
Sidepact: start a company with a full-time job - manderchar
https://www.sidepact.com/
======
wkoszek
Hm. I’m a little puzzled. If you can’t meet other people to talk, you’ll have
problems forming a firm. So my counter-offer to people reading this: meet with
each other for lunch every Sunday. It’ll be $15/lunch. After 12 weeks of
lunches you will know if you like the people and whether they have thr skills
and can form your team anyway and not give anybody anything, especially the
1%. To find people who care, form a meetup, post on HN and Reddit. If nobody
replies after 12 attemps, your idea is wrong and change your idea. This method
lets you iterate through 5 ideas a year. If you dont have the idea and like
coding - there are hundreds of post on how to find the idea. Ping me if you
still have no idea. I can give you hundreds of ideas that I have no time
building.

~~~
manderchar
We really hope that people feel inspired to do that too! We've found that for
some founders, having structure and shared commitment go a long way and we'd
like to support that part of the process. The equity is also there to ensure
that the organization has aligned incentives and skin in the game.

~~~
wkoszek
Make it be $300/month. This would align people too. Or maybe publish the list
of VCs and angels who will come to pitch week. If its Andressen Horowitz or
Sequoia or Mayfield, that makes sense

~~~
manderchar
We've thought about charging more to ensure commitment through the program,
but we'd like to make the program as accessible as possible (especially for
our first cohort).

As for the VCs and angels coming to pitch week, we're actively working on this
and hope to have more to share over the coming weeks.

------
bmpafa
> The program charges a $30/week to cover costs and participants must be
> located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sidepact takes a 1% equity stake in
> companies from companies formed during program upon incorporation.

~~~
konschubert
I would have thought that paying the fee would have been enough. A one percent
stake seems a bit ... I don't know. They aren't investing or anything, right?

~~~
Touche
Right, this is a co-working space that does mild cofounder screening and takes
1% of your company.

~~~
konschubert
A co-working space used only on Sundays.

------
sidlls
I'd expect for a 1% stake to get something of value in return, like access to
investors (angel and seed stage, not VC) to at least pitch the idea to, office
hours with successful other company starters, etc. The $30/week covers what
you're offering already and it seems like you get the 1% for basically
nothing. On the other hand 1% of most of the companies that come out of this
is likely to be worth not much.

~~~
manderchar
We aim to provide teams access to relevant angel/seed investors on the demo
day at the end of the program.

~~~
sidlls
"Aim to provide" is pretty loose. There really should be a guarantee of some
sort in there. Not to be funded, of course, but _something_.

~~~
lsc
It's not so much a guarantee we (the potential users) want, as something
showing that the company _could_ credibly provide that access.

~~~
manderchar
That makes sense; and we will have more information on this front.

As a side note, aside from the above sources of value mentioned (essentially
access), one thing that we're looking to provide is some structure and
community to those who are also looking to start a company. We recognize that
this is not something necessarily every founder needs

~~~
lsc
it's something I need very much. but part of needing it is that I'm not...
particularly qualified to evaluate your ability to give it to me, which makes
things difficult.

Really, that's the hard part about hiring help in general; the areas where you
need the most help, you generally don't have the skill required to recognize
skill, so you are reliant entirely on credentials, and even picking which
credentials to select for is difficult when you don't know the field.

------
albertgoeswoof
> Week 7-11: Build, prototype, and validate your solution with prospective
> customers

> The time commitment is Sundays 12-6PM for twelve weeks in fall 2018

Is 24 hours really long enough to build something valuable, prototype it and
validate it?

When I build things in my spare time it takes me way longer than that... but
then I don't write code full time for a living so maybe I'm just slow...

~~~
bmpafa
I think the usual approach with these 'sprint' methodologies is to use
software like InVision, Figma, etc. to mock-up a prototype. No sense coding
before you've got proof positive that users will care, the thinking goes.

See: [http://www.gv.com/sprint/](http://www.gv.com/sprint/)

------
dang
It isn't cool to try to boost your post with promotional upvotes, whether from
sockpuppet accounts or friends. That is against the rules here
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html))
and we ban or penalize accounts and sites that do it.

~~~
anitil
Out of interest, how did you pick it up? (I understand you may not want to
reveal this)

~~~
dang
Yeah, that's one of the few cases where intellectual curiosity (the driving
value of HN) has to yield to administrative secrets (boo). In case it helps:
the answer is not that interesting. I just can't publish it because then we'd
burn the method.

~~~
anitil
Sure, I figured as much

------
andrewstuart
I would have thought that many companies have intellectual property clauses
that grant ownership of all IP to the employer, whether that IP is created on
company or personal time.

How do you address this?

~~~
lazaroclapp
Depends where you live. California law renders those clauses null as long as
the IP is generated outside of work, without use of employer equipment,
facilities, internal knowledge or other IP already belonging to the employer.
There are some potential issues if the side work "relates to the employer's
business", so running any specific plan through a real lawyer is a good idea
at some point. But, as far as I have heard, doing this is not uncommon when
the side-project does not compete with the employer in any way.

IANAL. For specifics, see § 2870:
[https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=2870)

Presumably some other jurisdictions have similar laws, and that is a factor in
your job search if you are planning to work on anything on the side: pick a
location with laws that allow this. Failing that, you can negotiate to retain
IP on existing side-projects when you join a company, as an amendment to your
contract.

------
manderchar
Cofounders of Sidepact here.

We’re looking for ambitious engineers with or without full-time jobs, who want
to start a company. Sidepact does the work of matching you with a team and
establishing shared commitment on a meaningful problem. It’s like an extended
hackathon, with the goal of bringing you to the validation and launch of your
startup.

That’s our vision, and we hope you’ll join us!

~~~
denverkarma
Sounds like you’re trying to network people who want to “do something” but
don’t have anything in-flight. How do you feel about engineers who already
have a side hustle going and would like to find help to ramp it up?

~~~
manderchar
That's wonderful! We only ask that you come in with an open mind to other
ideas and share the ownership of what you build together.

------
patrickxie
This is a great idea. Can I apply with the following profile?

Entrepreneur currently working on scaling a startup I founded a year ago. Have
a list of business ideas would like to pursue. Assembling a team is the
biggest challenge.

Have skills in taking a product from idea to market fit. (technical +
marketing)

~~~
manderchar
Yes, you fit the bill! :) We ask that you come in with an open mind to others'
ideas and share the ownership of what you build together.

------
vinceguidry
This is very interesting to me. Not in SF, so I can't take advantage, but I'd
certainly strongly consider an incubator service focusing on currently
employed entrepreneurs.

------
RobLach
Man, this would be great way to soak up a bunch of concepts and then hire out
a team of full-timers if those hobbyist founders happen to gain some traction.

------
thebigtree
Wish there was one for non engineers

~~~
albertgoeswoof
Given that there's no formal qualification as an engineer you could probably
just show up and get away without writing any code...

~~~
manderchar
We have interviews ;)

------
johnwheeler
how do you get them to keep paying you the 30 weekly fee? how long do they
have to pay it for?

~~~
manderchar
The program is 12 weeks, so the fee extends through that duration. At the end
of the 12 weeks, there's a demo day (similar to YC). The fee aims to cover
basic venue costs, snacks, and shared social events to build camaraderie.

~~~
NonEUCitizen
You should bill the $360 to the investors instead of the engineers. It will
also prove to the engineers that you can round up the investors.

------
ThatHNGuy
but how can I run a company if I have no time after my full-time job?

