
Show HN: Get Paid to Build Your Next Side Project - hackerews
https://www.demandrush.com
======
sanbor
Photoshop license costs $348 a year. If 1000 people get together and put $400
each, you'll get $400000. That money could be used to leverage a Gimp to be
more Photoshop-users friendly. Then you don't have to keep with the
subscription model. You have a great piece of open source software available
for everyone to use as long as they want. You can do another round to get more
features added.

This solves the issue that you get with subscription based services, which is
that if you stop paying every month/year you loose access to the tool to do
your work.

Instead of building yet another SaaS wouldn't be smarter for users to gather
and pay for a software libre solution?

~~~
rgbrenner
$400k pays for 3 people.. maybe a couple of more if you hire from a cheaper
country.

If all GIMP needed was a few more developers to be competitive against PS,
that would have happened by now.

You're seriously underestimating the amount of work GIMP needs to do.. and/or
the amount of work that already goes into GIMP.

~~~
bqe
This reminds me of the joke about the economist who refuses to pick up the $20
bill on the ground because surely someone else would have already picked it
up.

~~~
whack
Yes, people love to laugh at this mythical economist, but seriously, when's
the last time you saw a legit $20 bill just lying on the ground? I've never
seen this even once in my life. Perhaps this mythical economist is the one
having the last laugh.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Yes, people love to laugh at this mythical economist, but seriously, when's
> the last time you saw a legit $20 bill just lying on the ground?

1996 (±2 years) in an arcade, actually.

~~~
mod
I found a $10 two years ago in a field.

It was really ragged, so much so that the bank wouldn't take it. So I still
have it.

------
avaer
> GET PAID TO BUILD YOUR NEXT PROJECT

> Choose a problem below to get started.

Get paid to build _my_ next project or _your_ next project?

This is clearly a two-sided platform, but the messaging seems conflated: the
headline speaks to builders and the instructions speak to end customers.

~~~
Sakes
It appears to me that this is a tool to identify a market / need that is not
being met.

There are people who simply want a product/service, no desire for ownership.
They post what they'd be will to pay for it, as a customer, and you decide if
it is worth your time to build it.

Anyone? Am I understanding this correctly?

~~~
hackerews
That's right!

~~~
daveguy
First, I think this is a great idea. People have problems they think might be
solved / automated. But I agree it definitely needs some language clarity.

Businesses: have a problem you need solved with software? Post your problem!

Programmers: looking for a challenging project with identified customers?
Apply to solve a problem!

------
pc86
> _Industry-specific deep learning interviews and walkthroughs_

> _1 customer paying $5 /mo_

Sounds about right.

~~~
BlackjackCF
Every single one of the projects that are on this site right now are super
underpaid...

It's sad that even the highest bidding project is $500/mo.

~~~
ceejayoz
I don't think that's the bid to build it. The site's premise seems to be that
_multiple_ people would commit to being customers of a new app/service - pre-
validating the market, in other words.

------
baron816
I think this has the potential to introduce an interesting auction model.
People might want to join in, but not at the initial price point. What if
everyone proposed wanting in on project stated their maximum price point, and
the winning application to solve would get the price they bid at for everyone
above that level. In other words

customers_offering_prices = [1,1,4,15,30,30,40,80,100,150,175,10000]

winning_applicant_price = 40

winning_applicant_revenue = [40,40,40,40,40,40].sum

The last 6 customers receive the product and they all pay 40. Essentially a
modified Vickrey auction. Everyone has an incentive to bid exactly what the
product is worth to them.

Edit: >Everyone has an incentive to bid exactly what the product is worth to
them.

Actually not true if applicants see the bids. In my example, the the best
applicant would want to bid 10000 because that would maximize revenue, but
exclude everyone before that. Customers would adjust their bidding as a
result. But applicants should know much they can expect to receive if they win
so they can bid correctly.

~~~
bluGill
Is that fair though? If something is only worth 5 to me and 40 to you, and the
cost of development is 45 - neither of us along can afford the feature, but if
we put aside out different contributions the total is enough to make both of
us happy, or neither of are. Your model both of use get nothing when we both
could be happy on a different model.

~~~
CamelCaseName
It is equitable, but it is not efficient. At least this is better than a
Vickrey auction though, where you would only get paid $5.01 and spend $45 (net
loss) rather than see the bids and do nothing. (Or see the bids and lose, but
get paid $40 rather than $5.01)

------
mgkimsal
Wish there was a way to ask people for clarification.

> [https://www.demandrush.com/problems/fantasy-scifi-
> subscripti...](https://www.demandrush.com/problems/fantasy-scifi-
> subscription)

> I'd love a Netflix-style platform, website or app that, where I'd have a
> selection of high quality books to choose from.

Amazon has a 'unlimited book rental' subscription model (I know not _all_
books are in there).

"What systems has this person already looked at, and why were they rejected?"

That probably needs to be a base question.

------
BoorishBears
This looks like such a cool idea, but already you see that the problems
presented seem to be seriously underestimating how complicated what they're
trying to do is. For example, detecting specific text in an image? 10 minutes
in OpenCV. Detecting any text at all in any format in an image? I don't even
know where to start. Maybe 10 minutes in OpenCV if they constrain the kind of
text, otherwise ML? It feels like an unboundedly complicated problem.

