
Proposition HN: I will pay $8000 for you to build your side-project/MVP - hmexx
<i>Premise 1:</i><p>Investors/Incubators over-estimate their ability to pick good ideas/startups.<p><i>Premise 2:</i><p>An MVP built by a lone, but talented techie is almost as likely to turn into something 'successful' as a startup on angellist that has: 4 founders, 9 advisors, 13 press releases, 600 followers, etc<p><i>Premise 3:</i><p>Most freelancers will not build and/or follow-through with their ideas, because they perceive their opportunity cost to be too high.<p><i>Premise 4:</i><p>HackerNews has a decent number of talented freelancers with good ideas.<p>Based on these premises, I present <i>The Proposition [Version 1.0]:</i><p>I'll pay you $5000 to build the MVP of that idea you've been kicking around in your head for the last year. Once you're done (ideally within 2 months), you can go back to earning your full potential. At this point, I'll take over and spend an additional $3000 to acquire enough users/customers for us to evaluate the project's likelihood of success. We split the resulting company 50-50, as equal co-founders.
======
hmexx
_Pre-emptive FAQ:_

 _Isn't this a horrible deal? Incubators typically inject more money for far
less equity! I earn $10K a month, I could easily save up $8K in a few months,
and do this myself for 100% equity._

True. If you can get into YCombinator, for example , you should obviously go
for it. I can't compete with that. If you're earning $150K+, or you've already
been working on your side-project for a year, this may not be for you. On the
other hand, if you're just getting started and you need a little push, both
financially and emotionally, this could be right up your alley.

 _Who the hell are you? Why would I work with you?_

I'm also a techie. Have had one moderately successful venture so far, which
has given me a comfortable life (but not quite retirement amount). I want to
reduce my coding time and instead help people get their ideas to market using
my resources. Hopefully we can build a few success stories along the way. You
can find out more during our first Skype chat!

 _Will you fund everyone and every thing?_

No. I'll still need to like your idea, and feel that a positive long-term
return is possible. But my belief in Premise 1, combined with the favorable
structure of the proposition, means I don't need to be that picky. I'll also
need you to commit to working on the MVP full-time until it's done. Evenings +
Weekend work is something this structure is actively aiming to avoid. Sign up,
ship it, then go back to earning a steady income.

~~~
hmexx
If interested, drop me a line at hnproject2013@gmail.com

If you have questions or HN-style critic on the structure/proposition, write
below and help me build proposition version 1.1!

~~~
jeremyarussell
I'd take you up on the offer, but for a couple things. Maybe it just means
this isn't for me.

1 - That 50 - 50 split is a killer when I'm doing most of the work. 2 - You
talk about taking a month or two and full time working on this project until
completion. Trust me when I say I'd love to do that, the issue is I can't just
go jump back into the same job as if I didn't ditch everyone here for two
months.

Like I said this is probably just not for me, but those are two things you may
want to consider for version 1.1.

~~~
ednc
You're asserting that customer acquisition is easy and low cost. It's not.

For a product that can be built in 2 months (per the guidance here), it is
going to take much more time to develop the sales and marketing and acquire
enough customers to make it profitable.

I think this underscores why this may be a great deal for a (young?) developer
with limited business experience. I learned a lot of hard lessons like this
once I stepped away from an editor.

~~~
jeremyarussell
I see where you thought I was asserting anything, when I said the 50 - 50
split was a killer for me doing most of the work. I hadn't really meant it
like that but since your right in that customer acquisition isn't easy for
people that have never done it then I refer you to a comment I posted below.
That this is really for someone who has a crummy low wage job and would stand
to gain a lot out of the deal.

As for me personally (which I said off the bat was the kind of answers I was
bringing. Personal opinions on why I myself wouldn't do it.) I feel
comfortable with my ability to sale to people and gain good traction and
growth.

~~~
ednc
you're right - this is not right for everyone. I wouldn't do it either - but
10-15 years ago, this would have been great for me.

But this is a killer opportunity, especially for someone younger who can live
on the 5k and is not worried about family and mortgages yet.

This could be better than an MBA for many people who want to bring a real
product to market.

Note: I have no context at all on the OP, so I'm making the jump that they
have a strong business background and would not be flailing around once it was
time to execute.

------
jacquesm
To the naysayers in this thread: You have several options here other than just
saying 'oohhh, this is mean and nasty'.

\- match the offer with a better one, so all those that would take up the OP
would flock to you instead

\- build your MVP, keep 100% and then do your own marketing. $5000 for 50%
difference but you get to do all the work.

Either one of those would be so much more effective than just berating the OP
or warning others of this evil and greedy person.

~~~
btilly
Actually it is $8000 for 50% difference because it isn't just the initial
$5000, you also would have to pay $3000 for marketing.

And if the OP knows more about how to market than you do, you'd actually need
to spend more than that to market your idea as well as the OP will.

~~~
orionblastar
[http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/the-6-ps-of-
marketing/396...](http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/the-6-ps-of-
marketing/3964/)

I hold dual degrees in computer science and business management. I think I can
do my own marketing, thank you. If not I know people who will for a small fee.

~~~
saym
I don't understand what your tone is responding to.

~~~
orionblastar
Who knows the market of your product better? The person who works hard on it
for two months and knows it inside and out, or some guy you met anonymously
over the Internet who wants $8000 in exchange for half your stock, just to
market it?

Think about it, what does he know about the product? Nothing. You'll spend a
lot of time explaining it to him in full details and then he markets those
details to strangers, parroting your words.

~~~
campbellmorgan
Knowing your product too well is not necessarily an asset when it comes to
marketing, especially if you created it yourself. There is often a tendency to
overvalue features which were difficult to code rather than features which add
real value. Knowing your consumers is far more important.

------
katzgrau
It's funny, because developers do this sort of thing all the time for much
less equity.

Startup: Hey, come work here for below market salary for 5% that vests over 4
years Dev: Sounds rad!

This guy: Hey, work on your own project for 50%, and you only have to work on
is the MVP for a month, and I'll pay you sort of crappy but probably better
than other people in other fields. HN Devs: You. fucking. bastard.

~~~
freehunter
Also - Startup: And you're going to be working on our project, with the
documents and design we came up with. Dev: Great!

This guy: Work on your own idea! Have your own dream! I'll just put in the
money and experience to make the business a success. HN Devs: You're not
offering enough to have a 50% share in the company that wouldn't exist without
you!

~~~
taytus
> I'll just put in the money and experience

What experience?, I don't know who this guy is!.

~~~
freehunter
Well I didn't say it's true, just that he's claiming it's true.

------
ezl
I love this idea. I realize there are haters out there.

I'll match this offer as well for anyone who is interested.

Yes, it sounds like a bad deal for some people. But for a lot of people its a
great way to:

1\. not have to find work for a month,

2\. work on something they're passionate about anyways,

3\. have an idea of theirs that may not have otherwise seen light of day
become a reality.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Can I suggest that this is turning into a HN Matchmaking service

Perhaps a little codification might be good:

* A Maker puts their idea onto HS with "MatchMake HN: " * Any interested Investor then replies * Maker chooses Investor (possibly publically) * A month later a "Show HN" is published.

I would be interested seeing everyone's results

~~~
derefr
I'm now imagining building a marketplace site roughly like
eLance/oDesk/whatever else, where the investor can put money in escrow and
clients (freelancers) can "bid"--but it's the _freelancers_ who are proposing
the jobs in their entirety, not the investor.

~~~
panther2k
<http://makermatch.herokuapp.com>

Just put this together. No escrow or anything and haven't fully implemented
bidding but let's see if there's any interest.

~~~
bryans
If nothing else, that is one of the best, most clever, most appropriate names
I've ever seen.

------
ChuckMcM
This discussion is awesome! I would never have believed such a simple
conjecture could provide so much illumination around the myths and realities
of startups.

First, its a great deal, both for hmexx and folks who take him up on it.
Frankly I think it could be revolutionary. My reasoning is as follows;

Many "products" over the last couple of years have been fairly straight
forward web "apps" built on top of existing infrastructure. They provide some
basic customer value, they tend to be fashionable (moderate lifetime), and
generally take less than a year to produce.

That is almost exactly the same as the book publisher model.

So hmexx sets himself up as an MVP "publisher" and pays "authors" $5000 up
front and a 50% interest in the proceeds going forward. Now lots of new book
authors would _love_ that deal because they know how to write books but they
have no idea how to promote them into bookstores and Amazon's top lists etc.
Unlike books though web apps don't pay out a revenue stream on per-unit sales.
Instead they tend to either a pay a chunk via a buyout, or they generate
income over time with advertising/partnerships. If we're talking about "apps"
for mobile then there is a revenue stream very similar to books.

So I reason its a good deal because the content creator has a much better
chance to benefit from their creation than previous generations of artists
had.

Now as an illumination, the whole 50/50 thing shines a light right into the
core of the startup 'dream' mentality. It is the idea that you will start a
company that becomes the next Facebook and you become a billionaire over about
10 years of nights. 50% of zero is zero, 50% of a billion dollar company is
$500M worth. The closer reality is that if the idea has 'legs' then you can
expect a series A round that will reduce both of you to 33% and then a series
B which takes you to 20% to 25%. If you get there you're probably making a
decent salary and have some small but non-zero shot of a return.

Every year somebody makes over $50M on one of the big lottery games in the US,
its only like once in 5 years that people make over $50M from their startup.
The good news is that fewer people have the chops to "buy in" to a startup
lottery ticket.

So that is the reality. If you want to make some money, buy a house, raise a
family. Go work for Oracle or Apple or Microsoft or Google. Don't do startups
for the money, do them because you are passionate about what they are trying
to create. If you do them for the money you will become bitter and depressed.

