uniquejosh

I really enjoyed the post too. The older I get, the more I feel I can learn from a kid. Usually we over-complicate things, and kids can remind us how simple happiness can do. Stop over-think, and do the things we enjoy!! :)

Thanks for the great comments.

Yes, we are planning to work with him on a contract basis. It would be the best for both of us.

We have learned a lot from our users, and know what problems we need to solve now. We are working on the most important bit of the conversion funnel maximisation, and we think some UX input could help us to do that better, quicker, and more efficient.

Yes, we would like to get him couple days a week as a contractor to start-up. If we work together well, we would be more than happy to make the relationship even closer.

His rate is fairly high to us, but I know he is happy to discount the rate for us. I really appreciate it. A lot of people discount their rate working for us as well. I just feel a lot of appreciation of that, and hope I could pay them the rate they deserve (or other type of compensation) very very soon.

Yes, I think it is about the balance as well. A rising star needs to be able to product decent work already, and keen to learn more to become that super-star.

We had experience getting a young graduate, and it turned out that it took a lot of time to teach him some basic things. It did not work out at out at the end.

Thanks for your in-depth feedback.

I totally agreed that it would not be fair to ask other people to take as much risk as founders. It is all about structure it and get the balance.

Yes, we are not getting him full time. He is going to have another job in parallel. Hopefully, we could work with him 1-2 days a week to start with, and compensate his highly discounted rate the other way.

Thanks, great comments on the UX.

That is something we definitely want to work out. I understand that it could actually get time-wasters if you do not put the payment at the front. But, on the other hand, if you put a payment right at the beginning, it causes friction.

We are just experiment to find the best approach for both experts and clients.

I do like your "how do I do X" + 30sec answer idea. Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot for your great comments.

yes, that is definitely an issue. In many cases,I think some people need to worry about their rent, monthly expense, or mortgage (personal burn-rate) to worry about. If you are in your early twenty, your personal burn-rate would be much lower than in your late thirty.

Shares/options are great for motivating the team. They are bonus. But, we all need to at least cover our personal bur-rate to live.

I feel, as a founder, at least I should not let my devoting team members worry about that.

thanks, good information!!

Thanks Michael. Great comments.

I will definitely stay in the game for sure. :) I know it is important to motivate people. But, to the people who work so hard for your vision, I think founders need to take care of those hard-working employees. I feel frustrated because I wish I could offer what they deserve.

I think, start-ups need strong team with good talents. We are fighting with big companies and well paid jobs. If we just wanna take people who are willing to take high risk to join the start-ups, we are gonna miss out a lot of great talents.

Start-ups are fun, and we can attract great talent. But, we all need to pay rent and survive. I am just hoping that we could find a balance, pay the talents a fair salary, and enjoy the fun start-up ride together.

Josh :)

I think you make a fair point. Yes, that is true. It is a high-risk investment for other employees, and different people can take different level of risks.

It would not be fair to ask a late thirty person to take the same risk as a early twenty person. People have different financial concerns in different stage of lives.

I think a good founder need to consider that. It is just not right to ask everyone takes the same risk as the founders do.

I liked what you said. Yes, I want him to focus on UX 110%, and not worry too much on the money. But, the fair rate to him is too high to us. That is the struggle. I am sure we will find a fee we are both fine with. But, I just wish that I could pay him, or anyone in the team, the rate reflecting their value. That is it. :)

Thanks. I know it works as you said. But, to some people who do not have enough money to cover the rent,expenses or mortgage, shares/options are just not immediate enough.

I have met a lot of talents in this situation. That is why I wish I could retain them better. It is important to give the team member a peace of mind, right? Otherwise, they need to worry about money all the time, and it probably is not good for the productivity.

thanks for reporting it. did not notice that issue. has reported it as a bug.

Thanks for sharing it. very insightful. Yes, as I said, I believe that we should getting money after proving the traction and product/market fit

Thanks for pointing it out. I am not a native English speaker, and this is another lesson learned to me. :)

The point I want to make is that people are spending too much of their time and effort on raising money. We need to build a sustainable business after all.

I think Seth put that in a much better way than I do: "The goal isn't to get money from a VC, just as the goal isn't to get into Harvard. Those are stepping stones, filters that some successful people have made their way through."

why so?

just found some similar discussion on Quora FYI.

Always Assume Competition: http://www.quora.com/Babak-Nivi/Always-assume-competition

Their Pre-authorised payment and parallel payment fit our model perfectly. Our CTO knows them pretty well. We think it is the best option for our initial stage. Once we scale, we will look for more payment options.

Thanks for the comment. Will pass that to our designer.

Totally agreed that it was one of my mistakes. It was wrong to get TC review so early. Another lesson learned. :)

sorry, I put the note at the end of my post. We have not launched our website yet and that is why the site is empty. I was just sharing a post in my personal blog and did not really expect great responses like this.

nono, X verifies start-ups who are using them. We cannot use them without their approval. We have submitted the application. Once we get that from them, we can then make our site live.

Hi there,

Sorry, we are waiting for Paypal's approval of using their new API, Paypal X. Therefore, we are now only recruiting experts to join us. That is why there's no requests there just yet. Once we are ready to go, we will push it and let people to post requests and arrange sessions.

Cheers

Josh

Thanks for all the comments.

Yes, I agreed that TechCrunch is not the place or only place to get validation. Probably it helps you to get the attentions from echo chambers. But, users are the real judge to decide if you are building a solid business or not.

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for your feedback and comments. Am thrilled with all the response. I will be very happy if the post is useful to you guys.

Josh

Hey Terry,

Actually I am working on a start-up called MinuteBox.com (http://www.minutebox.com) and we are doing exactly like this. We are based in London.

We want to create a marketplace for people to buy and sell advice via video chat. Therefore, our users can monetise their expertise in small unit of time. The MinuteBox platform allows users to access expert advice in a cost-effective way. On the other hand experts can sell their time directly to users at their own convenience.

This is our demo video: http://vimeo.com/13758599 You can have an idea how we approach this.

We are preparing for the launch and it would be great to get more feedback from you.

Cheers

Josh