Hacker seeking designer; work for equity | Hacker News Reader

Hacker seeking designer; work for equity

5 pointsokeumeni16 comments

We are a startup in search technology, located in Laurel, Maryland. We are looking for a talented web designer and content writer. Must be familiar with .net technologies, knowledge of C#, C++ is a plus as we are not necessary looking for a programmer. We are self funded with small budget, the candidate will be working for equity (keep your day job), basically joining the founding team. The ideal candidate must be living in the Washington DC, MD VA area and willing to work from own PC, at odd hours and on weekends.

We are mostly looking for someone passionate about his work and search technology, experience is not necessary.

If interested please send me an email: okeumeni (at) hotmail (dot) com

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Pure equity IS a founder position. Does "basically joining the founding team" mean less equity than other founders? Also, sell the company! If I am a designer (and I'm not), why would I want to contact you?

The candidate will become a founder off course, we want someone passionate about the prospect of becoming part of our team. Self motivation is a must, we can't sell it, we only guarantee the project is really cool.

> we can't sell it, we only guarantee the project is really cool

It's great that you think it's cool, but if someone doesn't already know you, they have no reason to trust you on this point -- you're obviously biased on the subject. I mean this as constructive criticism, so I hope you won't take this the wrong way.

There are all kinds of startups out there that would love to have people work for them for free -- if you advertise for someone, you should have something about why they would care about yours as opposed to all the others. It's just like trying to attract an investor.

What's special about this startup? Is it the concept? The other founders' previous experience? The codebase you've built so far? Your connections that will help your site get noticed? What?

Criticism accepted. We are a team of highly passionate hackers, we are working to implement cutting edge search technology to make on demand search engines for social, business and mostly ecommerce.

The candidate will have the opportunity to drive all web design and content own the project as much as we do and be part of a great venture.

Great response. Can you add this info to the original post? (I don't recall if it times out or not.)

I have a question: does anyone ever do this? Work for "equity"? The math problem on this is pretty straightforward: N hours of design time (especially when the deliverable is HTML/CSS comps) is easy to price, and there's a huge chance your startup equity is going to be worth zero.

Also, just a tip: knowledge of C# and C++ is probably not a plus in a designer. =)

Well for this project, equity will not be worth zero, let's be positive for a minute.

Thanks for the tip, but a designer may have to deal with HTML embedded in C# or C++ code there's nothing surprising about that.

Two ways to address that problem in the real world:

(1) Use a templating system that uses "designer-friendly" markup. There are lots of them.

(2) Allocate cycles to take static HTML and integrate them into your code. That's what most of my products have done; I want designers designing, not integrating.

Completely agree, we do use template in most cases, but as startup we still have embedded client code laying around that we must deal with. It will be nice to have a designer capable of at least help in clean up.

http://authenticjobs.com/ is a good place to put out a listing as well. A lot of designers, freelance or otherwise, watch that board.

Thanks.

Does this designer/writer position require any knowledge of SQL?

No SQL necessary.

Hotmail email address. C#/C++ suggest Microsoft platform. Even mentioning C++ in a designer (!) lookup post. Hm... One red flag after another.

I guess Gmail is better - what is wrong with Microsoft platform the platform don't make product developers do - I have known designers with great C++ skills, why so much negative? We're just seeking help what is so wrong with that?

Nothing's wrong with that. I think he's just commenting that it's uncommon (or slightly unfair) to think of designers in terms of what languages they might know.

That being said, if you find someone with the technology background, more power to you. It's probably a better idea to focus on a designer who isn't afraid to work with any technology. Talent and willingness to dive in strike me as much more useful "cofounding" qualities than experience with specific technologies.

Best of luck on your search!

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