But this offer, to be paid $5000 in exchange for a half interest in the
lottery ticket you create? Given the 'two, three month' worth of work
estimate. There is not a whole lot to complain about.

~~~
eranation
I like it but I think the order should be reversed, before building the MVP, I
would have built a landing page for each idea (after filtering the good ones),
spend some money on marketing first and see if it gets beta sign ups traction
(developer commits that if it does, they'll build it), only then pay for
building it (I would also offer to sign an NDA with the developer protecting
their idea if the deal doesn't execute, and also give them a shared user
account to the analytics of the landing page for being 100% transparent)

This way you risk only $3000 (or less) instead of $8000, and the developer
will be much more motivated to build it knowing it's already an idea with a
real potential market.

~~~
dalore
So you've alienated all your early adopter customers by saying you have a
product but you don't have anything.

~~~
eranation
Potentially yes, but not likely in my opinion (and in the opinion of people I
talk with) and the fact is that most do it, usually they do it when they
actually start building it, but we all know that many even big companies, sell
first, develop later. Those who develop first and hope they'll find a market,
sometimes just end up with a great piece of code with no way to make money out
of it.

~~~
alexcovic
sell first develop later is a sound strategy, especially if you are building a
product/service for enterprise. Sometimes you can even get a prospect to
finance the development process. However, i don't really see how you can do
the same thing if building a b2c product - except through a kickstarter
campaign.

------
lifeisstillgood
Financially I do not think this is a great deal.

Emotionally its probably what many devs need.

Accelerators, meetups, co-founders, all serve the same need. Believing that
the idea has at least one person who believes in it, and prods you to move on.

That said, this is probably a bad split - hmexx might be better to decide if
he is an investor (early stage) or a co-founder -> if the latter then really
its just one company - you cannot be a founder of two companies at the same
time...

~~~
greghinch
Agreed about the co-founder vs. investor problem. I would suggest anyone who
wants to take this offer up do _their_ diligence on hmexx and find out what
he's bringing to the table as a co-founder. If it's just $8k for half a
company that you will have to split 50/50 for the rest of it's existence, be
wary. If he's a co-founder, he should join in on the workload after the MVP is
proven. I would also consider vesting for both of you, keeps things honest.

That being said, I think this idea _does_ have the potential to be very
interesting, and if circumstances were different I might even consider it.

~~~
gknoy
> I would also consider vesting for both of you, keeps things honest.

For those of us who are complete neophytes at things like this, would you be
willing to elaborate on what this means, and why it's important?

~~~
zbruhnke
Vesting means that each owners shares of the company will be given to them
over time so right off the bat neither of the people own an outright 50%
stake.

for example a common scenario is a Four year vesting with a one year cliff,
acceleration up any sale or liquidation event.

What this means in every day terms is that you own more shares each month you
work, but if you leave before a year is up you own nothing. So if your half is
5 million shares then after the first year of working you will have earned
1.25 million shares after your first year which are now yours and cannot be
taken away.

For each working month after that you will earn an additional 104,167 shares
(its actually 166 2/3) until you have completed your 48th month at the company
at which point you now own all five million shares, or are "Fully vested" as
the term would imply.

It basically just ensures dedication to a project and that an early person who
was involved with the company in some way does not come back 10 years later
suing for "their half" of a company they may have helped start but had no
involvement in product direction, success etc.

~~~
r0s
Thanks for the explanation, I've got a couple questions:

Say two founders begin a vested company and one drops out, does total
ownership transfer to the other founder?

If BOTH drop out, how are assets divided?

Lastly, it seems that the disagreements over ownership will merely shift to
disagreements over 'time worked', and weather the effort was legit.

~~~
greghinch
You would lay out how things are divided in your paperwork when you form the
company. If there are no outside investors, it's simpler for a company to
fold.

In the case of one person leaving, all their invested shares fall back into
the management pool and are distributed proportionally amongst the remaining
co-founders (but not investors, they always only have the number of shares
they paid for).

Also make sure you do an 83b election (in the US) for vesting shares.
Otherwise you pay income taxes on the value of them _as they vest_. Google it
for lots more info, it's pretty straightforward

------
geebee
This is very intriguing. A lot of people have objected to the 50-50 split. It
does seem like a lot for the amount of money invested. To me, this depends on
how much _work_ the investor will put into it.

Let me put it this way - if someone with money offered me 8K total for 50% of
my side project, and that was it, I'd say no way.

If someone with talent, motivation, and a remarkable ability to get things
done offered me _nothing_ other than his or her dedication to making my side
project a success in exchange for 50%, I might say yes.

So it isn't really about the 8k. Here's the thing. Suppose you're one of those
highly motivated and effective people, but you know yourself and you just
aren't the creative force behind a project. You know that there are lots of
creative programmers who would produce an app if they could just get away and
be funded for month or so. So you offer some money. Instead of finding
prototypes and looking for one to fund and support, you're finding programmers
and looking for one to produce a prototype. Instead of looking to join an
early startup, you're offering a small amount of money to create a startup to
join.

Maybe one way to modify this would be to say - if I pass, you keep the money
and your prototype, and I give up on my share (or it is greatly reduced). If I
decide your app is the one I want to run with, we are now 50-50 partners in
the venture.

~~~
ezl
I think of the proposition as an intro to a PARTNERSHIP.

I posted above that I'm willing to match the offer. I don't think of this as
an "investment" so much as me trying to kick start a relationship where I'm a
cofounder.

As such, I'm interested specifically in ideas where I believe I can provide
value that the other cofounder doesn't, so we both benefit. I expect it to be
an ongoing pursuit where I continue to work on the company.

Buying half a company for 5k and then putting in 3k of advertising only to
walk away would be the wrong move on my part and that's not the intention I
have going into any transaction that may result from this.

------
PaulJoslin
I really like this idea.

It removes the risk for the developer to just 'build' (which is ultimately
what they enjoy doing) and also shifts the key responsibility for the initial
marketing / customer acquisition away from the developer (which is often what
they either don't enjoy doing or suck at).

After this phase, either the idea is a success, the developer gets paid and a
mvp is now a business hopefully with profit (for both parties involved) or the
idea was not a success and the developer still gets paid some money.

If you have a world changing idea and you've quit your job with a plan to
start a start up - that's fine. This probably isn't the right opportunity for
you - try Y Combinator or go in search of real funding once you've built a
self financed MVP.

However, if you're a developer with a niggling idea that you keep meaning to
work on because you know it could turn into something bigger or you just don't
feel confident in your own marketing / customer (or user) acquisition skills
then this is a really great opportunity!

I've literally missed so many opportunities before, where I've had an idea -
not executed it due to no short term monetary reward or no confidence that I
could market it correctly and then watched as a start up is formed a year or
two later by someone else which was essentially that idea!

------
jwb119
First off, I love this idea and don't listen to the naysayers.

Second, I would strongly recommend getting a lawyer to draft up some sort of
agreement that specifies what happens if the project isn't up to spec, etc. It
would essentially be a basic contract. I know there's always the temptation to
say "well the legal costs would be too much to enforce it" but that's not
always the case. This is garden variety stuff here. You don't need to protect
every scenario to provide some value to yourself.

------
brudgers
The deal amounts to $6500 dollars in exchange for 50% equity. The $3000 spent
acquiring users/customers is to the benefit of both parties equally.

As the offer is written, the $3000 could be spent on AdWords and similar
services.

~~~
hmexx
Correct. Thought I'd confirm this response so there is no confusion as to what
I am offering. The $8000 in the title is not 100% accurate.

~~~
mark_l_watson
hmexx, to be clear: you pay $5000 to the developer to seed full time
development for a month or two and on completion you will in addition spend
$3000 promoting the product.

An open question is: how active of a partner would you be once the business
(hopefully) becomes a real/profitable business? Are you offering to be a full
active partner in running the successful businesses that you seed with this
offer? If so, then your offer sounds like a good deal for developers.

Anyway, great idea!

------
gesman
50% upfront. 75% upon 50% completion. 100% upon 100% completion. Your 50%
ownership is contingent upon at least $10,000 sales resulted from your effort
to "acquire enough users/customers", tracked within 6 months from full
delivery. Deal?

------
ssharp
"At this point, I'll take over and spend an additional $3000 to acquire enough
users/customers for us to evaluate the project's likelihood of success. We
split the resulting company 50-50, as equal co-founders."

How does this scale. Presumably in Hacker X builds a product you like and
you're able to find success with your $3000 and marketing efforts, how does
the relationship move on. Presumably, you've now built a product dependent on
both of you. Hacker X needs to build new features/scale and you need to ramp
up your marketing efforts in equal measure. But you have products from Hacker
Y and Hacker Z that you're currently working on, and Hacker A, Hacker B, and
Hacker C's products are also financially viable. What happens now?

I suppose my issue is (from the hacker perspective) that for 50% equity, I
expect some lasting relationship with the person handling the marketing of my
product beyond wherever $3000 gets you.

For those jumping on OP for requiring 50%, remember it's an offer and you're
free to explore other avenues. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. For many
people, this is a pretty fair deal. It might not be for you, but I don't see
how OP is taking advantage of anyone. He's significantly reducing risk for
freelancers to work full-time on their own projects and that significant risk
reduction comes with a price tag.

~~~
dutgriff
That is a very good though. I sure would hate to put 100% into my 50% and the
other 50% of the company only allow 10% because the other 90% is in 9 other
companies... You said it better.

------
centdev
If this was answered, I can't find it.

\- At $5k / 50%, who is covering the costs of creating a separate entity (LLC
formation)?

\- What happens in the event that the project is completed in time, but the
addl $3k spent to acquire enough customers doesn't yield any positive results?

\- Who owns the IP in case after all is said and done, it falls into a dead
pool? IP in code that didn't survive as a startup is still valuable.

\- How many side-projects are you funding and are you expected to be directly
involved in each one?

Some people look at getting paid $5k to complete a side project as plus. I
guess to some it is. Taking 2 months to build means you were paid $2.5k per
month (around $15 per hour) assuming 40hr work weeks.

Customer acquisition is the most time consuming, costly and difficult part of
any startup. Is $3k really realistic to determine if the market is there?

