

HoursForEquity matches startups and job seekers - hoursforequity
http://hoursforequity.com/index.php

======
ChuckMcM
So back in the dotcom days there was this thing where Startup A would give
Startup B some product or service "valued at" some number in exchange for
Startup B giving them some product or service "valued at" and equivalent kind
of amount. They did this because both A and B could report "sales" of $x
revenue with a moderately straight face, even though no money changed hands
and it was entirely unclear if either A or B would have paid $X for the
service/product they got if they were actually exchanging real money. So for
example the startup I was working at got a $120,000 data base installation in
exchange for $120,000 worth of banner ads on our site.

There were two problems with that, first the investors were somewhat misled
(seeing only the 'sales' numbers and not the actual dollars in the bank
number) and two the IRS went after folks who were saying "millions in
revenues" for taxes on those revenues which, since they were in trade goods
rather than dollars, the companies didn't actually have money to pay the
taxes.

Its this latter bit that worries me about this idea. If you give equity for
work you have to provide a value for it. You have to give the person a 1099
form (if its over $600) and they may end up owing income tax on an illiquid
asset.

------
asanwal
Interesting idea but think there will be a huge adverse selection problem
here. Any startup giving out equity for tasks but which as no cash to pay may
not be all that valuable to have equity in.

And I wonder if the same can be said of the job seekers who use this. Really
great people get paid for their work and perhaps get equity as well.

Part of me hopes I'm wrong about this as it is an interesting idea.

~~~
hoursforequity
We agree with you, however, this is a way to turn an idea into a minimum
viable product without spending money. This may not be the best way to build a
full product, but our philosophy is the more hypotheses you can test without
spending cash the better off you are. Thoughts?

~~~
asanwal
With this comment, I lost any faith in this idea as it's clear this is not
about both sides deriving value in the process. In your scheme, startup
"founders" or really wantrapreneurs get to try out half-baked ideas by giving
away worthless equity to folks that are ultimately being duped while idea guys
ultimately talk about their MVP and pivots and other bs that people who fancy
themselves as startup founders think they should talk about.

On a related note, the "founders" participating in sites like these give a bad
name to business people with legitimate biz building skills.

~~~
hoursforequity
I'm curious about why you think that? Most of the startups that have used our
service so far have been started by engineers (including myself) that need
help building a product they actually believe in... not just idea people going
after the first thing that comes to mind.

Also, when equity has been issued it was typically in the 10-30% range.
Essentially, businesses are using this as a way to find partners - not to dupe
engineers.

Thoughts?

------
LnxPrgr3
What kind of job seeker is this looking to attract?

Equity's great if that equity turns out to be worth something, but it doesn't
pay today's bills. If I've got money saved up and I'm looking to take on a
labor of passion, chances are really good it's going to be with one or two
other people I already know, respect, and trust. If I don't have money saved
up then I need cash now, not equity with an uncertain payday.

I get why entrepreneurs would love this, but what's the use case for job
seekers? What am I missing?

~~~
ProblemFactory
The problem with most recruiting sites is the lack of (competent) candidates.

And this is because highly competent candidates are never deliberately looking
for a job. They get recruited to a pretty good job before they have even
started thinking of jobs from college, and then get recruited to other
companies by an old friend. It's extremely rare that they are ever considering
themselves to be a "job seeker" at all.

These people don't bother reading recruitment-only sites in their free time.
And they certainly don't want to create a job-seeking profile, and get in
trouble with their boss who thinks they may be leaving.

But what they are very interested in is reading about their field of
speciality. When I was sourcing candidates, the only online places where I
found qualified engineers were the StackOverflow and 37signals job boards.
These two are successful because they built the _community and content_ that
competent candidates want to visit daily first, and added a job board second.
I have no expertise in mechanical engineering, but GrabCad seems to be doing
it well in that area.

So my theory for running a successful recruiting site is:

1\. Choose a single profession, skill, or field. 2\. Create seed content
yourself to attract initial experts in that field. 3\. Add community features
to let these initial experts contribute more content. 4\. When you have become
a well-known site for most experts in the field, add job boards.

~~~
fellars
I see geekli.st taking this exact approach now. Another approach is what
betacave.com is doing (disclaimer: I'm a co-founder)

------
symbiotic
Interesting idea but I would have a huge aversion to giving anyone equity who
I haven't had some experience working with in the past or I don't see as
having a long term role in my company.

~~~
hoursforequity
Would anything change your mind about that? If you wanted to test a hypothesis
for a risky business idea and didn't want to sink cash into it, would it be
worth it?

