Developers: Earn Equity for Your Code at SF-Based Late Labs | Hacker News Reader

Developers: Earn Equity for Your Code at SF-Based Late Labs

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5 pointsjohns7 comments

I get daily requests to join some random startup guys in their adventure, for equity.

They are all horrible and I doubt this model is going to work unless all the startups there are already profiting.

Having 100% of a business that makes $0, "but have the potential" isn't worth shit.

This is Nathan from Late Labs. Our goal as a company is to create a community of high level developers who can work on projects together. We are also playing around with the idea of using successful existing companies to let developers work on project together for them. What type of horror stories have you worked on? I know we all have these, our goal in the long run is to help make sure developers don't wast their time on projects that aren't stable :)

>What type of horror stories have you worked on?

If you're a developer, then you know what sort of ridiculous proposals are common.

"Build my facebook clone for absolutely zero pay, but I'm feeling gracious so you get 15%!"

I do, however, like the idea of working on granular bits of startups and distributing my risk in a way that makes me more likely to have something take-off than committing to a single startup but not necessarily having any more control than the 'freelancer' mode.

That's our long-term goal for developers. Think of the projects we'll let developers work on as creating a diversified portfolio of equity. A developer can either work on one project and take more of a lead position, or work on multiple projects over time (from Late Labs and from other startups we partner with), for a specific equity base. We know how much time and effort building a site/app takes, so we understand. And I've seen so many "facebook clones" proposals over time so I know the feeling, where the team tells you that they potentially have a 1Billion user market. We're going to keep away from that and focus on smart business and marketing strategy :)

Why do you Late Labs to facilitate developers working on "ideas"?

Developers have too much opportunity to work on the "next great thing" in exchange for equity.

Hey, I'm Nathan, one of the people working on LateLabs, and I definitely agree that there are infinite project possibilities for developers to work on. Our goal at Late Labs instead is to create a unique type of community that will allow high level developers to work together, and learn from each other.

Do you like the idea of working on a project for equity that's more managed with other developers? And why? And would you use this as a learning experience?

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