implement and provides the biggest "bang for your buck."
Their early insight can radically shape the product and is not based on what
the customer thinks they need, but what the customer communicates their goals
are. This is where a consultant can provide serious ROI to a product owner.

~~~
dsrguru
It seems like the fear is that allowing the developer to have direct
communication with the client could result in people circumventing the 4%
commission. But unless they come up with an excellent workaround, it might be
hard for the site to catch on without allowing that communication.

~~~
alttab
They are trying to create a two-sided marketplace on something that is
traditionally a consulting gig.

So many things can go sideways, and at a 4% take on $3,500 projects, as
loosely defined as that is, there is no way this can scale.

~~~
lugg
> No way

Sure there is, limit to what time they spend working on getting projects
ready, if they don't meet a certain standard, drop them and give quick 5
second tips to get them back in the queue. If they don't produce a reasonable
spec in enough attempts just drop them as a user.

Even the AP had a work around for scaling this further, run at a loss for some
time while you identify patterns of failure, produce resources for the user to
solve their own problems.

For $140 I could easily spend 10-20 minutes looking at a rough spec and tell
you if it is workable for 3500, I'd even be able to put in a few slash points
on which features would likely need to be cut.

For some perspective, $3500 @ $50/hour = 70 hours. In other words, 1-3 weeks
of dev time.

~~~
kondro
LOL, $50/hour.

The types of developers you want creating your prototypes are those that can
justify charging $200+ per hour because they have past business/user
experience to truly understand what you want to achieve from your project as
opposed to what you've specified.

~~~
hrjet
In developing countries, $50/hour is considered very lucrative. Thus the
hourly rate is not a good indicator of developer quality.

~~~
kondro
I assure you, it very much is.

------
flippyhead
I'm sure a could read a bunch to find out your answer, but it wasn't quickly
enough obvious to me (as a programmer) how you ensure the scope of work is
actually equal to $3500 of my time.

~~~
huragok
Agreed. An example scope of a prototype would be very valuable to see if it's
worth the time signing up. Additionally, I'm guessing that rudimentary design
skills would be required because there's a helluva difference between a
functional bootstrap proto vs designing a product with specific design goals
in mind.

~~~
vargas84
I agree with this - I think both parties would greatly benefit from being able
to see a "standard" prototype. Over time, I'm sure a that few spec templates
could be developed that would cover 80% percent of use cases. It sounds like a
scalable model to me.

As a university student, this is really pretty great. I will have the
opportunity to work on reasonably sized projects, earn some extra cash, and
probably build a pretty sweet portfolio. I even think it would be cool to form
student orgs around this - have upperclassmen train underclassmen in the art
of full stack web-dev, and then have let two underclassmen jump into one of
these projects with the guidance of an experienced dev. Finally, split the
profits. If any of the founders are reading this, would you be open to
something like this?

------
jsankey
It's nice that the dollar figures are all upfront on this page, but it seems a
bit strange to say "Get a working, launchable prototype for $3,500" when the
client actually pays $3570. It seems that you're putting half of your fee on
the client side and the other half on the programmer side, but in doing so the
client's seeing a mixed message that could be off putting.

~~~
robbiemitchell
I doubt it's off putting. 2% for the sake of simplicity is OK. Similarly,
"$10k" would be fine instead of "$10,200."

~~~
aleem
In UK, prices are always inclusive of VAT. Going back to the U.S. pricing
model after that is annoying to say the least. A price discrepancy leaves room
for dispute unless you add "fine print" for "hidden fees", both of which are
frowned upon to the extent that many products market themselves as having no
"hidden fees". Consumers never benefit from any of it, only companies do.

------
7Figures2Commas
> As part of our screening, we'll help clients flesh out their idea into a
> clear list of requirements.

At market rate for an _experienced_ contract product manager or developer with
product management chops, the process of defining functional requirements for
a new product will usually entail more than $3,500 worth of work.

------
llamataboot
I just can't imagine any non brochure-ware prototype that can be built for
$3500 (let's leave off the problems of the middleman not making much money on
this one /and/ promising to do project management).

two problems

1) limited hours - you're talking about somewhere around 20-30 hours of senior
dev time or 40-70 hours of a newer devs time. Let's say they can both
accomplish the same amount during that timeframe. It's still /not that much/
especially if you are taking any design into consideration beyond popping
bootstrap on it.

2) zero iterations. (and this is perhaps a bigger problem, since the first can
be solved simply be changing it to a prototype for $10k or whatever) I've
never seen even an MVP come out fully baked without a lot of iterations at the
beginning. Arguably prototyping is the process of rapid iteration. One and
done just doesn't work for what a prototype needs.

~~~
richardkeller
Considering that a mid-level to senior South African developer makes around
R40'000 per month (which is roughly what $3500 equates to), you would be able
to get an entire month's worth of work from a competent developer based here
in SA.