~~~
uladzislau
Very important questions here. Also it's much better to validate the idea
_before_ building the product.

------
rafekett
Sorry, but $6500 for 1/2 of your company seems like a raw deal at any stage.
If your idea is even halfway decent, you should be able to do better than
$13000 for your initial valuation.

Protip: find real investors who are interested in giving you a fair price.
This offer is basically equivalent to a payday advance or a loan shark in
terms of cost.

~~~
jeremyarussell
Not sure why you got down-voted so much, it didn't seem like you were being
ridiculous. Maybe people didn't like when you equated the OP with a loan
shark? That said sometimes people need loan sharks.

------
porter
Would it not be more effective for you to first spend the $3,000 talking to
customers (perhaps pre-selling)? Then once you land on an idea customers want,
then you can invest $5,000 (or more) to actually build the product.

~~~
uladzislau
I agree that finding product/market fit first is much more efficient than
building a product with unknown market response.

------
desireco42
This whole discussion is amazing. He pretty much removed any obstacle you
might have to create your idea, offered his experience... and then a torrent
of excuses and whining came back :). I am sure a bunch of smart people are
probably taking him on the offer.

hmexx if you would like, hit me up, I have several ideas that I am trying to
create, you obviously have experience gaining traction, so maybe we could
agree on one or two to work on it, I need a good cofounder.

You don't need to pay me anything, in fact, we could both add 2-3K (more is
excessive) as initial funds for each project.

Obviously I would like to know a little about you and you can evaluate me as a
potential partner.

------
jv22222
I love this! The numbers are wrong though. Over time the developer will get
resentful. Imagine that the developer created a SaaS site that brings in 50k a
year, after a few years of dev (which I have). Anyone would feel resentful
about paying an ongoing 50% "tax" to an initial investor.

In the 50k/year scenario the investor get's a 5x on investment for years to
come. That would be an awful feeling for the developer who's putting in the
ongoing maintenance effort.

A better idea would be for the investor to claim 50% until capital investment
was recouped, then gradually scale back.

\- So, 50% until the $8k was paid back. \- Then 25% until a 2x return. \- Then
move to a 10% ongoing royalty fee.

This excites and incentives the developer to keep building things out knowing
that one day they will get the the 90% lions share of profits. It also works
for the investor who can rinse and repeat the process with multiple
developers.

------
nkohari
Wow. I'd rather go on fucking Shark Tank.

If someone is willing to take $5,000 to do the heavy lifting up front (therein
taking most of the risk) for only 50% equity, their idea is either terrible or
they aren't committed to seeing it through.

~~~
a3camero
Or they live in a second/third world country, or they're a student, or...

~~~
danielweber
$5000 to spend a month working on something you love isn't that bad for many
places in the US, even.

I wouldn't take this deal, because stopping / starting employment isn't that
easy for me, but I can see other people rationally taking it.

And if other people think he's underbidding, I would encourage them to bid him
up.

~~~
emidln
A couple years ago I would have been all over this. I've done several ventures
similar to this resulting in modest exits as well as couple resulting in being
simply paid for working 4-12 weeks on something I want netting nice contacts.

It's okay if you don't hit a home run. It's even better if you don't starve or
get evicted for your troubles.

------
xauronx
Neat idea. Personally I think it's a good opportunity for guys like me who
have a ton of ideas but half implement them, or implement them and never
market. Sure, 50% is a large chunk for doing "all of the work" but I don't
have to worry about funding or marketing, so that's pretty solid. You say
you're a "techie" as well. Do you bring anything else to the table? Would you
create marketing materials (websites, ads, etc) or would your partner be
responsible for that as well?

------
dlf
My concern with the approach is that it doesn't seem very lean. An idea that a
developer has kicking around isn't necessarily one that has a market. I'd
suggest getting involved early on the product development side and getting out
and talking to customers.

Articulated market needs are much more valuable than just an idea... Nathan
Barry had a nice post on HN the other day having to do with this:
<http://nathanbarry.com/finding-ideas-project/>

Business Model Generation (<http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book>) is a
helpful resource as well.

~~~
aaronevans
Anyone can come up with an idea. Lots of people can build a product for a
wage. Finding someone who will develop their own idea is what's valuable. The
question is whether people who can deliver technically want a partner who can
deliver marketing and are willing to take the risk finding them.

------
vik1211
I like this idea so much that I'm willing to join hmexx and e21 by matching
the offer for the right idea.

Further, the right idea/individual would get my full, undivided attention,
resources, and limitless brainstorming/pivoting sessions.

I'm also a fan of the idea of documenting the process and milestones on hn for
the benefit of future teams or projects.

My background is in law and business and I'm interested in technologies that
bridge offline and online domains. I'm a daily reader of hn but a new poster.

hmexx -- thanks for stepping up and encouraging more of us to do so.

~~~
ricardobeat
You should add your e-mail to your profile - it must be in the "about" field
for everyone to see it.

I happen to be sitting on a project that bridges online and offline, we
applied for the last YC batch but didn't make it. Will send more info as soon
as I'm able to :)

------
suhastech
I think this is perfect for first time wannapreneurs with very limited
connections which seems like a large untapped space.

I applaud the proposal. I'd love to hear about a follow up post in the near
future.

------
dorkrawk
Considering the very low percentage of IDEAS that turn into valuable
companies, especially without the injection of new contacts and business
expertise that an incubator might provide this actually seems like an OK deal.
If hmexx does 10 of these, there's a very good chance that he'll flush $80K
down the crapper and 10 developers will have had a great time building
something they care about and learning a TON about what it's like to work full
time on something alone. Perhaps some new friendships are forged.

If you know that your idea is THE big idea that can be worth millions, take
$5K out of the bank or your retirement fund or sell your car or do anything in
your power to come up with 2 months of survival money and do it on your own.
If not, have some risk free fun and a great experience building something
awesome with hmexx's money.

------
katzgrau
Just thinking aloud. Is this really ... ?

Dev: Is rock star techie whose disadvantage is lack of motivation Dev: Builds
MVP that Proposer thinks is going to be valuable Proposer: "Validates" it by
showing it around Proposer: Sells flips MVP for considerably more than $8k

It's not necessarily bad, it's probably symbiotic.

So..

* Do all stars care about 5k? * If they do, why is short-term motivation of $5k show powerful? * 50/50 with equal voting rights? Disputes, ahoy. Two people that never worked with each other before.

------
newyorktoe
This proposition was a great idea being trapped in a limited framework. Great
because it was validated very well in the most profitable segment, i.e., HN
programmers. Limited because right now, the investor side is monopolistic (no
offense). Scaling MVP takes time, and hmexx won't be able to run 20 projects
at the same time.

I think this model should be expanded into two-sided market to attract more
capital and more diverse background from techie investors. These techie
investors may indeed come from Hacker News community themselves, who are more
mature startup-wise (more capital and experience). Although the model has not
been tested on the investors' side, I can sense a healthy demand from the
comments here (especially from haters' camp :))

P/S: hmexx, would you consider this as my proposal for your 8K investment? :)

------
RockyMcNuts
If the investor is a good co-founder and committed to the idea and has the
network and chops to make something happen for $3000, might be a good idea for
some people.

But... you want a co-founder who is committed, can point you to the right way
to build the MVP so that you can actually acquire customers, has a network in
and some knowledge of your vertical.

Otherwise, you build an MVP, give up 50% for... not necessarily very much. Now
you have a weak co-founder with 50%, might make it hard to take the next step,
sort out control issues, have enough equity to get more people interested and
still be interesting for the founder.

And if you really believe in your idea, and are the kind of strong hacker and
entrepreneur that will be successful, is $5,000 that big a hurdle for friends
and family, credit cards etc.?

~~~
loceng
You summed it up nicely here.

------
tarr11
I can't seem to see any biography about you on your HN profile or this post.

Are you planning on doing this anonymously?

~~~
hmexx
No, but I prefer sharing my identity on a 1-on-1 basis during project
discussions, rather than put it in the proposition.

~~~
brudgers
[thread flagged]

To me, this is a red flag.

The offer is set before the entire HN community. It has substantial financial
and legal implications.

You are competing with YC.

Your track record is relevant to the ranking of this thread on HN.

~~~
hmexx
Fair enough. I can see where you are coming from, although even if you found
out my real identity (which might be possible if you look carefully enough
through my history of comments), you would not find anything that would
substantially strengthen the proposition.

I'm no one special... just a techie with some moderate success who wants to
help launch some cool new products.