~~~
zimmund
It's also not clear how it will be used later. It could be used to crop/remove
watermarks or copyright messages, and I wouldn't develop it if that's its
purpose.

~~~
scrapcode
Captcha solving is expensive for spammers.

~~~
custos
I can assure you it is not. It's about $0.001 per solved captcha with 97%
accuracy rate and refunds on failed ones, from the service provider I know of.

I've even written one, it's not complicated and not expensive.

~~~
tehlike
It is still the same rate. 2.2 ish for new recaptcha, too.

~~~
custos
Yeah I was able to beat that "Robot check" checkbox by Google using some fuzzy
bezier curves and random mouse movements/scrolling to simulate a real user's
behavior.

Unfortunately Google has some other metrics to detect bots (such as no cookies
showing they've seen you before, etc), so it wasn't 100% reliable.

~~~
tehlike
you don't need 100% reliability, that's the good side :)

------
fomojola
Love it! I'd specifically highlighted this concept in the thread for Oppslist
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14469317](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14469317)):
maybe there's an opportunity here to handle both sides of the market, both
soliciting ideas and driving work to the ideas?

Still not sure how you handle avoiding imposters: for things like the
accounting solution that's on the top of the site I think there is huge
potential for abuse in either direction (either devs phishing for data or
companies refusing to pay for solutions). Good luck!

------
pkamb
Does anything like this exist for putting bounties on small scripts /
extensions?

I just posted these questions yesterday, in the hope of finding solutions to a
couple common annoyances I have with Google search:

[https://superuser.com/questions/1218986/keyboard-shortcut-
to...](https://superuser.com/questions/1218986/keyboard-shortcut-to-toggle-
between-google-search-type-tabs-images-maps-etc)

[https://superuser.com/questions/1218989/how-to-maintain-
orde...](https://superuser.com/questions/1218989/how-to-maintain-order-of-the-
google-search-type-links-images-maps-etc-rath)

I don't want the overhead of "hiring a freelancer" to do the work. But I'd
definitely pay a bounty if someone came in with the answer / script /
extension / app that solved the problem.

~~~
slimsag
I'm curious: In your mind, what is the difference between 'hiring a
freelancer' and 'paying a bounty to someone who comes with the answer'?

I'd suggest to you odesk.com, but that is a site for hiring freelancers.
Although I've seen it used many times for 'here's what I want, deliver it and
the money is yours' rather than a .. 'work for me at X/hr and I'll direct you'
kind of thing.

~~~
pkamb
\- I don't want to own the resulting code. Open Source delivery, or a link to
someone else's extension that accomplishes the goal.

\- Payment on the order of $10 for some simple script, not $300+. They can
make up the difference via multiple bounties, selling to multiple people, etc.

\- Public question that can be found by others with the same problem (who can
upvote or add to the bounty), as well as people who are able to deliver the
solution. Stack Exchange, but with payment.

\- I don't want anything to do with reading resumes, selecting the worker,
scheduling, payments, etc. This is what I think of when I hear "freelance".

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I understand what you're getting at, but the price is an issue.

I do something similar: I write very small programs for embedded systems:
simple timers, sequencers, alarms, etc. for around $100. In some cases, we're
talking 15 minutes of work, tops.

If I could charge just $30 and instead sell it to multiple people, I would,
but the odds of that happening are so slim, I have to have a $100 minimum. The
problem is that even for well-defined problems, what people need tends to be
so different that the best you can do is have a common framework for similar
problems. The code itself is rarely even close to identical

~~~
pkamb
I definitely understand the price issue. It might not be a lucrative or
attractive business for existing freelancers.

BUT... people already do this stuff for free. Create free Chrome Extensions to
make some tweak on a website. Spend hours crafting a script for an answer on
Stack Overflow, only to get fake internet points.

I asked the questions above on SuperUser, a website that theoretically does
exactly what I'm asking. Someone will probably eventually post a solution,
someday. It just takes too long. The site doesn't get enough traffic because
no one is getting paid to do the work.

~~~
s73ver
The thing is, the motivation is different when it's fake internet points than
when it's actual money. The relationship between the people is different, too.
The way it works now, the relationship is a cordial, friendly, familiar
relationship (even though the people don't actually know each other in many
cases). Throw money into the deal, even the paltry $10, and now it becomes a
business relationship, with all that entails.