~~~
instakill
Came here to say this. I'd go so far as to say that a two man team from a
country like SA or India, with a back-ender + front-ender, working on 2
prototypes a month, can make a healthy living.

~~~
lugg
I find this kind of funny I've seen this forgetfulness elsewhere in the
thread. We all work in the worldwide web here on hns, yet we constantly forget
about the rest of the world.

------
larrys
This seems more like "vet my potential idea" rather than "Show hn".

Domain was registered today and we can assume the idea was hatched today if
not fairly recently.

There is nothing here other than a single page and a way to signup for either
a programmer or person with an idea.

This isn't a business it's an idea. Wrapping it in a somewhat acceptably
designed website and some marketing speak and seeing HN start to nibble as if
it's some real thing actually happening is always interesting.

When is the line crossed between "Show HN" and free advertising for your idea?

~~~
Strom
The same person registered another similar domain for more personal offers
just a few weeks ago.
[http://prototypefor2345.com/](http://prototypefor2345.com/)

Betatype seems like an iteration of this previous site.

------
richardkeller
I see a lot of comments here about the quality of work that can be delivered
on a $3500 budget. While this may be considered a shoestring budget in
developed countries, it is completely reasonable in developing countries such
as South Africa. Here, $3500 equates to roughly R37'000, which would be
considered a decent monthly salary for a mid-level to senior software
developer (depending on location, of course). So from this perspective, a
South African developer would easily be able to spend a month developing such
a prototype, which is almost enough time to develop a functional system for a
simple-enough use-case. I've personally developed a few pieces of software
around this price-point: software that is actively in use now and not just a
prototype, and whose code I don't consider completely terrible either.

------
thedogeye
Will need to do 10,000 apps to make $1.4M in revenue. Pretty tough business.
If I were CEO I would raise your 4% fee and charge more than $3,500 per app.

~~~
lugg
I have a feeling their numbers are soft for a reason. 5000 is a solid
investment, 3500, thats a small portion of dayjobs income i could drop to get
a sideproject trialed. 4% is also very minor, where 5+ would likely look a
little too middleman-y for my liking.

Limit the size of the project, limit the size of the investment, limit the
cost.

Going forward I expect they will have to do some form of tiering once they see
the type of work is in demand, and which type of work is achievable by their
developers (which all is still unknown at this point) Example tiers: 500-1000
= quick site, 3500 = mvp, 5000-10000 = soft launch

------
bitJericho
It turns out you have to submit a CV and portfolio. If I knew I was applying
for a job I wouldn't have submitted my email :/

------
Ethan_Mick
It wasn't clear to me that the prototypes would be web only - I'm an iOS
developer and figured I'd sign up.

To be fair, I think the idea would work for different platforms, but perhaps
be explicit on the front page.

------
thejosh
Sort of offtopic, but has any non technical person launched a startup /
business without a technical cofounder?

The company I work for gets people asking for quotes to build their "next big
idea", where the person isn't technical but has industry experience behind
them.. this has turned out pretty well for some people.

~~~
7Figures2Commas
It happens all the time. I have been involved in such businesses, and there
are public examples[1].

Entrepreneurs who don't code _do not_ need technical co-founders. There are
plenty of talented firms and solo developers with product management chops who
will collaborate with you to build a product. The entrepreneur pays a fair
rate and the service provider delivers a solid foundation on which to pursue
the business.

Many if not most of the folks looking to jump into bed with a technical co-
founder they have no existing relationship with are doing so because they
don't have adequate capital. Undercapitalization is one of the top reasons new
businesses fail, so most equity-only/deferred comp. technical co-founder
opportunities are unattractive from the start.

[1] [http://www.groovehq.com/blog/technical-co-
founder](http://www.groovehq.com/blog/technical-co-founder)

~~~
taigeair
So this is quite relevant to me.

I wouldn't like to be a solo founder because it's too much work and stress for
one person. I've had this idea for a mobile app (it's a social network game -
littlequest.me) for about 2 years now but still haven't done it because I
don't have the right co-founder. Mostly because my network is too dispersed I
think.

I do have a couple friends with no experience with building mobile apps
interested though. Do you think I should team up with them or hire a
professional? I really don't like the idea of doing a business by myself
though.

~~~
alttab
Since you're asking for advice, don't go into business "with your friends" who
have "no experience." You'll lose one without gaining any of the other.

~~~
taigeair
Why is that?

------
ApolloRising
Are you handling the escrow in a safe manner to make sure everyone gets paid?
What is your dispute resolution plan?

