Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeremyarussell | Hacker News Reader

I'd take you up on the offer, but for a couple things. Maybe it just means this isn't for me.

1 - That 50 - 50 split is a killer when I'm doing most of the work. 2 - You talk about taking a month or two and full time working on this project until completion. Trust me when I say I'd love to do that, the issue is I can't just go jump back into the same job as if I didn't ditch everyone here for two months.

Like I said this is probably just not for me, but those are two things you may want to consider for version 1.1.

View on HN

You're asserting that customer acquisition is easy and low cost. It's not.

For a product that can be built in 2 months (per the guidance here), it is going to take much more time to develop the sales and marketing and acquire enough customers to make it profitable.

I think this underscores why this may be a great deal for a (young?) developer with limited business experience. I learned a lot of hard lessons like this once I stepped away from an editor.

I see where you thought I was asserting anything, when I said the 50 - 50 split was a killer for me doing most of the work. I hadn't really meant it like that but since your right in that customer acquisition isn't easy for people that have never done it then I refer you to a comment I posted below. That this is really for someone who has a crummy low wage job and would stand to gain a lot out of the deal.

As for me personally (which I said off the bat was the kind of answers I was bringing. Personal opinions on why I myself wouldn't do it.) I feel comfortable with my ability to sale to people and gain good traction and growth.

you're right - this is not right for everyone. I wouldn't do it either - but 10-15 years ago, this would have been great for me.

But this is a killer opportunity, especially for someone younger who can live on the 5k and is not worried about family and mortgages yet.

This could be better than an MBA for many people who want to bring a real product to market.

Note: I have no context at all on the OP, so I'm making the jump that they have a strong business background and would not be flailing around once it was time to execute.

I dunno - you're doing most of the technical work. Looks like OP is doing all the marketing. That sounds like a sweet deal to me; if I had a convincing MVP lined up in my head I'd probably go for it. (After due diligence on whether OP is a flake or not, of course (no offense intended to OP)).

If I were OP, $5000 for a -in my opinion- promising application delivered within a month? Sign me up!

Honestly, I'd probably pay $5000 just for some good ideas if disclosure didn't ruin the concept.

I like the 50-50 split (although another poster's suggestion of 49/51 makes sense to me as well, a clear owner of the project if they need to split up). He's not giving you a job offer. He's giving you investment money to make a project, and promises of royalties after he has marketed it.

Think of it this way: would you have made $8000 in a month or two without his investment? Would you have potential for continuing income on that project afterwards? If the answer is yes, then this isn't the deal for you. If the answer is no, then what's the harm? If you're in position to negotiate this as a deal breaker, you're likely in position to find something more flexible. If you're unemployed and want some money while you work on a project you've been dying to work on, you've just come out ahead. There are plenty of job offers for freelance/contract programming that don't offer 50% royalties, or royalties at all.

For me it's not the split, or the lower rate vs what I'd normally earn. But I'm like you in that I can't just ditch existing clients for a couple of months and expect them to be there when I get back should this not work out.

You might consider that "building the product" is not really "most of the work" here. There are three things:

- Product

- A Market for said product (solving a problem for a customer who has money)

- Getting your Product to that Market and convincing customers you solved their problem

In reality, you are probably doing about 33% of the hard stuff (and the other 66% is hard too, making sure you have the correct MVP and promoting it)

Until you've put a product out there, you don't really know how hard the other two are and how critical they are to the success of your venture. hmexx is offering to do that part for what I consider a reasonable cost to test the waters.

YMMV, of course, and you're free to take on 100% of it all, but reducing risk is how you get a product launched. I personally like hmexx's approach here.

You must not have read the rest of my comments...

That said, reducing risk isn't what hmexx is doing. Since the risk of quitting your job and starting on your own product is failure to create a good enough product and NOT have a job to go back to. He's not made any warranties about you being able to resume your previous job (nor could he, or should he.)

Again, look at my other comments, where I plainly state this is not for everyone, like people who already can market and recognize an MVP. And it's best for younger people who have crummy jobs and little marketing and/or business experience, and little to lose (like a nice good current job.)

>Since the risk of quitting your job and starting on your own product

Software developers who don't intend to go into management should not be permanent employees. You should be working as a contractor so you don't have to worry about things like this. As a contractor, you don't get paid for days you don't work so no one cares as much when you're gone (so long as it's not negatively impacting a project). I usually take 8-10 weeks off per year, so taking advantage of this offer would be easy for me and have no impact on my "day" job.

> the risk of quitting your job

Premise 3 was:

> Most freelancers will not build and/or follow-through with their ideas, because they perceive their opportunity cost to be too high.

I wouldn't quit my job for this (if I had a job), but as a freelancer I'd consider taking a month of no client work and building it at what amounts to a reduced hourly rate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com