~~~
pkamb
Maybe. I think if a site like GitHub or Stack Overflow added bounties they'd
do it in a way that kept the spectrum more on the relationship side, rather
than the employee/employer. And the bounty is an extra perk.

~~~
manquer
Stackoverflow does have a bounty system . you can only pay with your fake
points though , allowing ppl to pay with real cash is ripe for abuse.Their
points economy is very carefully built, just like any successful in game
economy, hyperinflation is major problem is a problem all of them have to
worry about.

------
rdudek
"Subscribe to news without paying $30/month per website"

I don't think there is a legal way of actually doing this.

~~~
duskwuff
Yeah, that one isn't a programming task at all. It's a business problem, and
not one that's likely to be solved anytime soon.

~~~
kelvin0
Yup, kinda like the massive undertaking Steve Jobs did to make iTunes a
reality (getting the content from competing Music Corps.). An 'iNews' seems as
much of a Herculean job of convincing competing news outlet to lay out their
content piecemeal alongside their competitors content... tough sell!

But I do like the idea and would also gladly pay for it!

~~~
duskwuff
Ironically, Apple has something along the lines of what you're describing.
It's just not available outside of iOS.

[https://www.apple.com/news/](https://www.apple.com/news/)

------
TekMol
"Copyright 2017 DemandRush" \- I'm always surprised when I see these types of
statements on US based websites.

In Europe, this would make no sense. A website is not a legal entity, so it
can not be a copyright holder.

Does the statement make more sense in the US, or is it just a common
misconception among people who build websites?

The terms page says "Welcome to DemandRush, a website and online service of
Grafly, Inc". So I would expect the real copyright holder is Grafly Inc?

~~~
biztos
IANAL etc. but I do think it's a common misunderstanding / wishful thinking in
the US (where I'm from). In the US you can just "be a company" if you want
(with no liability protection), that's between you and the tax man... but if
you want to give the operation a name other than your own, you have to
register that name (they call it "DBA" for "Doing Business As")[0].

But at least as far back as the early 90's it's been common to put "(c)
MyCoolDomainName.com" on a web site, and I'm pretty sure most people mean
"copyright ME until/unless I get around to making a business out of this, and
if I do then copyright whatever business ends up owning the domain name." And
I would assume, though again IANAL, that's not quite what it really means.

Unlike, say, Germany, the US has no requirement for anything like an
"Impressum" for a web site. Nor could it, really, due to the constitution.
(But I Am also Not A Supreme Court Justice so my interpretation of the
constitution may be less sticky than others'.)

[0]: [https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/choose-register-
your-b...](https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/choose-register-your-
business/register-your-business-name)

~~~
polshaw
Copyright is an automatic right however, so AFAICT it makes no difference
legally if you claim it or not or under what moniker. At best it serves as a
reminder to the reader.

------
iandanforth
I would strongly suggest that there be an option to list existing solutions. A
sustainable model means identifying real needs, not duplicating products that
people are merely ignorant of.

~~~
pascalxus
excellent suggestion. OP, please include this feature.

------
kirillzubovsky
I find it a little funny how unrealistic people can be when evaluating the
cost of their problem. Take this one for example: "We have hundreds of images
uploaded to our app each day. The issue is some of these images have text that
we want cropped out." \-- willing to pay? $75/month. Baller!

Chances are this is a problem for a data-mining / ai-training platform that
wants to create a better image set. They are charging clients tens of
thousands of dollars, and yet willing to pay $100/month to improve the data.
lol

~~~
iamwil
On the other hand, it can also go the other way. Non-technical customers don't
actually care how hard something is to build, as long as it solves their
problem. So it often surprises engineers how a 1 day script can make lots of
money for them.

Freelancers often make the same mistake--charging by what it costs to them,
plus a little bit more. You should charge how much value it brings to the
customer, not how much it costs you to make. Easy to say, hard to do.

------
quadrangle
For reference, the site CoFundOS.org (which is now something TOTALLY
unrelated) used to be a bounty service just like this where people all added
their pledge to fund the start of some new project if someone came along and
accepted the task. Not sure if there's any reference available anymore. They
focused on Open Source, whereas DemandRush seems to focus on services, many of
which could qualify as SaaSS even, see [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-
does-that-server-really-s...](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-
server-really-serve)