~~~
err4nt
They mention on the homepage of the site that you _can_ handle payment
entirely outside of their system in your own terms.

------
netcan
Sometimes a blank canvas is not a good thing. Twitter invented something
entirely defined by its constraints.

The process of negotiating, defining and developing an "prototype" between a
client and a freelance developer is hard, for both sides. Often, neither are
skilled at managing the process.

Once you limit some aspect of the project, you can adjust the other aspects
around the limitation and everything becomes simpler. It's a lot easier to
scope a project when the scope needs to fit in a $3500 budget. Simplifying
negotiations and decision making could be a big win. Choosing a developer by
looking at a portfolio is a lot easier when the scope budgets are the same.

I wonder if this idea could usefully be applied to something outside of
software. How about a $3500 (or whatever) custom kitchen.

~~~
coreymaass
For me, I use a one-hour skype session to talk every potential client "down
off the ceiling". We discuss their idea, and then work together to define a
scope I can do for $5,000 in 4 weeks (this is the service I offer at
[http://builtFromIdeas.com](http://builtFromIdeas.com) )

~~~
lamby
Could you go into more detail about how you deal with the initial stages? What
if the client wants more, eg. "without this feature it doesn't make sense",
etc. Thanks in advance.

------
guptaneil
This is a cool idea. I've been experimenting with a similar model for design.
Undesigned[1] will redesign or prototype a single page in one week for $1500.

In your case, the greatest struggle is going to be supplying the marketplace.
It makes sense to offer the service at unsustainable margins for now while you
seed the market, so I wouldn't worry too much about all the comments talking
about how unsustainable it is, and instead focus on the ones talking about the
difficulty of building a marketplace.

1: [http://www.undesigned.io](http://www.undesigned.io)

~~~
tga
You're on good tracks, this is one of the things 37signals did in the
beginning.

" Want to make one of your site's pages better? Check out 37express: 1-page
redesigns in 1-week. 37express is perfect for companies that need one more
design comp, rapid professional prototyping of a wireframe or early-design
concept, or just a quick, hassle-free, "how could this page be better?"
creative spark. "

[http://37signals.com/better.php](http://37signals.com/better.php)

------
mikkom
You make it pretty hard to register. I don't want to send all kinds of details
about myself when checking if a service is worth my time and I don't think I'm
the only one.

~~~
adamcw
Show stopper for me as well. I wanted to see if they had any projects that
would be fun for a night/weekend type thing, but they are asking a lot of info
without giving enough back to make me feel comfortable sharing.

------
smoyer
It's a nice site ... what's your strategy for solving the chicken-and-egg
marketplace problem?

~~~
ZirconCode
Upon creating my account I received an account id of around 1050~. Looks like
little is done to obscure the numbers. Perhaps they hope sufficient hype will
solve the problem?

~~~
grrowl
1806\. Looks like they're getting popular.

~~~
alixaxel
Indeed, 2010 here. Sequential for sure.

~~~
mkal_tsr
North of 2800 here

------
themoonbus
Are all prototypes worth $3500? I'm confused as to why there is a fixed price.

~~~
acjohnson55
I think it makes sense. It implicitly keeps the project scope very limited and
it eliminates a lot of the haggling.

My biggest concern, like others have mentioned, is that it seems unscalable
with the cut that the company keeps.

------
sesm
Spotted a typo:

[http://betatype.io/whyapply](http://betatype.io/whyapply) says:

> All job postings are required to be as clear and specific as possible, and
> they're required to pay 1/4 ($625) up front.

This points to conclusion, that the author initially set the price to $2500,
but changed to $3500 later.

------
gedrap
I like the idea of it, was thinking of something myself not too long ago.

It's great because it provides big value, and your (i.e. betatype founder,
contractor specialising on prototypes, etc) job is to highlight the value
because it's not obvious for many. Doing that seems like a fun experience.

Tell the "idea people" that you will sell some seemingly incomplete software
which might need to be thrown away for $3500 and they will shrug their
shoulders or laugh.

Tell the same people that for $3500 you will help them to find out the
potential of their idea for a small price, and they, in the ideal world,
should love it. Many of us have worked on some project, which was sort of
stealth project and founders spent loads of cash just to find out that no one
needs it. All of it could have been avoided for $3500.

But how close the real world is to the ideal world?

------
the_cat_kittles
To all the people saying this price is so too low- don't you think that they
are doing this to attract a bunch of people to solve the chicken-egg network
effect problem first? Then I'm sure they will raise their cut.