~~~
drp4929
Until you reveal your identity, you're wasting everyone's time.

~~~
thom
He's really only wasting about 30 seconds of it, though, as comments and
Google are indeed the only two things required. He appears to be exactly what
he says he is.

------
phereford
I don't at all understand why people are berating this proposition.

This proposition makes a helluva lot of sense.

I have done the hustling/marketing side of a startup. I got my failed (sigh)
startup lots of good press and lots of users.

I would venture to say that I probably put in more work than any developer on
my team at that point.

Now, I am a hacker but I 100% fully understand the value he is putting down.
He will be just as invested in your MVP as you will be. His sole job is
something you never have to worry about. Maybe he doesnt hold his end up of
the bargain, which may happen. If that does happen, well make sure there is a
clause in whatever agreement you sign.

------
dirktheman
I think it's an awesome idea, and I'll gladly take you up on it. I have a side
project that's nearly completed for some months now, and this is exactly the
kind of kick in the butt I need to finish.

To all the naysayers: I take it that you all have finished your ideas, went
through YC and are accomplished millionaires? If not, what's with the negative
attitude? Here's someone OFFERING you money for your project, and OFERING to
do all the hustling for you. You underestimate how much work and trouble
hustling is...

Thank you for this opportunity, and you can expect my email later today!

------
cdcarter
I'm in, and emailing you now, for the exact same reason I applied for
Pinboard's PIC-PC within minutes of it going live. I have an idea for a
project that I really like and find really helpful. I think others will like
it too. I'm also really really busy. This will give me just enough of a push
to actually DO instead of just think about it, and enough of a backing that I
can get SOMEONE else involved once it's built, so I don't have to spend all my
free time running it, while working full time.

------
rohamg
Cool proposition but because of your onerous terms you are self selecting for
bottom barrel. In startups (where there is a power law distribution of
outcomes) it would be much preferable to offer more generous terms and simply
be more picky selecting for founder competence. Also- need to figure out
statute of limitations: who decides when one MVP stops and another begins?
What if a freelancer takes your money hacks up a bunch of MVPs and learns
enough to do the full swing by themselves?

------
z-factor
Here's a counter-offer. If you have an idea and I like it, I'll take your
$5000 and will build an MVP. You'll have to commit to spend at least $3000
more on marketing right after it. And I'll take 50% of the business.

------
IgorPartola
FWIW, I have a story of a better proposition. I currently do a lot of
subcontract work for a consulting company. These guys have been around for a
while, but to gain more exposure, so they have been wanting to publish some
Open Source stuff. I've been working, on and off, on an interesting (to me, at
least) project that I was planning to release under a BSD license and if it
gains traction, turn it into a business. What the consultancy proposed was
this: they would pay me to finish the project and publish it under their name.
We would then market it as an OSS project, gaining more exposure for their
firm and for the project. Later, if I choose to turn it into a business, I
already have a potential partner who is intimately familiar with the project.
If not, I get paid, and they get a cool OSS project to show off.

This is strictly a better offer than the OP's: I get paid for about the same
amount of time, and I get to keep 100% of the creation (so does everyone else,
since it's Open Source). In other words everybody wins.

~~~
ZoFreX
> This is strictly a better offer than the OP's

Is it available to everyone, though?

~~~
IgorPartola
Yes, anyone will be able to use the project for free and modify the code under
a BSD license. Thus anyone can build a business off it if they choose. That is
the risk I am taking. It is mitigated by the fact that the firm I am working
with and I will be the ones most familiar with the code and free usage of this
project will simply validate the idea.

Edit: or do you mean the offer? If so, then no, currently just to me. Though
if others could negotiate similar terms.

~~~
ZoFreX
I meant the offer. It does sound better, but there are lots of better offers
out there, this one has lower barriers to entry though. I see it less as the
route to go if you are an entrepreneur and more a good way of giving people
the kick up the pants they need to start their journey.

------
cientifico
I think that in 2013 is more important how you build it than what you build.
The implementation become more important than the idea, so the ideas are
overestimated.

Things that can actually succeed:

* A payable gmail alternative.

* A payable mail list (I think 37 signas was working in to that).

* A payable online book designer like (write in markdown and have a professinal like pdf output, epub, mobi...).

* Online radios. There are a lot of labels that want to promote their new records, and a lot of music lovers that want to have their online radio.

* A payable service that evaluates and give you reports about your internet connection.

* Humble bundle as a service.

* [1 thousand more]

So... ideas there are a lot. Problem is decide which one to build or improve.
There are for sure companies that do already all the previous examples, but
small changes can become totally different products. The good products have
people with good criteria behind. What i mean is that instead of looking for
someone with good idea, is better to look for someone with good criteria.

On any case, thanks for the initiative.

------
saddino
Premise 2 is flawed IMO. An MVP built by a lone, but talented techie for $5000
/ number_of_hours, isn't likely to turn into something 'successful' at all
because 1) someone who values their time so little is probably not that
talented, and 2) an idea whose perceived valuation is essentially $8K probably
isn't that good to begin with.

~~~
ricardobeat
The US isn't the only country in the world where business and software dev
happens. US$ 5k is ~2 months a good developer salary over here in Brazil, it's
a pretty decent amount for one month of work.

Most importantly, 99% of ideas are valued at $0.

------
philip1209
I'm interested, but I have an important question: Are you an accredited
investor? Must you be, for this plan to work?

~~~
aaronevans
Accredited by the American Dental Association or the Fidelity Investments
sales intern training program?

------
maxk42
Hi hmexx. I have a counter-proposition for you: I am a talented web developer
who has made others millions of dollars, but I never do the same for myself
for pretty much exactly the reasons you describe. I've launched one site
successfully in the past, and it was profitable to the tune of beer money, but
I never really wanted to make anything more complex in part because I'm
terribly vexed by business requirements. I want to build a bunch of shit and
throw it at the wall to see what sticks, but I don't want to deal with the
business end of things. I require no financial investment -- I only ask that
you use your time, contacts and expertise to promote the business. I'd be
happy to discuss this at more length. I'd be happy to discuss this offer with
anyone else as well. Contact me via the info in my profile for further
details.

------
dude_abides
This proposition will work IFF the OP has street cred. Why did you choose to
go anonymous? Founders want a backer with street cred more than they want
money. Most founders will gladly give 90% equity for a pittance if the
investor is in the league of Ron Conway or a16z...

------
juanpdelat
I think this is a great opportunity. As a developer coming from a third world
country, I am sure many people could benefit from things like this. In a third
world country, a student or recent graduate with no experience, would make
those $8k in a year.

------
arthurquerou
While it might not be interesting for some people already working in a company
(as you mentioned in the FAQ), it might very well be interesting for some
students for example. Instead of an internship, they could work on their
project for 2 months (or more) with your help. This is an amazing initiative.
I study (in parallel of my own company) in a really good engineering school
specialized in the field of computer science in France. If you would like to
get some people there. While I am not directly interested, I could help you
get some students there. Drop me a mail at arthurquerou [@] gmail.com if you
are interested.

------
cientifico
I will not trust in someone to develop a product, that can not save 8000$ in
one year and get 100% of the business.

a) That guy is not able to save such money = Doesn't have real interest in the
product. b) That guy is willing to share 50% the company, so probably doesn't
trust on the idea as much as he/she can say. c) If that guy doesn't have the
money, and can't get the money, is because is probably not good enough to
develop such product.

So if you want to pay as little at 8000 I really hope you where meaning it is
not in America or Europe and it is in another country, where the base salary
is lower than 500$.

------
dhardy
I have a site that I would consider selling you for $5000. In fact, I just
asked HN what they thought I should do with it -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5028846> Sadly, I didn't get any traction
so not many people saw it or gave feedback.

It is a complete MVP that I do not have the time or money remaining to market.
The code is all there and it is extremely portable. I have an idea or two
about how to make a profit with it as well as several features you could add
to make it really great.

Take a look and let me know.

------
centdev
It seems there is a fair amount of devs willing to do this and from what I can
see a fair amount of people who would invest in projects.

Wouldn't it make sense to pool a small amount of $2-5k investments from a
number of individuals who all agree on a particular project and taking it to
launch. Not speaking about crowd-funding/kickstarter. There's clearly a lot of
very smart people who can build shit, and a small amount of folks willing to
invest. Why not just pool everything together. Spread the risk, but combine
the talents of more people.

------
zbruhnke
Why not just pay someone to code up your own idea and spend your time and
money marketing that?

it doesn't have to be perfect to become a successful product. Dan Shapiro has
built and sold a couple of products that way and it has worked out well for
him. I don't see the value in paying someone a fee (and a minimal one at that)
then giving them half the company for a relatively small amount of work.

Also, your email is not in your profile, so if someone wanted to contact you,
you are already making that part of the process exponentially harder

------
clark-kent
The big problem I have with this is that the 50-50 split gives hmexx too much
control.

With this 50-50 split who decides the future direction of the project.

After the MVP is ready there is still a lot of coding required to make it a
successful business, you need the developer to be fully committed to the
project. Losing 50% stake this early is not that much motivation. Unless the
new partner brings specific skills to the table that the business can't
survive without.

It's better to take a small stake like 15% and just choose a project very
selectively.

------
fluorid
Great proposal. I just upvoted it. Don't know if the typical freelancer dev
will jump on it and has enough will power but I totally agree on premise 1,2
and 3, so true. Great post!

------
makeautocadfast
MVP? Minimum viable product. I have an idea. I'm not sure you could call it a
minimum viable product. Maybe you know.

I'm very good at AutoLISP programming. I' m trying to make a business out of
it. Do you know AutoLISP? It is a the programing language of AutoCAD.

Working with AutoCAD. That is the problem. It takes a long time before an
AutoCAD drawing is created. And that is not all.

Once the AutoCAD drawing has been created, it must be checked. So creating a
drawing in AutoCAD takes a lot of time.

I could write a program in AutoLISP. The program creates an AutoCAD drawing in
no time. And there is no need to check the drawing.

Who could be interested in what I'm doing? Who could be my customers? Well.
That is easy. AutoCAD users are interested.

I'm now promoting my business. I'm trying to find customers for my business.
But I'm not very successful up till now.

I have opened an AutoLISP blog and I have opened an AutoLISP newsletter. Every
week I post a different article on them.

I also have written a demo AutoLISP program that I give away to people that
are interested. And I have written an AutoLISP paper.