Anyway, the big issues here are those all bounty-type sites face (which seems,
for some reason, to be the thing everyone keeps trying over and over and keeps
thinking is a new idea). See for reference,
[https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-
research/history/software...](https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/market-
research/history/software#bounties)

~~~
quadrangle
Too late to edit, but it might be worth adding that while CoFundOS got a good
handful of projects listed and handfuls of people pledging, my memory is that
none of the projects ever amounted to anything.

There's a lot of reasons why this sort of approach may seem promising but
never really take off. It's also possible (though I'm skeptical) that it just
takes a certain amount of design, promotion, and right-place-right-time…

------
OzzyB
I love the idea and initiative!

My only concern is that this is a little "race to bottom"; most if not all the
entries are along the lines of "I already have X but I'm paying too much!"

I guess this is great for solo entrepeneur/developers, hell, if I know for
certain I had 100 people waiting to pay me $50/m for X, I would definately
consider building it :)

~~~
goatherders
So would everyone else on the site. Thus the problem.

~~~
OzzyB
Right, once you build X for group of folks, then the next submission will be
"I need a cheaper version of X" \-- where X is _your_ app! :D

------
nonconvergent
A few of these can be solved with a comment.

"Need to see revision history for View-Only Google Docs" \- Don't use a shared
Google Doc as the agent of record. Email it to each other as an agreed
contract.

"Can't find good replacement for expensive accounting/bookkeeper service" Have
you tried literally anything else? You're paying $500/month for this solution,
have considered just getting an accountant and emailing him spreadsheets?

"Monthly subscription for science fiction and fantasy books" "Subscribe to
news without paying $30/month per website" \- Existing solutions already exist
and require a supply chain and distribution rights negotiation more than they
do a developer to slap it into a webapp.

~~~
dzenos
"Email it to each other as an agreed contract." \- But this makes it super
hard to find the particular version and to be on the same page. This really
leads to multiple versions of the same document and thus it is easy to lose
work and information; common to work on an outdated version; difficult to know
who did what and when; hard to track comments and versions.

Just signed up with our solution on demandrush: Tuiqo, simple document
versioning - [https://tuiqo.com](https://tuiqo.com). We just graduated from YC
Startup School Founders track.

------
tarr11
I actually need the first item listed there (InDinero replacement), but I
signed up and am sort of confused?

I would very likely pay for this feature, but I'm not willing to commit to
much unless it works. I would pay a nominal amount to "kickstart" it I guess,
and have the option to sign up later.

But it's a fairly nasty problem - porting your books a proprietary platform to
QuickBooks seems full of traps.

~~~
tenzo
I just signed up to 'solve this problem' as it's something I'm currently
working on.

Is there a particular reason why you're looking for an InDinero replacement?

~~~
tarr11
In short, service quality has gone down. I feel like for the amount I'm
paying, I could get a lot more value somewhere else. The problem is that it's
very expensive and risky to switch accounting packages.

When we started with them, we paid about $400, and they did payroll,
accounting, and taxes, plus Stripe integration for a DE C corp. We had a
monthly meeting with a bookkeeper. We'd get responses to all requests within a
day or two.

Now, we pay 3x that (our revenue has grown) they've eliminated payroll,
they've outsourced our bookkeeping to somewhere else, and often don't respond
for many days. They delay filing taxes until Sept always. I don't really feel
like they understand our business particularly well.

They've quoted me nearly double to switch to accrual accounting, and I suspect
it's even more expensive than that. I can't really use it for management
purposes or cashflow forecasting, which are my two biggest pain points.

I'd rather be on Xero or QB which are industry standard. I could then work
with experts who could help solve specific problems (accrual accounting,
revenue recognition, etc) on an industry standard platform.

I'm not interested in moving to another bookkeeping software however, unless
it's QB or Xero.

------
19eightyfour
This is such a great idea. And you nailed the marketing and message.

It's like a democratized efficient tender process driven by the market.
Brilliant and beautiful! I really feel you shall be able to capture a lot of
value and create alot of value from this. Well done!

------
AndrewKemendo
This looks like an idea/market validator posing as a job listing market.
Brilliant.

------
gremlinsinc
This reminds me of what assembly was doing where people would list startup /
app ideas then teams would form and build the idea and I think a few
businesses came out of that.

~~~
philippnagel
Shame that they had to shut down.

------
sjbase
Super cool idea, but there's a ton of potential for misunderstanding. Example:

User: "I want {A}."

Winning developer: builds {a}

User: "This is useless to me. I wanted {A}, not {a}"

Developer: "But you never said you were case-sensitive!"

It can easily go the other way, with the user saying "Well i said {a}, but I
meant {A}. {a} is useless to me." Who pays when nobody is clearly in the wrong
about some ambiguity? The FAQ hints at an "initial 3 month subscription." Am I
missing more info on the process?

------
avip
First I absolutely love the idea, and even more the execution, of this site.

Several questions about where could this go post 1-day HN buzz:

1\. How are existing solutions being presented to the ignorant "wannabuy"?

2\. How is this list sorted?

3\. How are duplicates managed?

4\. Where is the "discussion" required to even minimally spec the ideas and
bring them to a buildable form?

------
gricardo99
>Monthly subscription for science fiction and fantasy books

Isn't that the public library?

