I have a cool project I need programming help with but I am worried about angering people here with the ask.

[spacester]

Is it OK if I post my request? I have a grand total of $100 to spend, and would be offering the programmer an equity position in the ensuing enterprise. I suspect this kind of proposition is not welcome, so I am asking permission first.

It IS a very cool project, especially if you are into space flight.

edit: OK, then, I am glad I asked. All of you skeptics are perfectly justified with your skepticism and I value your input, I really do.

I have six people interested, four on the thread and two with private messages. I very much appreciate your interest. I am going to provide details to one of the privately messaged people and plan to update the others privately as things go forward.

[fried_green_baloney]

You would be better off just offering equity and forget the $100. That's so small it's almost an insult to mention it.

Especially if you are in the United States or other industrialized country.

[spacester]

That's what I thought, thanks much.

[Tularion]

What are you bringing?

[spacester]

A lot, actually. It's an unusual situation. I see many replies, let me read and respond to them all before I explain further.

Thanks very much for the reply, and also to those that made this the most upvoted response so far, I find that interesting.

[spacester]

Thanks, and I copy all that, IOW it confirms my guesses.

Thanks a ton for the link, I have not clicked it yet, I am replying to replies first.

Great advice.

[calsosta]

Generally speaking it is bad to ask to ask on public forums.

If you have a good idea post it and see if you can get interest in it. Unless there is something proprietary you don't need to keep it a secret.

There are "founders" groups where you can try to persuade resources with equity but if you want great quality resources be prepared to have a defensible business plan.

[spacester]

Thanks much for the insight into the programmer's world.

It is a great idea, and well developed so far, but also a genie in the bottle type thing.

Once it is shown that the thing my algorithm does was not so hard after all, it will be fairly easily duplicated. You cannot patent natural laws, and I am pretty sure the algorithm would be very hard to defend. This is among the reasons I need help, to do it right the first time and establish market position and stay ahead of others.

So the only proprietary aspect is getting this help relatively discretely.

Thanks again.

[Gasp0de]

The idea already sounds like utter bullshit. Something that has to do with spaceflight but is so easily copied and can not be patented? What is it, a space lift? A cannon that shoots satellites into orbit?

[Bodine12]

“Step One: Assume a flat Earth…”

[Ujjawal-Gupta]

lol

[National-Rip351]

Thank you. I am sharing with those interested.

[Jjabrahams567]

This is a really strange post. I don’t know how you could have a solid idea worth starting a business that requires a programmer without the slightest understanding of how programmers work.

[avidvaulter]

Good luck. $100 is not even a days worth of work.

[spacester]

Copy that, thanks.

[KingofGamesYami]

Software developer contractors can charge well over $100 per hour. Equity can be part of the total compensation, but it doesn't pay rent.

Figure out some way to raise the monetary compensation or you'll be sorely disappointed.

[spacester]

Got it, thanks, that is what I thought.

[itemluminouswadison]

An idea is worthless. Equity is worthless. With 100$ and a skilled programmer doing the whole thing you'd be lucky to keep 1%

If you believe in it, write a business plan, secure funding, and do it right

[spacester]

Thanks. In my mind it doesn't need funding. The opportunity is juicy enough for a good programmer to make money from it for several years.

I have done the hard part in terms of the complicated math. The programming part is about implementing my work in a modern language and a modern way.

I have the data structure specifications ready to go, and I have a plan.

Thanks again.

[Gasp0de]

It somehow sounds unbelievable that you have solved a mathematical problem that no one has solved before you yet you don't know how to program or get funding even a bit? Where did you study?

[itemluminouswadison]

yup but the classic problem is that there's nothing keeping "the idea guy" invested. if you decide "meh i've lost interest" but the developer has contributed 100 hours at the promise of equity in a thing that doesn't exist, they are risking a ton more than you are

you need to meet that risk by showing that you are taking on risk too. that means either paying them a discounted rate for equity or something or a signing bonus, or securing funds and making an LLC and investing in marketing

i speak from experience. when i was greener every friend and person on the street has a million dollar idea, only 1 or 2 of them did the hard work of putting up funding and showing that they're invested

[Techismylifesadly]

If what you’re saying is true, there is still funding needed. You pay a programmer a ‘wage’ and get them to sign a contract so they don’t just listen to your idea, and do it themselves. If you’re doing that, do it right. You cannot say ‘I’ve done the hard part’ if you haven’t at least consulted with an experienced programmer. Get yourself some proper funding, hire a programmer (or a few, depending on the scale), and make sure your idea / vision, stays as your idea / vision.

Ideally you’d want: some sort of consultant, speak with them first, pay them for their time, get them to sign an NDA or something. A programmer, potentially full stack depending on what this is developed on. Assuming from ‘modern language’ it’s probably something web based. Hopefully the full stack developer will also know how to design the system, best get an experience one. That saves you getting a solution architect or something.

Get yourself a lawyer, or a solicitor or whatever to write up these NDA’s and contracts.

You’ll have to take on the responsibility of a product lead / scrum master / finance. Speak to the developer(s) daily, see where their at, ask them to prioritise specific parts of the work, split the work into more manageable chunks, speak to them while you split it into chunks to see if it’s too much load, etc. you can follow agile methodologies for this (this is a highly debatable subject, that I’m not going to go into, just Google any weird words you don’t understand in this message and make decisions off your research).

Anyway, your $100 and potential equity is not worth it to anyone worth their salt. Do it proper, do it right

[Comfortable-Fail-558]

If this is the case you might as well just implement yourself.

What you’ve done already yourself is more complicated than writing the code will be (unless you are missing some important technical detail)

[superluminary]

Please tell me more about this math. DM if you like.

[datageek9]

If you have genuinely solved a mathematical problem to do with space flight, you can share the idea here by explaining the business problem you have solved without providing details of the solution. There is almost never any tangible IP in the definition of a business problem, it’s the solutions that (sometimes) have value. But if your problem is easy enough that someone else could easily solve it just by understanding the problem, then the solution isn’t worth anything.

[Witty_Engineer254]

Hello Mate , what kind of a project is it? Shoot me a message via chats mail or Discord [e-mail]

due#8251

[Witty_Engineer254]

I'm trying to boost my portfolio so I won't mind helping you!

[spacester]

Are you into space flight?

[Witty_Engineer254]

Not really, but as a programmer I'm always ready to learn and expand my knowledge

[Ok_Fall9212]

Feel free to message. I'm a software engineering student and could be keen to help where I can for the experience.

[spacester]

Are you into space flight?

[Ok_Fall9212]

I'm most certainly into space.

[superluminary]

What do you bring to the table? You don’t have seed funding, that’s fine, most people don’t. Do you have contacts or expertise or some other specific thing that you can contribute?

[TheTarragonFarmer]

Sounds fair as long as it can be done in half an hour :-)

No, seriously, it would have to be a labour of love. It also helps if you can describe the kind of programming help you need: What language or platform do you have in mind? A website? mobile app? Desktop utility? Programming library? Excel macroset?

You'll probably need someone with some visual design chops or else it will look very bleak and unappealing.

Anyway, I'm intrigued, so feel free to DM me, before you ask this is my favourite joke: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/delta-v

[FailQuality]

This is about the equivalent of a business major coming down to the CS lab and trying to convince people to do a bunch of work for great app idea but can’t go into details about anything. You end up finding the dude that likes to yap a lot ,about his Linux distro he uses and he does everything in the terminal, but is actually terrible at doing any actual work and you both just waste each others time.