Would you prefer a method to pay cash for labor instead?

~~~
symbiotic
I think in any potential business venture the team is so critical that I'd go
out to people I know to help, even for early prototyping. Admittedly I might
not be your target demographic because I can code myself.

~~~
hoursforequity
True. I'll think about that and see what we can come up with... thanks for
sharing your opinion!

------
pi18n
If your company's "most precious resource" is capital and not equity, that's
indicating that you are expecting to fail. Equity is already far more risky
than a salary in companies that think they'll succeed. I hope you are
successful, but I think you might need a pivot or two on this idea.

~~~
hoursforequity
What did you have in mind? We hear from the community that some combination of
equity and cash would be helpful, but I'm curious what other ideas you had?

------
subrat_rout
The website look and feel is good.But I would like to see if you have talked
to few startups interested to work with you. Put their logo at the bottom of
your sites mentioning that these are the top startups hiring job seekers. That
way you can attract more user(job seekers) to your site.

~~~
hoursforequity
Great idea! Thanks.

------
MehdiEG
The video on the home page is surprisingly polished and professionally
produced but the script is an obvious piss-take. The home page on the other
side is a quick & dirty job - looks like it's been thrown together in a couple
of hours using some free website template.

I vote for an end-of-year project by media students made for fun.

~~~
hoursforequity
How would you suggest we improve the script and home page?

~~~
MehdiEG
If you guys are actually real, then here is why my first impression was this
was a piss-take / joke project:

\- The presentation video is slick and has obviously been professionally
produced. First impression of the home page on the other side is that it's a
very quick & dirty job based on some generic website template. At first sight,
it also looks like the site is just the home page and nothing else (tried to
fill in the registration form on the home page and it didn't do anything).

So first impression is that you've spent an awful lot of time, energy and
money into creating a fancy presentation video but haven't spent any time or
resources into the product itself. Which is strange and doesn't give a great
deal of confidence.

\- The video is essentially a collection of every startup cliché you can think
of: "we're creating a social network", "the possibilities are endless",
statements about how your product is somehow going to revolutionise local
communities, which, to be honest, sound like your typical pure bullshit PR-
speak, etc. All filmed in the most stereotypical way I can think of. I'm sorry
but my gut feelings here were that none of this was real or genuine.

And then there's those really weird clips of the founder playing guitar or
browsing records in a record shop that don't really make any sense. I can only
interpret them as taking the piss out of the stereotypical startup founder,
who sees himself as a rock star and spends his time faffing around,
bullshiting about how he's building the next Facebook, while expecting people
to work for him for free / equity.

If this is a real project, then the way to improve this would simply be to
focus completely on the product. At the stage you're at, the product is the
one and only thing that matters. Fancy videos and big promises only come when
you have a product that matches and delivers. Otherwise, it comes across as
bullshit. (my personal opinion obviously - others may differ).

~~~
LnxPrgr3
Perhaps it's a minimum viable product of the "landing/signup page only" form.
Or maybe that's part of the parody.

~~~
hoursforequity
The site is our MVP, however, the product is functional. Feel free to sign up
and let us know what you think.

------
vhf
It looks great.

I think you should state clearly before the "Register" step / button that it's
only available in the US at the moment. I looked around, I liked the idea, I
wanted to see more so I signed up and ended up having to chose a location in
the States (which I can't, obviously, being in Europe).

------
seanlinehan
Very interesting! A friend and I chatted about building something like this
due to the fact that the JOBS act makes it much more feasible legally. I was
thinking about crowd-building entire companies, though. I think your execution
is much more practical.

Best of luck! The site looks pretty good!

~~~
hoursforequity
Thanks man, much appreciated. Let us know if you'd like to get involved!

------
mgkimsal
So... I've tried to sign up as a 'job seeker' 3 times in the last hour and it
simply doesn't work. The sidebar targeting arrow just jumps down to the
'startups' tab after clicking 'register'.

~~~
hoursforequity
Sorry, were working on it. That happens when blank cells are left the form. I
apologize.

~~~
mgkimsal
np, but i had no blank cells in the form. there's only 4 - username, email,
password duped, and i filled out all 4. Looks like you got it fixed now.

------
heimidal
You need to add error info on your "Add a Resume" form. Just wanted to check
things out, but couldn't get past that page (presumably because I omitted a
field for personal reasons).

~~~
hoursforequity
Thanks. We noticed that it wasnt working yesterday and will fix it ASAP!

------
hoursforequity
Thanks for the support guys!

------
jacques_chester
Looks like I and everyone else had this approximate idea.

Oh well. There's room for lots of businesses. Let one hundred flowers bloom.

~~~
hoursforequity
Please let us know if you'd like to get involved!