~~~
civilian
I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing. Think of this as a
"loot crate" for but for books.

I think the service should also have _two_ services. One is for great sci-fi
fantasy books of all time-- obviously that's going to be cheaper. The more
expensive service would be for books that have come out in the last 2 years.

For myself, I often look at the winner & nominees for the Hugo and the Nebula
for the last two years:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winn...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Wi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees)

Keep in mind that media mail is like, $2.60? If I was making this service, I
would want to ship 3 books quarterly, rather than 1 book monthly.

There ought to be economies of scale by buying hundreds of books from a
publisher. What do book retailers pay for books anyway? One benefit is that
you also won't be returning books, like brick-and-mortar bookstores do.

An additional awesome feature would be if it connected to your GoodReads
account and never sent you duplicates.

~~~
jogjayr
> I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing.

The librarians at my public library are great at making suggestions. They also
have themed book displays that they rotate every week (eg. physical fitness
one week, high fantasy another etc.)

~~~
gricardo99
I agree curation is value-add. A good librarian is probably as good as it
gets.

Also, the internets are filled with curated lists. Book lists have come up
here on HN a number of times [1][2][3], even Sci-fi specific[4].

But I get it, push button services are very appealing, and can save a lot of
time. Just click subscribe and get a constant supply of books you'll love at a
reasonable price. It's a business model that can work surprising well[5].

1 -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521)

2 -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312)

3 -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160)

4 -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319)

5 - [https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/](https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/)

~~~
jogjayr
In that case, something that works with your local public library's catalog
might be just the thing (and indeed something I've wanted for a while). You
set up a reading list and it orders/puts on hold whatever books or movies you
want one after another. You return one, the next one is ready to go. If the
library doesn't have it, it will request an Inter-Library Loan for you.

Unfortunately my local public library doesn't expose any sort of API to allow
this sort of thing. Only way to do it seems to be by writing a screen scraper.

~~~
civilian
I think the path to take would be to add this feature into the library CMS
systems out there. Sell it to libraries as an add-on plugin as a way to drive
engagement with the library.

~~~
jogjayr
The problem with that is there is a large variety of CMSes out there. It may
not be cost-effective to write plugins for every CMS. Some of them may not not
have documented plugin APIs or may not have the ability to have plugins at
all. Libraries may not necessarily have the budget to buy plugins or,
depending on their CMS licensing agreement, might not be allowed to install
3rd party plugins.

It might still be a cool little system to build though. I might try pitching
it as a new (volunteer) project to my local library and see what they say.

------
vlokshin
Interesting concept, if the balance can get figured out right (making sure
customers or devs aren't getting screwed).

There should also be a discussion section.

For example, I see: >Can't find good replacement for expensive
accounting/bookkeeper service

I'd love to recommend Bench.co (use it and love it) and avoid someone wasting
their time. It's much more affordable than 500/mo.

I do love the concept though. @OP: I'll share this with the
[https://turtle.ai/](https://turtle.ai/) developer community and see if there
is any interest.

------
hashkb
These customers/RFPs are way below market rate for software development. Given
the reality of working with clients, these proposals are likely to result in
developers taking a bath.

~~~
pc86
This isn't developing a product and giving it to a client. This is for
developers to see clients saying "I would pay $X/mo for _Y_ ," developers to
build it and then be able to charge those clients for it.

Anyone who's pre-launched a SaaS knows you're lucky to get 50% of people who
_said_ they would buy to actually buy. People lie all the time. But this is a
good gauge. Think an app that does _Y_ is worth $50/mo but there's a dozen
people saying they'll pay $100/mo for it? Great! A dozen people saying they'll
pay $10/mo for it? Not so great.

------
amelius
> Identify location of text in an image ...for... $75

This is what my doctor charges for a flu vaccination.

I guess I've chosen the wrong profession.

~~~
orcdork
You don't pay your doctor $75 for sticking a needle in your arm, you pay him
for his knowledge not to stick the needle in the wrong place.

Looks like we've got full circle considering this same logic was applied to
devs for ages.

~~~
amelius
Except that for doctors the circle somehow doesn't close upon itself.

Youtube is full of videos showing how to inject oneself.

Writing a text-detection script can be done perhaps with some help from
Google/Stackoverflow, but requires still some intellectual effort depending on
requirements.

~~~
s73ver
And when you screw up and stick it in the wrong place?

~~~
smacktoward
Just have them put "LolToad69 Said It Would Work" on your tombstone.

------
jmull
I guess I get it (maybe ?):

There are already many, many marketplaces for tech development of all shapes
and forms.

