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Comment by coryl | Hacker News Reader

The difference is I wasn't looking for a "job". I'm a hustler, willing to do what it takes, and I made it clear from the beginning. I wanted the opportunity to learn and do, and money wasn't an issue.

It's a shock to me that I couldn't hustle my way into interning a startup at virtually no cost to them, given my experience. Maybe I'm overrating myself :).

Also, its a small startup, so I would have had to gone through the CEO anyway. If you aren't satisfied with the quality or uniqueness of my story, you have the luxury of flagging, not commenting, or otherwise ignoring it completely :D

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Just because they won't be paying you money doesn't mean it's cost free or them. Taking on a person into any organization, but especially a small startup, has many associated costs, from the time spent just getting to know you, to teaching you stuff (if you're learning) to the opportunity cost of you taking up some other potential person's slot.

Add to that the risk of not paying someone for work done. Or paying them a token salary but being required to offer them the same health coverage all your employees have (due to plan requirements).

But money is an issue for them. No matter what you bring to the table it takes time and resources on their part to get you integrated into the company. You impose a liability of sorts on the company just by showing up. Ideally, your contribution outweighs that liability and it's a net gain for everyone.

Working for free or a reduced rate can be a good strategy to get in the door, I've used it and advocated for it in the past on comments here. However, there still needs to be a bona-fide position and job you're fulfilling, otherwise you're ultimately just some guy hanging out and getting in the way.

I'm neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with your story. What I was pointing out is that it's not a unique experience. It happens to lots of people all the time, the underlying intent of my statement being don't get discouraged by it or dwell on it.

Well, there is an alternative to "Working for free".

You could try to find something which has monetary value for them and try to create it by yourself and selling it to them.

It doesn't have to be a technological solution it could be any business related thing - potential customer database, sales leads etc.. (I am not sure what you are good at so...)

Basically, if you have something of value you could always try and sell it to someone - and if it is of value someone will pay for it or at least might consider your contributions worth more than what it costs to have you there.

Lesson from this which I learned from similar experience. Never work for free.

I get few offers for 'free' work, the problem is that time is money. Having to mentor or guide someone, even if you are not paying them, it costs that person time, which they probably cannot afford to spend.

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