~~~
r00fus
They should also have some good reference-able wins as well, and most
importably, knowledge of the advisory/selection process well in hand.

I'm in neither market, but I'm very interested to see how this goes, and
whether it can be extended to mobile app dev, or longer than 1wk dev projects.

------
abus
Really should be https. I like the idea though and hope it's successful.

------
aegiso
On the bright side, this project acknowledges the killer issue with these
kinds of marketplaces: scalably managing quality, scope, and disputes.

But on the other hand, I see nothing but assurances and a woefully low cut
that I can't imagine could keep this train chugging without shoveling time
(=money) into the furnace. At ~$140 revenue a pop, if even 4% of projects go
off the rails, the "insurance" policy already puts the company in the red --
forget profit.

There is a huge problem to solve here, for sure. I want someone to solve it.
But I'm not seeing a solution.

------
bruceb
Cool but there are already similar services:
[http://launchyard.com/](http://launchyard.com/)

They will help you focus your idea and one of their partners will build the
prototype.

~~~
aatifh
Thanks for the shoutout Bruce.

I'm the Founder of LaunchYard.com, and we have been successfully helping
entrepreneurs from the last 1 and half years to launch their products. For
instance: [http://launchyard.com/case-
studies/albums/](http://launchyard.com/case-studies/albums/)

Shoot me a line if anyone wants to learn more. atif at launchyard.com

------
pushkargaikwad
I liked the idea, atleast Betatype will have less noise and better quality of
developers/hackers. I wonders how will the quality be maintained though. Also
there is thin line between what are beta products ? will you prescreen the
projects posted ? also there are good chances that buyers will misuse the
service due it being flat cost in nature. Expect people asking for N number of
features and changing deliverable as well as unsatisfied buyers.

------
aroman
Clicking "learn more" on the "idea guy" side 500s for me:

[http://betatype.io/whypost](http://betatype.io/whypost)

~~~
aaronz8
Everything that I'd expect to 404 gives me 500s.

~~~
Carioca
Probably using a framework (Django, for instance) that doesn't have a default
404 path.

~~~
ragsagar
If 404 template is absent, in the case of django it will show Not Found The
requested URL /whypost was not found on this server.

------
DigitalSea
Really cool idea, but I think a flat-cost of $3,500 for a prototype is way too
low and the approach is error prone. How about iteration? Iteration is one of
the key factors during the prototyping process. Does that $3,500 figure cover
only one iteration or the initial development and consequent iterations? Or
does a company/individual have to pay another $3,500 per each revision?

------
funkyy
Interesting idea but so far poor start. We need more information, less errors.
I would like a video on main page explaining what you are doing here and why
anyone should use you. Outline strengths of your idea and give much more
details please. The next few hours will be probably a turning point if this
idea will work for you or not. So be quick and fix all the issues!

------
k-mcgrady
What does the programmer screening process involve?

------
nperez
Assuming this is 2-3 weeks of work, I hope there are a lot of strict controls
in place concerning requirements to stave off the "wait, this should be
simple" chronic under-estimators, but I've been in plenty of spots where
quickly getting a project like this would have meant a lot. Hope it works out
for this site.

------
zensavona
This is one of the most interesting things I've seen as a Show HN in ages...
Awesome! I can't wait to see how this plays out, and how scared people are to
tell each other about what they're building with it, while it's begin built
(e.g. if listings for ideas are public to developers?)

------
Yunk
> launchable web application prototype

This sounds like an oxymoron which would imply the two sides of the
transaction have separate expectations.

As reasonable developers, do we build out the system, security, data backup
plan of a "prototype"? As reasonable buyers do we "launch" an application
without them?

------
tluyben2
$3500 is one week without talking too much to the client; not sure how to get
something usable from that? If your idea is clear then sure, but (hopefully)
most aren't and then you need a few days talking/sketching and starting up
your favorite edi... oops $3500 gone.

------
junto
> Automatic payments without any hassle. We'll drop money into your bank
> account on a rolling basis.

