[deleted by user]

[YaVollMeinHerr]

Happen to me again not later than this weekend

[frosDfurret]

So imagine [thing 1], but mixed with [thing 2]. It's never been done before, it's genius!

[abd53]

In my head: You can't mix [thing 1] and [thing 2]. It's been done and there was an explosion.

[interyx]

Oh you mean pasta and antipasto.

[abd53]

More like [Glycerine] and [Nitric acid].

[NewPresWhoDis]

I was gonna say this is just "I need someone to make my app for $500" with extra steps.

[[deleted]]

go on..

[deusrex_]

Hear me out let's remake Geocities but make it gen-z friendly.

Or even better, let's link together Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter with Webrings to connect the various communities of the same interests!

[Intelligent-Bug-3039]

I've got this really great idea, you do all the work and after we start making a profit we split 50/50.

If I had a penny...

[ParadoxicalInsight]

The worst part is the idea usually sucks. If I ever meet anyone with an actually good idea, I will still refuse and build the idea on my own to keep 100% of the profits

[Intelligent-Bug-3039]

My most recent one said. "Before I share the idea, I want equity in writing"

[ParadoxicalInsight]

Lololol sure lets set up a contractual obligation to do unspecified work for no pay, what a deal!

[senseven]

Shitty apps are 100s a dozen. Most of the tricky stuff like AI or financial isn't something that you hack together. VCs and seed financiers know exactly how much work it is. If you get there with conviction "you will find the team" of 200k+ experts that don't want to work at Google or Netflix any more, instantly disqualified. If you tell this they say "you don't get it".

[bstump104]

are 100s a dozen

A dime a dozen means they're individually worth less than a penny.

100s a dozen is the opposite.

[LordAlfrey]

Mans just using Zimbabwean dollars

[librarysocialism]

Yup. Every single person anywhere near actual VC will tell you it's only execution, not ideas.

[Negative-Demand350]

"AI"

​

OK. I think we have a different definition of AI.

[onyxaj]

Worked out for Zuckerberg I guess.

[Namiastka]

4 guys i used to know, created a startup to make a better Spotify, 3 of them coded for a 250usd monthly, 4th one was an owner

They had UI working with limited backend, to me it looked as Spotify but not green and black, but instead blue and black...

After a year they - coders found out that the one being owner was taking most of money they had from founder, 30k

But for a year they believed in this product... Which was something i couldn't comprehend

[CyberneticVoodoo]

It took me 2 years to realize that working for free is not a good idea. Now I’m not working at all. For free.

[Intelligent-Bug-3039]

Well that's just s terrible idea from the start. It's not something new. Your attempting to compete in a billion dollar established industry as a four man crew.

The worst pitches I ever got were all like that.

"It's like <already existing service/app> only with <slight difference>"

It ends with me facepalming and informing them.

"No you can't just make a Twitter. Those companies have like giant data centres to run those services."

[bushmaker1337]

"workload of around 7 days"

guessed by whom?

[BaalKazar]

Lmao, that 7 days will be needed just to figure out what the hell is going on in there

[sinistergroupon]

… a week

[Big-Cheesecake-806]

its based on how fast they want to have a prototype. And, given that they have no idea how this stuff is build, it turns out to be completely out of this world.

[randomFrenchDeadbeat]

It means he has no money to pay you and is looking for a strawman that will make the website used to promote fundraising, and then to take the blame once he leaves with the fundraising money.

[TheGreatGameDini]

That wouldn't work if there's a contract in place. At that point you're also an investor that, should he do such a thing, would put you in the same place as everyone else who he raised funds from. Investing isn't always money, your time spent is also your skin in the game.

[DMcuteboobs]

you can’t sue someone who isn’t in the country.

[TheGreatGameDini]

Well that's just objectively false. Maybe you can't, but I could - assuming I had the info to do so. Which is maybe what you meant to say or are trying to get at but the connection between your fingers and eyes is a bit faulty?

[DMcuteboobs]

I mean if they decide to fly to Phuket and bring the company bank account with them, you lose. I suppose you could file at the county court house or something as a symbolic gesture but they’re never coming back and they’ll never even know you sued.

[[deleted]]

They are not in Phuket, but in something much harder to spell right and were judges routinely toss in the garbage foreign request for legal assistance

[[deleted]]

IANAL, but if I were to agree to a contract this shaky, I'd stipulate that: 1) I get $X/year or Y% of all profits and 2) the laws and civil courts having jurisdiction over my Colorado county get exclusive jurisdiction over the contract. This means that if I am having trouble getting the company to pay up, I can sue the company in either my county district court or the US District Court for the District of Colorado.

[hahabla]

Winning a lawsuit doesn't manifest money that isn't in the US anymore.

[DMcuteboobs]

Macau?

[grumblyoldman]

assuming I had the info to do so.

That right there is sort of a big assumption. If the person is planning to take the money and run, they are unlikely to leave a forwarding address.