For this one I guess it's:

Hey, people who want some tech developed: If you can formulate your problem as
an interesting side project you will (1) be likely to find someone actually
willing & able to do it cheaply; (2) you are likely to be able to aggregate
your buying power with another buyer; (3) you pay a subscription so it isn't a
large up-front cost.

and;

Hey, tech developers who like to do interesting side-projects: Here's a bunch
of interesting side projects that you might have done them anyway, except here
you will (might) get paid to do them!

One way to look at it is in comparison to kickstarter. In kickstarter, a
producer runs the campaign by championing an idea and setting a funding model
and the consumer can choose to buy in by providing dollars. Here, the consumer
champions the idea and sets the price, the funding model is a subscription,
and producers can choose to buy in by providing work... and also more
consumers can buy in by subscribing with dollars.

I guess for this market to work, it has be be more efficient at satisfying the
demand for X-aaS development than existing markets, though I don't know how it
might be.

------
civilian
For "Automated time tracking from Google Apps/Slack":

Toggl is a great service, works in the web or as a desktop app, and has slack
integration: [https://toggl.com/slack-time-tracking](https://toggl.com/slack-
time-tracking)

------
jclardy
I like the idea, but I find the site a bit confusing. What is a "pre-
subscription"? Are people paying their suggested monthly fee up front? It says
that the site makes money from the first three months, so when you sign up are
you already subscribing to a nonexistent service?

And as for "solving", what if they fail? Is it no commitment? Is any of the
funding up front, or is it just built on the promise of possible future
subscriptions?

I think the idea could work, but directing the balance between both sides is
going to be the problem, a lot of the "buyers" are wanting to pay an amount
that will work at scale (like $5/mo) but not really if someone is trying to
bootstrap a solution.

------
mabynogy
Same idea than Opps List with a different perspective:
[https://www.oppslist.com/](https://www.oppslist.com/)

The idea is good but it's difficult to use because you can't reach the people.

------
goatherders
Isn't this exactly how Freelancer/odesk/whatever work now?

~~~
hackerews
Good question. The big difference is you own the products you build here, and
charge a monthly fee for access (for up to X customers). It's a bit like
kickstarting a SaaS business.

Versus with contracting/freelancing, you get paid 1x and the product is owned
by the customer you work for.

~~~
epicide
But who makes all of the minute feature decisions? E.g. one of the projects
wants a bookkeeping service. That's a pretty vague description. Especially if
they want to tie it into their other systems.

If I get final say in what goes in, then it seems very likely they wouldn't be
on board with this (especially not after going through a project). If they get
final say, then this is just contract work.

The other issue is liability. In the bookkeeping example again, who is liable
in case of a data breach? If there is payroll info or client info in said
service, who is responsible for compliance? They couldn't pay me $500,000 a
month to get me to take on that kind of responsibility, much less $500.

I know I'm harping on one example, but a lot of projects would have similar
issues come up.

I guess my point is that sometimes I don't actually want ownership of a
project like that.

> you get paid 1x

That really depends on a lot of factors. From what I've seen on the site, it's
more like the other way around is true.

------
pascalxus
This is a great start! There is a huge demand for more opportunities like
this. Entrepreneurs and businesses are so tired of building yet another
useless app, out of sheer lack of problems to solve. But, with a site like
this, you can find problems that are actually problems. The site just needs
more customers and more problems.

------
kuldeep_kap
It's interesting how there are more comments and votes here in HN post than
the projects posted and voted on the app.

~~~
hackerews
Good point. Right now we're making sure only vetted projects go up - eg we
chat with each person to confirm it's real problem and they'd pay.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Interesting. I think it would be good to have just 'upvotes' so you can tell
general interest with the idea. Its always good to know for creators whether
there is interest from other users.

------
intrasight
The title is misleading. In none of the listed projects do you "get paid". I
often do "glue things together with APIs" types of projects (you could argue
that all software is basically that) using modern cloud services which make it
relatively easy. But doing anything takes several days and therefore costs a
couple thousand dollars - the activation energy for a project. I'll always do
the projects where a client is willing to pay that activation energy before
doing something which is "speculative".

Having said that, I think the idea of doing something like "Upwork" but with
client aggregation and monthly pricing is a great idea - but still
speculative, so a great idea for somebody else to pursue.

------
grogenaut
A few of these can be solved other ways or need more deets. The Google doc one
for instance really just should go to am esigner. Or if this is a more light
weight internal thing then Google docs needs mutable git like tags.

To me this is almost begging for a s/o style comment section.

------
cylinder
For the top two requests, Bench exists for book keeping and Blendle for news

------
id122015
So this is similar to crowdfunding except that we can ask what we want to be
built ?

What I'm willing to pay for but cant easily develop myself is to add features
from OSX to linux. Not too many, I'd start with:

\- a graphical browser like Finder where I could color tag files.

\- UI/UX: do something about easier configuration of the trackpad. Even when I
installed linux on Macbook the trackpad does not work the same or does not
have all the tapping actions instead of clicking. I cant even drag files/links
to file-browser-sidebar/dock or such things.