What does this mean exactly? My prototype will be connected up to your Stripe
account and then you'll transfer the money my app makes to me through
periodical bank transfers?

~~~
ckannan90
No, I believe it means the programmer gets automatically paid when milestones
are marked as done. They are referring to the 3.5k being paid for the job. Any
revenue the app gets has nothing to do with them.

------
ValentineC
Looks like this is something interesting that came up from cwilson's
suggestion on one of brandonhsiao's earlier submissions:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7606963](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7606963)

------
jnhuynh
Did anyone else notice that the "Apply as programmer" sign up page doesn't use
HTTPS? Is it just me or this is the case for everyone.

[http://betatype.io/createacc/hacker](http://betatype.io/createacc/hacker)

It stopped my sign up immediately.

------
martin_bech
Love it taking something thats seemingly a complex process and turning it into
a product. Only thing is, they should be charging a lot more than 4%. Perhaps
the 500 USD or a similar fee on top. If you provide value, charge for that
value.

------
bnt
OK, what the actual f __k? I register as a programmer and then a page shows up
saying "Thank you for registering, now please EMAIL us your info - and we'll
get back in touch". Fail on so many levels.

------
ivan_ah
I really like this idea, and in combination with the bitnami stacks, the
"handover" to the client could be very easy too.

[1] [https://bitnami.com/stacks](https://bitnami.com/stacks)

------
kapkapkap
I think you should take more than a 4% cut, that doesn't seem sustainable.

------
ldubinets
Nice. I've thought about building such a service myself. Found this when I was
looking around: [http://iwbyp.chris-granger.com/](http://iwbyp.chris-
granger.com/)

------
betadreamer
The term prototype seem ambiguous enough that will cause problems. How far
does it have to done? How much bugs can it have? Cross-browser compatible? The
problem with fixed pricing is that its not scalable.

------
leorocky
This would only makes sense to me if I could acquire and complete 3 prototypes
a month which would be an unlikely outcome with an insane amount of work with
little hope of making more.

------
Kiro
I interpret this as "get a crappy MVP prototype for a very low price" which I
think sounds great. I don't think the price is too low if that's the expected
outcome.

------
twodayslate
I love that you allow people to "pay outside". I wish more services offered
this. Just be sure that users understand the risks associated with "paying
outside".

------
seyz
Nice product. 1 year ago, I launched "Two weeks to materialize your idea":
[http://munda.me](http://munda.me)

This business model works well. Congrats.

------
kondro
4% doesn't seem sustainable if they're taking credit card payments. The best
they can probably get to is around 1.2% transaction fee (if they've shopped
around) and this is unlikely given the risk profile of a _marketplace_ like
this. I bet they are paying 2.5%+. So 1.5% ($52.50) profit per project?

I have to wonder how they came up with 4% (2% per side). Surely 10-20% is
still a reasonable fee to connect these parties and manage the relationship.

Heck, both I and the purchaser pays 10% to an auctioneer to sell my stuff in <
60 seconds (yes, I know they do a little more than that… but mostly it's about
supplying the marketplace).

~~~
unreal37
Unless the creator of this marketplace is himself a provider, in which case he
picks the best projects for himself at $3000 profit, and offloads the bad
projects to others for $50 profit.

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yeskia
From the /whyapply page:

 _We 're a site that pairs contract programmers with clients. Specifically,
we're a marketplace where clients buy prototypes for $2,500._

~~~
jaredsohn
It says $3,500 now. (Maybe somebody read your comment and fixed it?)

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
The price grows as a function of time. Clients had better get in now while
it's still this cheap.

------
robbiemitchell
A business where most customers aren't qualified to be good customers. (Bad at
defining, scoping, specs, estimating, having realistic expectations...)

------
Jean-Philipe
I've tried to contact them a few times via their application form and via
email, but no response. Has anybody actually get into the program?

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eauden
No SSL? Not even for sign up and sign in? How is my info (user, password,
e-mail, name, banking info) going to be "protected"?

Has people given up on SSL (and any security for that matter) already because
of Heartbleed? I guess I can hear some people talking: "We don't need SSL! Not
having it is pretty much the same, but with less overhead!"

Seriously, without SSL, you are Beta at best. And if you have been operating
like this for a while, well that's terrible... Your users should be very
concerned.

------
hanley
Typo under 'Both sides get what they really want'.

> Programmers get _get_ paid to implement a well-defined spec.

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ing33k
I have seen similar sites like this like 5k MVP, 10k MVP. wanted to know if
pricing is the only difference .

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AndrewKemendo
I feel like this is the startup that so many of us have always wanted to do.
Kudos for doing it!

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lcusack
So, assuming you had an extra $3,500 to blow. What would you most like to have
built?

------
inc
"What We Offer" "I'll write this when I have time."

Looking forward to this.

------
xpop2027
Interesting.. signed up for this. I wonder what the scope of work is for
$3,500.

------
toppy
Change description on login page unless you're Rokumo ;)

------
sinzone
price should be higher to have a decent output. Around $5000.

------
tomasien
How are you taking payments? Checks?

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Angrycrow
The premise alone makes me think that someone is trying to get some free money
... snake oil smell. Know what I mean? Why read this?

------
jayvanguard
Sounds too good to be true.