Right now I want to find subscribers for my blog and for my newsletter. Maybe
you have some suggestions for me.

You had a proposal. You are willing to invest a total of $ 8,000 in my
business. And if we are successful, you will be my 50% partner.

I think it is a fair proposal. I can agree with that proposal. But my business
idea. Do you think it is any good?

------
faramarz
My only comment is to setup a buffer vote in the contract so to mediate with a
third-party in times of conflict.

50-50 equal partners means no one gets what they want. That is both good and
bad.

------
chrisyeh
Let's walk through hmexx's premises.

Premise 1, that investors overestimate their ability to pick good ideas is
undoubtedly true. The best investors are still usually wrong. But the
consistent returns that the Sequoias of the world suggest that even if they're
usually wrong, they're right enough to make oodles of money.

Premise 2, that an MVP built by a lone founder is just as likely to succeed as
a full team on AngelList is almost certainly false. Years of research have
demonstrated that founding teams help success. A lone founder can certainly
succeed, but is less likely to do so.

Premise 3, that freelancers don't pursue their ideas is absolutely true.

Premise 4, that HackerNews has talented people with good ideas is also
absolutely true.

Now comes the key--he's offering $8K (plus the value of his marketing
expertise) for 50% of the company.

Let's be generous and assume the marketing consulting is worth $7K. If the
average seed investor is paying a $5 million premoney these days, that's a
99.7% discount! Even if a sole founder is 1% as likely to succeed as an
AngelList startup, he'll still be 3X ahead.

My conclusion is that hmexx is a marketing genius. He's found a way to buy
stock at a 99%+ discount. Also, he's still going to apply a selection process
--if Premise 1 were true, he ought to choose at random.

Hmmm, maybe I should invest in him!

Also, just to add to the scrum, I'll double the offer to $10,000!

~~~
aaronevans
Problem is, no one believes you.

~~~
chrisyeh
My investing bona fides: <https://angel.co/chrisyeh>

------
nicholas73
I think this is worth it if you would be a good co-founder in any case. That
means you are really putting in 8000 for not working the first two months, and
then work the same amount as the other founder.

However if putting in 8000 is the only thing you do, then it's a horrible
idea. Putting in more money, maybe.

This is the perspective of someone in the Bay Area though. 5000 is easily
saved/spent here.

You can find someone else cheaper, but likely would have to communicate
remotely. That increases your risk too.

------
eranation
I like it but I think what you should do is reverse the order a little, I
would first get ideas from people (sign NDA etc if people require it), then
put a landing page, get the marketing going for a few weeks, the ones that get
the most sign ups, go back to the developer and make that deal, the rest,
well, you save your 5000$ and the developers time on a potentially bad idea
(could be a great idea, but not attracting enough interest)

------
klangner
I think it is very interesting and creative offer. I am software developer who
tried to build many different products. From my perspective money was never a
problem. The problem was to find partner who knows how to promote and sell
product. Or at least someone who want to learn it. IMHO this person is worth
its 50%. Or 33% if there are 3 founders (marketing, programmer and graphics
designer). Even without any up front money. So this $5000 makes this offer
even better.

For me this proposition would look better if instead of money it would
contains some milestones. At each milestone we will define some metrics and
based on this metrics we will decide if we move on or pivot/drop the idea. For
example:

M1. Agree on problem we want to solve and the way we reach our customers. I
would love to change the world not just make money. Can we agree on it? etc.

M2. Create and promote MVP. Example metrics: how many people clicked learn
more button?

Good partner is more worth then invested money. But that's of course my point
of view. I don't need money and can spend half my time building the product
(The other half need to make living :-) )

But I believe for many people it could be great offer. And I wish you best
luck. Would love to hear how it turns out.

------
rishikeshg
Essentially you want to get lucky! :) In my opinion, the success of a start-up
is determined by: 1\. Co-founder chemistry (how well they know each other,
shared vision etc.). With this approach, you'll have no idea what your "so-
called" co-founder is like. BIG risk! 2\. A vision. Not sure how you can even
run a company without having a vision of what you like to do, or what problem
you're going to solve. At best, you can be an investor but not a co-founder.
And unless you're well networked and bring something valuable to the table,
not sure 8k means a lot; and 50% equity for that is too high. 3\. Execution -
LOT of work. Not sure a startup is as simple as you make it sound. A prototype
for 5k + customers for 3k = success? I agree the cost of building a tech.
start-up has gone down significantly, but IMO it takes a lot beyond that.
Unless you have advantage of owning a groundbreaking idea/IP or something with
high barriers of entry it all comes down to execution. 4\. The right support
and network. 5\. And yes, luck!

...having said that, think there is still a chance (however small it is) that
it might just work and you might get lucky, but what are the odds?

------
drelihan
Just one point: the 50/50 split can just be a starting point for profit
sharing. Companies can be structured for that decisions/voting are handled
independently from ownership percentages. 50/50 splits aren't forever either.
Additional equity can be issued at certain milestones. There are a lot of ways
something like this can be setup so its fair for everyone and it seems like
hmexx is open to suggestions to make that fair.

------
coecoventures
I think this is great.

One risk to hmexx, but may actually be a good thing, is that they get the 2nd
or 3rd best idea from their dev partner. Then, if there is a healthy exit, the
dev partner can fund their no.1 good idea. However, after a successful exit
with hmexx, they may be in pole position to participate in the next deal with
their dev partner while seriously reducing the biz partner's work load. This
would be great for deal flow.

------
j0hnlucas
ha! I've had a very similar idea when I was being bugged by so many co-
founders who were looking for equity based tech co-founders.

I thought: so many startups have no skills to build their mvp so let's build
it for them!

I've then created a lean landing page to get feedback about the idea of
building mvps for startups: mvpeers.com. A full-stack dev friend of mine was
also involved in the experiment.

I followed a totally lean approach: I started off with just a title and began
posting my landing page in startup forums asking people what kind of
information I should have put on the page. After a day I had a full page,
signups and referrals. I've made a time lapse of the page itself for fun :)
<http://j0hnlucas.tumblr.com/post/22121212880/git-time-lapse>

re premise 2: I believe a lone coder is not all it takes to create a
successful mvp, you need to have experience with lean concepts. Building "just
enough" and finding real insight from feedback are not easy tasks.

I spent a month or so gathering online and offline feedback and tried to close
deals with customers but then gave up.

My takeaway:

1\. first timer startuppers are so naive sometimes that they believe they are
making you - an experienced coder - a favour by sharing their idea with you.
So 50-50 is not even obvious to them (even without any cash!)

2\. first time startuppers don't have much money.

3\. more experienced startuppers who understand real value in mvps tend to
partner up with someone who can code.

All this said, I still believe there must be a niche for selling these
services if awareness is raised properly. It's important to find the right
customers who are educated enough to understand the value of a good mvp and
have up to $10k to put on an idea.

------
charleshaanel
Anyone considering this offer will find this HBS professor's interview
_relevant to your interests_ \- [http://www.thestartupslingshot.com/startup-
slingshot/should-...](http://www.thestartupslingshot.com/startup-
slingshot/should-you-find-a-co-founder-or-go-at-it-alone-with-noam-wasserman-
of-harvard-business-school/)

------
j45
I'm wondering if there's been an offer like this before on HN. It's so simple,
reasonable, and plausible that I tried searching for more and couldn't find
any.

hmexx, if there's a way a cofounder should find a technical co-founder, this
looks to be one way. Please keep posting about your experience, I think it's
eye opening and worthy of ongoing reflection.

------
simonrbone
Hi hmexx - sounds like a great idea - like a mini MVP incubator! 2 things:

1\. could you at least say where you are based, I take it the US if you are
offering $

2\. after all the dust has settled would you be so kind as to repost and say
how many applicants you got (perhaps broken down by idea sector) as I'm sure
lots of people here would find this info useful/interesting

------
natural219
I think this is a great idea, but you could possibly word it more effectively.
If I read that last sentence right, you're looking to go into business (IE,
cofound) a startup with a dedicated, resourceful developer, presumably on an
idea that you yourself buy into.

Is this closer to what you're talking about than an angel/investment model?

------
frankyurban
For a person that constantly has ideas with great potential and no time/money
to put into them, this is a great deal. I think 50/50 for a push like this is
worth a try. Shipping a project that has been in my back-burner for a year
would certainly be a gratifying experience by itself. Getting paid to do that?
Hell yes!

------
thatcherclay
Creative deal, I like it. Anything that gets people off their couch and
building something is a winner in my book.

This is something that I half completed, but stopped because I lacked the
marketing chops: <http://www.mailreceipts.com/>

------
luney
What if we don't want money? Would you take less equity to simply help form
the business and grow the product?

I can afford to build and host a product that I would use. I am looking for
someone that can validate and grow the business, leaving me to do what I am
good at, which is Product.

------
at_joanojr
Brilliant, reminds me of this:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orteig_Prize>

25,000 price meant that hundreds of people invested a total of 400,000 in
pursuit of the prize. Pretty much gave birth to the modern aviation industry.

------
panther2k
I threw together a matchmaking service based on the OP's premise.
<http://makermatch.herokuapp.com> You sign up as either a 'Maker' or an
'Investor/Co-Founder/Other'. Makers post their idea and investors can click on
the maker's name and send them a PM if they would like to start a dialogue. I
started to set it up so that Investors can bid on ideas but haven't
implemented that yet. If this is of interest to enough people, I'll work on it
some more tomorrow and make it a bit more robust. Would be pretty cool if any
new products/investments/co-founder teams come out of this.

Shoot me a message if you have any thoughts on what I should build into it.

------
rficcaglia
Premise 2: (not being snarky - genuine scientific inquiry) do you have data to
back that up? That would be very interesting indeed. Does AL have an API to
get data on their portfolio?