~~~
hackerews
Add to [https://www.demandrush.com](https://www.demandrush.com)!

------
aub3bhat
>> Identify location of text in image. We have hundreds of images uploaded to
our app each day. The issue is some of these images have text that we want
cropped out.

There you go [1] originally from [2]

[1]
[https://github.com/AKSHAYUBHAT/CTPN/blob/master/demo.ipynb](https://github.com/AKSHAYUBHAT/CTPN/blob/master/demo.ipynb)

[2] [https://github.com/tianzhi0549/CTPN](https://github.com/tianzhi0549/CTPN)

------
mvindahl
Nice idea. A bit simplistic in its current form, though.

One thing that would be _really_ nice would be some kind of discussion thread
for each topic. What does the customer _really_ need? If there are ten
interested customers, do they want the same thing? Which alternatives were
considered? Which tradeoffs would be acceptable?

Also, IMHO, it would be cool if the site could handle the mundane details of
hosting and billing. But I guess that there are probably other sites that do
that kind of thing already?

------
cphoover
Just not enough money...

------
Sindrome
Adblocker for podcasts - HEARTLESS

~~~
mdaniel
In this specific case, they might be "attacking" the wrong side of the
equation. For example, KQED offers a pledge-free stream for donors, because
they know the subscriber and are the origin of the content (or at least a
gateway to it, for upstream NPR content). I think it would be absolutely
magical if I could get an ad-free feed from the podcasts I donate to already.

That said, there is _no way_ that ads in podcasts inflict $15/mo worth of
suffering upon me. The "skip ahead 30 seconds" button is absolutely perfect
for not hearing _yet another_ Squarespace ad

------
adamb
Cool seed for a community! Seems to lack a place for discussion about
submitted ideas, so I'll follow others' lead and discuss here.

The "industry specific deep learning" project is similar to something I'm
working on right now. Though I'm not planning to charge for it.

To any folks here interested in this: Are you looking for a tool to get
started in ML or for a resource to apply existing ML knowledge to a specific
(possibly new) domain?

------
lettergram
Damn, this was literally a project I started working on.

Although, I had a slightly different way of going about it and different way
to charge, I love the idea!

Gratz to OP. I'll definitely be submitting, and maybe I'll still come out with
mine at some point.

~~~
corobo
Can you switch it up to a specific niche? For example "Get paid to build your
next video game"

------
hmhrex
Surprisingly there's one in here that I'm already starting to work on. That at
least confirms to me that I'm not THE sole person who wants this service.
Applied. I'm interested to see how this process works.

------
inputcoffee
Can only one person "apply" to solve it?

I'm thinking of the kickstarter problem: vaporware.

If, over 6 months, 5 people apply to solve a problem, who gets the
subscribers?

The first one, I hope not.

Each subscriber chooses?

P.s. Very interesting idea. Something in this direction will be useful.

~~~
r3bl
From the FAQ:

> Q: I submitted a problem - what happens next?

> A: Over the next 14 days, developers will be able to apply to solve your
> problem. You'll get a list of applications and a recommendation of who to
> choose.

So, I guess the answer is "subscriber chooses, and if there are multiple
subscribers, they (or the one that paid the most) make(s) an agreement."

------
pvsukale3
shouldn't it be " Get paid to build someone else's project"?

------
conmarap
This is pretty cool! I found myself reading through all of the entries I can
see and even cook up some solutions on the spot. However, how do you make a
profit off of it? Do you take a cut of the end cost?

------
sqeaky
Blocked by my work's filter under the category "malware".

~~~
Jemmeh
Same, tells me it's the security certificate.

Your connection is not private. NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

------
demarq
I think you might need to vet some of those customers for ethics. Some of the
things being asked for are inherently illegal.

On the other hand, it seems there is a ton of money to be made on the site!

------
0verc00ked
This is a great idea. I'm curious to see how it evolves.

~~~
hackerews
Same here!

------
greatNespresso
Just thinking, but it could be cool to add a comment feature, in order to
discuss publicly about implementation details, constraints and quick
solutions.

~~~
hackerews
On the way!

~~~
greatNespresso
Awesome !

------
enknamel
The site is down right now for me. Is this like Patreon but for open source
projects? If so, I would love that.

~~~
chmod775
It's reverse patreon.

------
hackerews
Awesome. Over $1k MRR of opportunities up in last few hours. Looking forward
to see these products built!

~~~
ceejayoz
The amount of dev needed to get that $1k MRR is probably in the hundreds of
thousands if not millions. I wouldn't get too excited yet.

------
darepublic
You're dangling 100 dollars for problems that is solved could be million
dollar solutions. Come on.

------
jeremiahwv
Service that allows me to get paid for my next side project [451+ customers,
each paying $XX per month]

------
MichaelMoser123
What about intellectual property? Can the kind sponsors of a side project get
to claim the result?