PG - why not make a YC api available and put data out there....yeah i know the
answer already (that was snarky)

Hey, there's an $8000 idea for some young buck - go build the data api for
VCs/angels to submit each of their projects and update them with performance
metrics .... Then devs and founders can slice through the powerpoints and see
real data on the value they add .... and can compare to random chance. We
promise not to share with CalPERS ;) wait i just saw a flying pig...

------
hmexx
Can't edit the main article anymore, but here's a rally-point for future
updates:

<http://hnproposition.blogspot.co.uk/>

Been emailed to everyone who contacted me. Hopefully has not hit too many spam
boxes.

~~~
aaronevans
I never saw the email.

------
Tycho
I will contribute an idea if anyone wants to use it: somebody should make a
website for people to arrange adhoc day-trips with strangers. Sometimes at the
weekend I think I would like to catch a train to some city in Britain that
i've never been to - say Bath, or Durham. But I don't really have anyone to go
with, and traveling on your own is a bit dull. If you could sign up to a
weekend 'away party' online and head off to the destination with some basic
itenary, it would be cool. If everyone is in the same boat then it's not
awkward going with strangers. Call it DayTripper.com or something.

------
alexanderh
Where do I apply? I have at least 3 side projects in the oven, but definitely
am in a dire financial situation currently. This sort of thing sounds right up
my alley. I imagine competition is going to be steep though?

------
odedvard
Any room for a designer in this proposal? If a talented programmer has a great
idea, and is able to make it functional, thats great. However, as a designer
I'm interested in how these projects will turn out visually.

~~~
coecoventures
I agree. It would be good to have a biz partner, design partner, and technical
partner to round out the team.

------
zpk
Hmexx, I'm so late to the game responding here...but I like this idea a
lot....From the investor side. I am in a similar boat as you, maybe we can
pool resources up the ante and invest in several mvps. Let me know.

------
samdunne
Despite the naysayers I emailed you my idea. I think it's a great opportunity

------
rdl
The big question here is how many of these will you do, and will you be able
to be a real co-founder to them. Doing one would be great. I could maybe even
see up to 5 or so, since there's going to be an attrition rate on the people
getting to MVP -- maybe a deal where if you decide not to go forward, they
keep the $5k and 98% of the business?

I have no idea who you are, but if someone who seemed to be a credible
cofounder offered to do a startup, front $5-8k, and do sales/dev/etc., that
could be an entirely reasonable deal for some people.

------
pajju
Warning checklist: Ask yourself repeatedly, "I'm giving out my valuable idea,
which I protected so long."

Let's consider a premise now: Say you gave your idea to him, i.e you sold it
off full! (Don't forget you have to convince him hard to win, so you literally
sold the whole idea, the strategy and all)

Followup: Now, say he rejects your idea, are you fine that your once great
idea/side-project being sold or ripped off?

If you believe much in yourself and your idea, then don't apply, keep all the
equity to yourself and find a better co-founder in your niche.

------
thar2012
Let me know whats your thought on this proposition.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5043742>

------
marcamillion
Out of curiosity, what about those that are not developers - but are still
tech savvy (e.g. maybe they are growth hackers and have the marketing side
down pat) do you offer similar terms just flipped?

i.e. if someone wanted to get the funds to pay someone like myself to build
their MVP, but based on their expertise, they would do the marketing - do you
have any accomodations for that?

If you do, and anyone is looking for a good MVP builder, I gladly offer
5KMVP's services.

------
mikeleeorg
I can't wait to see the Show HN for this 2-3 months later. And if the
cofounders are willing, I would love to see a retrospective/post-mortem a year
from now.

------
helen842000
This is a great deal. I posted not too long ago asking why there isn't more
micro-funding available. This kind of offer removes the friction to getting
started.

By covering the basics for an entrepreneur they can work pressure free with
total focus on the project.

I could build several projects in that time.

I think the difficulty in this deal comes after the first couple of months
when you have to earn your normal wage and continue to build upon the first
version.

------
MarcM
I like the spirit of this opportunity. It is not for everyone, but it feels
like a micro incubator that could work for some. It would be great to have a
legal structure that is the equivalent the MVP you are asking your developers
to build--the simplest agreement that works. Forming a new company for each
seed project is too much overhead, but there are other techniques that could
be cheap and effective.

------
piyush_soni
Good idea, but personally I'd take a $5000 loan instead.

------
edw519
Any limit to the number of projects you'll fund per person?

I'll just write an MVP generator and spit 'em out as fast as I can think them
up.

At one per day (a walk in the park), I'd earn $2,920,000 per year and you'd
have enough stuck on the wall to keep you busy forever.

(I wrote this partially in jest, but not really. Between my propensity to
write software that writes software and OP's imagination and drive, maybe
we're on to something.)

~~~
devcpp
He says he expects people to work full-time for about a month and will pay nex
to nothing before he sees some code.

So yeah, I guess about one per month per person...

------
shawndumas
Why should someone do this instead of a KickStarter?

~~~
lighthazard
Kickstarter doesn't accept just any project. They're more crowd oriented
whereas a regular investor would look more for business potential than
anything else.

~~~
klibertp
To be fair the OP won't pick just any project either... But it seems like he's
thinking about just one project and of his personal involvement in it - so
it's definitely very different than kickstarter.

------
dcaranda
\- Model would probably work best for small, consumer-focused ideas
(enterprise sales cycle is too long to know if there's traction after 2
months).

\- 50% is too expensive.

\- "Co-Founder" role is too much commitment.

\- Reduce equity ask, package with a 1 year cliff + vesting schedule, market
it to college students as a way to spend your summer.

\- Maybe there's a model where an incubator can scale to thousands of
companies, instead of dozens.

------
jeswin
Is it OK if people (if they want to) post their ideas directly on this thread,
instead of emailing? So perhaps, others like you could offer similar capital.

I can be excluded, but here is an example:

I have a hibernating project, called Lapp'd. It could be thought of as
Medium.com for businesses. Here's the only screen I made:
<http://www.lappd.com>

------
vccafe
It's a really interesting investing scheme for Hmexx, but this is no co-
founder partnership... The HN Proposition compelled me to write "Indecent
proposals" for startup founders - [http://www.vccafe.com/2013/01/17/indecent-
proposal-for-start...](http://www.vccafe.com/2013/01/17/indecent-proposal-for-
startup-founders/)

------
slav
Obviously everything depends on hmexx's credentials, but I think to many this
may be quite attractive proposition (depending how fast you can achieve MVP)
eg. if it's a 1-2 month thing you can just take a break from contracting and
do this - if it works out - great! you have 50% of the business if not then
you just go back to contracting...

------
cheez
The way I'd see this working is:

\- You pay me $5K \- I do the thing \- In N months, I license the software to
you for M months as payment for the $5L \- You spend $3K and decide it's worth
it \- Formal agreement

Not bad at all.

My only reservation: how do I know that $3K + you = worthwhile for me? How do
I know that you are good at acquiring customers?

This is actually my main problem (acquiring customers).

------
webbruce
This is a great idea. I think people strongly undervalue the step called
traction. Getting people to pay for your service.

------
luney
Out of curiosity. Do any developers reading this refer to themselves as
"techie" ?

Am I the only one who finds this term to be suspicious?

~~~
aaronevans
I hope hmexx isn't a developer. My one concern was that he might be.

------
damian2000
Why not save up the $8000 yourself. Take leave (without pay) from your day job
and pay yourself a regular wage from that $5000. Work on your MVP for two
months. When you're done, use the remaining $3000 to crowdsource some beta
testers, get feedback and start some initial marketing to gain customers. Who
needs the OP?

------
mikeleeorg
What is especially interesting to me is to see how well this "build it and
they will come" approach will fare against the popular "customer discovery"
approach.

Of course, I assume the OP will be vetting the ideas through some kind of idea
rubric, so he has some idea of market validity and isn't pushing forward some
technology blindly.

------
fieldforceapp
Love this idea, really looking forward to learning about your results. I would
recommend that in Version 1.1 you clarify the legal ownership &
indemnification terms.

$5k to build, with payment upon MVP completion... spend an additional $3k,
including costs to establish a legal entity with joint ownership and friendly
buy-out terms...

Good luck!

------
MWil
I'm late to the party apparently because I heard about this secondhand through
reddit but I'm looking to build my MVP ASAP (and just started prototyping last
week)

You can watch a youtube video I made here <http://youtu.be/3m194rui52Q>

email me at wilcut.matthew@gmail.com

------
embplat
1\. Find someone on (Elance|Odesk|etc.) to do it for less than half of $5,000
2\. Get the difference 3\. Profit

------
aleprok
This is somewhat interesting, but I can always work half the speed and save
that $3,000 for marketing on the way to completion of the MVP, get a friend to
come along with much less equity to help out.

Then again you want the idea, you want the initial work and piggy back
possibly on a billion dollar idea.

------
fish2000
Ok, great! I've been spinning my wheels trying to create a flexible database
architecture for image features – Where do I sign? Do you want to see my work-
in-progress? But yeah, great! Do I get a check up front or like a stipend-
style disbursement, and how often should we meet up?

------
hhuio
The government should fund startups, via money printing. Instead of say pay
people to stay unemployed.

~~~
lgieron
In Poland, the government does fund startups. It tends to draw all kinds of
scam artists which will take the gov money and create some kind of hopeless
facebook-for-dogs website just to satisfy formal requirements. The funding
system is designed to weed out such individuals, but obviously they are highly
motivated (free money!) so many of them manage to game it anyway.

------
pknerd
Is this offer only for US residents?

------
mingpan
This sounds like a very interesting deal. It wouldn't be right for my
particular circumstances, but I imagine there are others out there for which
it is a good fit. I would be really interested in hearing progress reports
from your venture(s) down the line.

------
jborden13
I applaud this. It may not be the perfect deal for everyone, but creating
options for want-repreneurs is typically a good thing. My only caution would
be to vet the would-be investor to ensure that this is someone you want to be
in bed with.

------
mmwanga
This is pretty good actually. With $5000 in the bank, you can spend the next
60 days not going hungry or worrying about rent and build that MVP. On the
flip side, you should ask for < 50% to keep the controlling stake out of your
hands.

------
ronreiter
No sane person would take a deal where 50% of the idea is owned by someone who
isn't doing anything. Your idea has a very serious flaw - why should someone
who put 5000$ get 50% of the idea, and he has nothing to contribute to it.

------
sylvinus
50-50 is usually a terrible idea, moreover if you don't know each other
beforehand.

------
StylusEater
Intriguing. There are websites like Elance that could help you structure the
terms and refine your pitch to make it more appealing. Have you looked there
or are you content trying to snag a shark with a freshwater minnow?

------
b3b0p
I like this idea and I think a lot of people have thought of it before.
Congratulations to actually come out and post it on Hacker News though.

I would be all over this, but right now I'm lost on ideas. I'd do it in a
heart beat though.

------
TheFoundersHive
I believe that could be ideal for some people but click this and see an
alternative deal/option <http://www.thefoundershive.com/how-it-works/>

------
MrKristopher
I am interested but do not see any way to contact hmexx. I'll check back
later.

------
BigBalli
I'm in, have many iPhone app ideas (businesses) that only need funding so I
can allot time. How can we reach you? <http://www.giacomoballi.com/apps>

------
robomartin
OK, I'll put something concrete on the table to get away from the
hypothetical.

Here's one of my MVP's (yes folks, I am working on more than one idea at a
time):

<http://www.tommyteaches.com/>

Go on, check it out and come back.

This is actually a finished product. There's nothing new to build at this
stage except for additional installments of Tommy Teaches apps (additional
subjects) and a few that will require slightly different technology. So, it is
an MVP only in the sense that it is the first "hook in the water" to be able
to start gathering a little bit of an audience and start testing a hypothesis.

Where is it now? It just launched, and, as a paid app, it enjoyed all of three
days in the "new in education" list and notched down from there. I probably
should have released it as a free app and then convert to paid. It has a
built-in recommendation system which --I would hope-- would then serve to
gather a larger audience.

The real power is in having Tommy teach additional topics and have more hooks
in the water. Then it can leverage into other areas, such as a more elaborate
online portal with advertising, affiliate stuff and online games to keep them
coming. You have to start somewhere.

And yes, the strategy with new titles will be to release them as free apps and
then migrate into paid at certain point.

This app required a lot of heavy lifting in order to creatively utilize a
genetic algorithm to optimize teaching. All-in-all, between various
experiments and concepts you are looking at about a year's worth of work.

Why take it that far? Because that was part of the initial hypothesis. It came
out of helping my own kids with school-work. The realization was that the vast
majority of apps out there use mindless (and useless) repetition to "teach". A
real human teacher actually observes the student and adjusts teaching style,
sequence and content in order to focus on what the kid is having trouble with
and optimize/maximize learning. That's what Tommy Teaches attempts to do.

OK, long explanation. Let's get back to the OP's proposal and the potential
relevance to this project.

With Tommy's engine (rev 1) and his first app released I am engaged in the
following:

    
    
        - Planning follow-on titles (as seen on the website)
        - Marketing, building an audience
        - Monitoring usage (analytics) to try to determine if and how to mutate 
          Tommy for better results
        - Looking for additional revenue-generating opportunities for Tommy 
          Amazon affiliate links on the site for kid's books and toys being one example.
    

In other words, mostly business development.

So, what might inspire me to give up a percentage of my business to someone
else? Yes, there's still plenty of development work to do. Nothing is ever
finished. As projects go, this is a fairly polished actual product, not a
cripple-ware MVP.

In my eyes outside funding would be of use to accelerate the production of
additional titles. That, I think, is important. It would also be interesting
to consider accelerating the release of these titles for Android and perhaps
even consider dipping toes in the Windows 8 Phone landscape.

The other very important element here is the use of outside funding AND know-
how/connections to accelerate marketing and audience-building efforts. This
could be, by far, the most valuable part of a deal. This is particularly true
when the technology is already built and it is basically a product that needs
to be sold.

Herein lies the issue, at least for me. The OP hasn't really provided enough
information to evaluate the quality of his money (no offense intended). For
most projects dumb money is useless. It can even be dangerous. Smart money
comes with contacts, methods, audience, perspective, experience, outlook and a
whole host of other items that go into making it "smart".

Then there's the idea that $8,000 isn't a lot of money at all. If you are
working in tech you should be able to put together $8,000, even if it takes
you a year to do so. Equity is sacred and it should not be given-up without
great justification. Again, on the premise that a tech worker earns a good
living, giving-up 50% of your company for $8,000 (meaning, just money and a
nebulous offer to market) simply doesn't make a ton of sense.

I've hired and fired many sales and marketing people in prior business
ventures. If there's one thing I can say conclusively is that there really
isn't a perfect correlation between the ability of a person selling product A
translating into selling product B. I've hired people who were fantastic at
selling product A, had a huge client list and came with recommendations. They
couldn't sell my product to save their lives. There's something, for lack of a
better term, "organic" about the relationship or the fit between the
marketeer/sales-person and the product.

This is to say that just because someone says that they are going to market
your product it does not mean --not for a second-- that they are actually
going to be able to deliver results.

Just to set things straight: I think the OP is doing this community a huge
service by opening-up this paradigm for discussion. And, while the proposed
structure isn't something I would be inclined to consider, I am sure there are
those for whom it could be fantastic and even potentially life-changing.

I am more than willing to consider a partner for Tommy Teaches. However, this
partner needs to bring to the table a really convincing value proposition that
goes beyond money. By all means, if you are that person and are interested
drop me an email (see HN profile).

~~~
orionblastar
You have a good start there. I haven't used your app but looking at it the GUI
looks kid-friendly.

You might want to look at iOS and iPhone review sites and give them your link
for possible reviews. If you get more reviews on it from third parties who are
neutral, it will help promote your app. Find target users by posting to K-12
education forums with your Tommy Teaches web site in your signature, find
Homeschooling forums and post in them with TT in your tag line as well. Form
partnerships with other makers of children's learning apps to link to your web
site and your will link back to their web site.

I can think of more titles for Tommy, there is a big market for foreign
languages as most schools don't teach foreign languages due to budget cuts (my
son's school did that) and the school advises parents to go online and have
their children learn there. You could make Spanish, French, German, Latin,
Chinese, Japanese learning apps and market them to parents who need to have
their child learn a foreign language. I haven't seen many children friendly
foreign language apps on the App Store. They are mostly for adults. Tommy
Teachers can fill that gap.

Write some eBooks based on the Tommy Teacher graphics and materials. Start out
with an Alphabet book, and work on each title. You can publish them with
Kindle and Nook as well as Apple iBooks.

Make some pages for Tommy Teaches at Facebook, GPlus, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc
to promote new products and have people sign up and refer your pages to
friends.

You might want to make some apps as Autism-friendly, I hear there is a big
market for that. A Tommy Teaches app that autistic children can use that
speaks for them, when they can't speak. They just click on icons and it forms
words for them. Use most common words that a child might say and have cartoon
pictures of them.

Good luck on Rev 2, this is all free advice for you. You don't need that guy's
$8000 investment.

~~~
robomartin
Thanks very much for your feedback.

Yes, quite a bit of what you are suggesting is in my game-plan already. I have
an excellent relationship with my kid's elementary school. The Principal
already presented Tommy Teaches to all the teachers and I got good reviews.

I am also about to get involved with their developmentally disabled classes. I
know the teachers who look after those kids (one of them lives across the
street from me) and they've already told me about a general lack of tools for
their kids. My plan is to spend a week or two with the kids at school
observing and interacting with them. I'm sure it will be heart-breaking to
some extent but if I can help them in any way it'd be absolutely wonderful.

Ditto for the eBooks and some of the other ideas. I even have a very
interesting concept for a Tommy Teaches toy.

At one point you start to run into the limits of a solo founder. I can't do
everything. I have so far, including developing the character and doing all of
the animation work (and I am not a designer at all). This is where intelligent
money (meaning money that comes with vision, contacts, perspective, ideas,
etc.) could be valuable.

Another interesting angle on Tommy is adult learning. Tommy's genetically-
evolved teaching engine could be applied to teaching various subjects that
adults want to learn. That's a very interesting market.

In terms of additional languages, yes, absolutely. I speak a couple of
languages myself outside of English and am very aware of the lack of quality
apps in those domains. Thinking out loud, Spanish might be the first I'd
target.

Thanks again for the pointers.

~~~
orionblastar
You are welcome. I paid 99 cents for the alphabet app and left a review for
you on the app store.

My wife is half-Thai and I know a lot of Thai people who want to learn
English. You might want to consider an ESL aspect of your app for adults who
speak a foreign language.

I think this proves that I know what I am talking about in this thread. My
plan I wrote for your app is very similar to what you are doing, and you
didn't tell me what it was.