~~~
hackerews
No - the developer/startup that builds each project owns the product they
build. Good question.

------
FollowSteph3
The devil is in the details. The items are so open ended that they could just
about anything...

------
RandyRanderson
This is a really good idea! You need to force ppl to upload some graphics,
though.

------
bluetwo
I would be curious what the business plan for this site looked like.

------
rkeene2
Feature request: RSS feed, so I can see when new projects are added

~~~
hackerews
Try this
[https://www.demandrush.com/alerts](https://www.demandrush.com/alerts)

~~~
rkeene2
This wants to send me email, which I then have to aggregate myself whenever I
want to look at that type of information. An RSS feed would be much more
beneficial since I could subscribe to it, let the aggregator take care of it
and when I want to look at that type of data I'll see a global view of those
feeds over time.

~~~
manquer
Not a exactly a solution... you can use iftt or zapier kind of services to
easily convert the email to rss

------
Arqu
Love the idea, especially for quick and interesting side projects.

------
TomK32
You missed a great chance by not putting a newsletter onto it.

~~~
hackerews
[https://www.demandrush.com/alerts](https://www.demandrush.com/alerts)

~~~
TomK32
clearly not prominently enough placed.

------
soared
I can't access the site.

https error: NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

------
cdiamand
Very cool! Will be watching this to see how it evolves.

------
DesiLurker
why is there no search feature on this site? perhaps they should start a
bounty for that first before submitting to HN .. smh

~~~
hackerews
not enough problems yet for search. hopefully soon!

------
skdotdan
Awesome. Great idea, nice execution.

------
wellsjohnston
How is this different from Upwork?

~~~
davidpelayo
Submitted projects, if developed, could be, potentially, for many customers.
Also, the developers is who owns the software.

------
dsacco
I wish these weren't all subscription-based, because this could work for the
exact thing I want:

I will pay $100 - $500 for an Arq Backup[1] clone on Linux, with the same UI
polish as Arq for macOS or Windows, optional encryption, deduplication and
supporting all the same backup locations, including:

* AWS S3/Glacier

* GCP Nearline/Coldline

* Backblaze B2

* Dropbox

* SFTP

* NAS

* Google Drive

If you're absolutely going to force monthly subscription pricing down my
throat, I guess I'll pay up to $20/month. I want this badly.

I know about rclone, Duplicity, Duplicati, that awesome rsync/cron workflow
you have, etc. _I want Arq_ (or something just like it). Arq works
_flawlessly_ \- it is absolutely superlative when it comes to backups on
Windows and macOS.

I use an Ubuntu workstation as my daily driver at home and I have a MacBook
Pro. Through very careful configuration I have gradually made Ubuntu about as
enjoyable to use as macOS (with the exception of 1Password, which has to run
under Wine). But I don't want to use the command line, or handle an API
myself, or keep track of cron. Duplicati was the closest thing to what I'm
looking for, but it's cludgey and started not working for me recently.

I know polished UI isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you
think of Linux. But if you're the kind of person who makes "Ask HN: What is
your pain point?" posts or who is looking for a problem to solve, _this is a
burning problem I am willing to throw money at._

 _EDIT_ : I'm adding a bunch of HN comments to demonstrate the interest I've
seen for this.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

____________

1\. [https://www.arqbackup.com/](https://www.arqbackup.com/)

2\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14403321](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14403321)

3\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11742226](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11742226)

4\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9185632](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9185632)

5\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5718015](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5718015)

6\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13360604](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13360604)

7\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13011339](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13011339)

~~~
bertjk
Do you really need it to support all of these different backends? I bet this
would more likely come to exist if the authors knew they could focus on a
subset of these.

~~~
manquer
As a developer if I knew you would need to support a ton of backends i will
spend significant time building a abstraction layer which is backends agnostic
and a framework to add backends easily. It would then be much easier to add
new ones, even if I don't want to support them immediately

Alternatively i would add support for one or two services directly, rewrite
many times and come to the above model and add support slowly.

Knowing you would need all of the backends would help immensely in the initial
design

------
s73ver
Cool idea, but it seems like some of these are beyond the realm of a "side
project". Like the News Aggregator one
([https://www.demandrush.com/problems/news-aggregator-
paywall](https://www.demandrush.com/problems/news-aggregator-paywall)). That
one you couldn't really do without getting a lot of license deals with content
providers. That already puts it out of the league of what most are able to do
as hobby projects.

------
haidrali
Love the concept, just submitted my side project now waiting for response
Thumbs Up