Yes at some point you have to hire other people or take on investors and
cofounders to help out. Make sure you research them thoroughly before you sign
any contract with them. Don't take just anyone, there are a lot of scam
artists out there that prey on startups like sharks.

~~~
robomartin
Many thanks for purchasing the app. I'd certainly value your feedback if you
have a chance to have small children play with it.

Yes, at one point you have to hire-in help. I am on the camp that an
experienced solo founder could be better than inexperienced young co-founders.
You can hire-in (and fire) help but if you discover that your co-founders are,
shall we say, problematic, it can get ugly fast.

Prior to this I started a tech company in my garage that did pretty well until
circumstances around the economic collapse of 2008 imploded it. Basically,
most of our business was through leasing and when banks stopped lending our
customers (and orders) evaporated nearly overnight. Ugly. Anyhow, I started it
solo. Spent two years locked in the garage developing hardware and software.
Grew it to twenty employees and a 10,000 square foot manufacturing facility at
the peak. It was a fantastic ride. Not without peril, but, putting aside the
pain of the loss of a twelve year effort, a wonderful experience.

You comment about scam artists one to heed. Newbie entrepreneurs can be prime
targets. I have my share of scars to prove how "real" it can be.

------
se85
1\. 50/50 partnerships are absolutely dreadful for conflict resolution.

2\. $3000 for marketing is nothing and will most likely get little results
even if op is a marketing guru which does not appear to be the case.

------
budu3
I'm uncomfortable with the "At this point, I'll take over ..." bit. I can
foresee it becoming a mess if the project becomes successful and there is no
chemistry between founder and investor.

------
hudell
I liked the idea. How long will you keep the offer up? I'm currently moving to
a new place and won't have time to do it right now, but would love to accept
the offer in about two months.

------
Devlin_Donnelly
The model described here in this post sounds like a good start-up idea itself.
Although you would need a fair amount of capital to mitigate the risk of
company ideas that may fail.

------
pablius
Nice idea! The 50/50 split is dangerous unless you specify a way to know who
has the final decision. A coin flip maybe? :)

Also more specifics about the "take over" part would be nice.

------
joshuamcclure
This is a pretty cool idea. I'd be interested in discussing putting this into
a system which allows the good ideas to rise to the top for a scholarship like
this.

------
kwang88
I'd personally be much more in favor of a case where you take 25% equity and
the builder (or potentially, a builder / marketer team) handles all of the
marketing.

------
loceng
50/50 is dangerous split. We disagree, nothing happens. Developer invested
time (sure they got paid), but now their idea is highly-likely landlocked with
you.

------
phildionne
Startups are becoming a commodity. Am I alone seeing this?

------
dinky
If you would like to negotiate this or another proposition, you can use a
service I wrote:

<http://lookapinky.com>

------
wanghq
Hi @hmexx, this is a great idea! ex-prj.com is my side-project and I hope you
like it. Yes, the project is absolutely inspired by you. Thanks.

------
krmmalik
What if the person isn't a techie, and doesn't necessarily need to build a
product, but just needs to take time out to build the business?

------
chris123
Is there a draft agreement written yet? If so, can you share it with us and/or
open source it so we can evaluate, fork, etc? Thks :)

------
cjmagee
Ask 3 people what defines "MVP" and you'll get 3 definitions. What's your
definition and how will completion be determined?

------
hxf148
How do I get in touch with you? I was about to possibly undertake an idea that
would fit well into your idea and offer.

------
cedricd
How many of these deals are you doing? Just one? And if so once you've got
your 50% you'll work on it full-time too?

------
negamax
I think it's a great proposal and interesting experiment. Kudos. Hoping some
notable result from it.

------
suyash
I don't need your money to work on my own idea. I'm enough by myself to do all
the required work.

------
Gabriel_Martin
I'm at GabrielMtn@gmail.com, would be happy to correspond, and support your
initiative.

------
rafaqueque
I sent anyway. We never know...

------
jyf1987
i do think a resource providing is more suite.

8k dollar is not a large number for those programmer

if you could provide a large amazone ec2 or other needed resource for us, that
would be more cool than just the money and could reduce the cost more

------
mark_ellul
hmexx I think this is a pretty good opportunity. However as others have
commented its not so easy to just drop all client work for 2 months,
especially when you have responsibilities.

Apart from that I think its a brilliant idea!

------
IgorPartola
How many ideas are you looking to fund? Also, is your proposition negotiable?

------
r0fls
I would love to do this... is this real? How would I go about applying?

------
djabatt
I have to say this is genius and I agree with the premise 2 totally.

------
devb0x
Premise 3 is true for me. Too intensive is how I usually state it.

------
SonicSoul
i'd be curious to see what kind of interested this generated, and how many
product ideas you considered to be worthy of your 5k investment.

------
volandovengo
I'll take you up on it - please shoot me a note.

------
dorkitude
How many such projects will you be funding?

------
aschroder
you could generalize this to crowdsourcing non-tech founders - call it
kickstartup.com.

------
makeautocadfast
Sorry. My e-mail address:

makeautocadfast@ymail.com

Jos van Doorn

------
sglsgl
typical lottery : many will answer for very few $ spent :-)

------
mariaslickflick
Who are 'you'?

------
drizzo4shizzo
wow has NOBODY considered the idea that this guy is just harvesting your
ideas?

who knows how sincere the offer is.

phishing 101

~~~
lvturner
Ideas aren't as sacred as you'd think. It's the execution of them that
generates revenue.

~~~
codexnight
You are underestimating ideas.While I do agree with you in 80%-90% of cases,
there are still excellent ideas that should stay under the radar.If you don't
execute an idea doesn't mean it worths nothing.It means you don't harness it's
power.It's kind of the same as having 1 ton of gold in your garage and keeping
it there.

------
wheelerwj
im in.

------
droithomme
Hell, I'll pay $5001 for a 50% total ownership of your entire new company and
all its developed IP in perpetuity, provided I get to check out your secret
idea in advance before deciding.

That's a no brainer, and I'm even being honest about what you're getting, not
saying it's $8000 when I'm actually paying $5000 for half of all your labor
for however long it takes for you to get it all working, then investing $3000
on some hand wavy "marketing" thing.

------
seivan
I am very interested in this. I believe as you do

"An MVP built by a lone, but talented techie is almost as likely to turn into
something 'successful' as a startup on angellist that has: 4 founders, 9
advisors, 13 press releases, 600 followers, etc"

------
dschiptsov
Here is something to read for a _freelancers with good ideas_ before
considering any such "propositions" - <http://karma-
engineering.com/lab/wiki/Hiring>

------
dschiptsov
_We split the resulting company 50-50, as equal co-founders._ \- you must be
trolling?)

How would you like to become _equal_ to the years of thinking and trying by
just throwing some money?

~~~
unreal37
Its a classic startup. One partner has the money/business expertise, and one
develops/produces. Apple started like that. If Woz told Jobs, "You can't code?
I don't need you", there'd be no Apple today.

~~~
dschiptsov
Money is not enough. One should be worth of partnering with - well-connected,
or even better - a market maker.

Basically, what companies like YC do is looking at you, and thinking to whom
they will sell you - they are evaluating a few exit strategies.

Money usually isn't a problem. Ability to meet the right people and negotiate
good terms are.

------
michaelochurch
Initial thoughts: not disruptive enough to justify the extremely low
valuation. How are you different from a reputable angel investor, who also
brings connections? $5000 lasts about a month in NYC or the Bay Area.

I like the ambition (of disrupting the funding process) but, in all honesty,
to me this sounds like "I just need an idea guy" (as opposed to "I just need a
programmer").

~~~
manaskarekar
What if it's for guys not in NYC or the Bay Area?

~~~
rwallace
Or even in those places, if you're in high school or college, have some skills
and an idea, this could be an attractive alternative to looking for a summer
job.

------
delinquentme
"I'll take over and spend an additional $3000 to acquire enough
users/customers for us to evaluate the project's likelihood of success."

... So if selected you're taking over the branding and sales of said company?
If so how is pricing settled on?

------
abhishivsaxena
<http://muis.co/abhishiv>

------
orionblastar
Ah how about no?

As tempting as it seems, a big project like that requires a team. A Lone
Ranger cannot finish it in two months and even so it would not be of good
quality and patched potential security holes. By the time the 'beta' is
released to the public after two months, who exactly is the target market? You
don't know what I am developing, you don't know who is going to use it, or who
will pay for it, and of course no business plan either.

Work on the business plan first, research the market doing a SWOTT (Strengths
Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Trends), pick the platform and language best
suited for the project, write the proof of concept or 'beta', and then recruit
beta testers to work out the bugs, and then after patching all the bugs and
security holes you can release it and raise money to go public or whatever.

I'm not like these other guys, I have experience, I know what I am doing and
how to turn a profit. I can smell failure like your offer. I don't want to
create yet another Dotbomb that self-destructs.

Sure I got countless project ideas, why don't I do at least one of them? Well
I have to do a feasibility study and all I mentioned above.

I've been throwing around project ideas with former business partners of mine.
I ran two small businesses before, I've worked for FORTUNE 500 companies, I
worked for small and medium businesses, I've worked for a college, I've done
software consulting for the US Army and Federal Government. We don't do
anything until we've done all the research first.

As tempting as that $8000 offer is, I'd be doing 100% of the work writing the
software, and then you get 50% of the stock. I put in $2M USD worth of labor
for a multimillion dollar project, and for your $8000 you get half the stock?
I can find users and promote my web site for free you know.

Anyway thanks for the good laugh, I'd rather take my time and do it right than
rush into two months with no research done at all.

~~~
rficcaglia
I really do appreciate your overall point and caution, BUT I wouldn't exactly
hold up the Feds or Fortune 500 companies as icons of rapid innovation (yes i
too have worked with them and speak from grey hair - much of which was torn
out weeding out useful info from reams of Reasearch documents :)

The OP, has clearly touched on something, given the activity here, so kudos to
him/her!

I dont think you should have been downvoted, lest we prevent open and honest
discourse. That said I would not laugh at blind ambition, however naieve; I'll
bet on that over inaction any day!