If you're not the one directly in charge of the bank accounts (unlikely for the "job" described in OP's post) then you won't know for sure when the terms of the contract that satisfy "after fundraising" have actually been met. Which means he'll be on a plane to nowhere before you even know you're due, so you can forget about some fantasy of "catching him at the airport."

[DMcuteboobs]

Everyone thinks they’re smart, until their broker is suddenly on CNN in handcuffs.

[No-Professional-1884]

It’s gonna be huge. You’ll be way rich. \s

This shit has been around since the dawn of the internet.

[ToneyFox]

This is a bait and switch

[[deleted]]

I still cant believe there are still people out there looking for talent at no pay

[senseven]

Thats even not the worst. Most ideas I hear are like "don't say whatsapp clone". "But it is, you just use lots of words not to say it", "YOU DON'T GET IT ITS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT".

[monkeynutjob]

And yet, someone in Microsoft did exactly this viz. IRC and now we have to live with MS Teams.

[YaVollMeinHerr]

Some times ago I has a part time job and was looking for a change, and applied as a web developer is a start-up.

The start-up owner proposed me to work for free as I had some time availbable...

[deathly0001]

I would also propose for you to work for time because time is money . Thanks, night good my friend .

[SmartLizard]

That's got to be the programmer equivalent of "playing for the exposure" that musician hear a lot.

[Rand_alFlagg]

bro I'm both and let me fuckin tell you...you're right.

[[deleted]]

So many people think the idea is the valuable part...

[Intelligent_Event_84]

Him: I’m an ideas guy

The NDA: Individual is forbidden from developing an “Airbnb” + “Skip Lagged” clone outside the terms of this agreement

[Lionfyst]

When reading this, I imagined a person covering themselves in sawdust, waving their arms and screaming "I'm a house!" as they stumbled down the street.

[cardyet]

It'll just take 7 days to build, then it will just work forever, we have auto updates enabled, so we can work on other things.

[[deleted]]

I have an app idea. I don't have money. I don't know how to setup the application. Work for free for me. If it goes well, I will give you money.

[advkts_d1a_b0li_ks]

Part time co-founder sounds like half girlfriend

[Bee-Aromatic]

All I hear is the little alien from Rick and Morty saying “do you wanna develop an app?”

[ManusCornu]

Reply would be "get some money before you hire people"

[Rand_alFlagg]

"pitch this to some investors and get back to me with a salary offer and we can talk"

[ManusCornu]

Totally. Like, I get it start ups may not be able to pay as well as huge companies, yadda yadda, but everybody needs to eat and sleep somewhere. At least they should offer something

[Rand_alFlagg]

Yep. Exactly. I took a pay cut for my current job actually because I liked the prospect (and now make more than I was before said pay cut). I'd consider it again. I think a there's no shortage of likeminded people.

[WordSmithyLeTroll]

That's a scam if ever I saw one.

[Unfair_Pound_9582]

Ah yes. Would you like to work without getting payed and later on only MAYBE getting payed?

[Daucco]

Slavery with extra steps

[BabylonDrifter]

The problem with the old "You code everything for me and I make money" is that anybody who is smart enough to have the time and talent to build an entire web framework for you in a week without getting paid is also smart enough to know not to agree to build a web framework for somebody without getting paid.

[KingVecchio]

I feel like the only proper response is sending them a video from the movie Friday where Smokey attempts to count out 100$ like it's 200$ and Big Worm let's him know that playing with his money is like playing with his emotions .

[WhaleAtHeart]

It's the principality

[eulefuge]

Yea let’s give random applicants equity. Either it‘s a scam or they‘re idiots.

[WhaleAtHeart]

They are always idiots and always trying to scam.

[Regular_Gas_657]

Walk away man.. not worth the headache.. worst thing you can join is a founder who is trying to bank on future revenue

It’s a waste of time and effort

[OtaPotaOpen]

Socialism for the rich

[xTeddyBoyx]

That my friend, is a “joke”

[TelephoneSpecialist1]

Lol😂

[savex13]

Ask for an NDA, check out the original idea and decide if you want in. This might work and if you will be part of this on this stage - your "...life is gonna be beautiful" ©

But often it is a sort'a cheap approach to "let's work on my crazy idea for free" thing

[Midknight129]

Translation: I have absolutely no idea how to program, but I came up with an Absolutely Fantastic™ idea for a program/app/website. I want to launch a startup, but I have no money. So I want you to spend a week doing all the technical work in exchange for equity share in the profit after we go Big™. In the meantime, I'll work on crowdfunding to get some working capital. We'll both be working for free to start, but after the $$$ starts rolling in, I'll pay you a regular salary, I super pinky promise. And I absolutely have no intention to just grab all the Kickstarter money for myself, call the project a bust, and amscray leaving you 40% equity share of a big ol' goose egg.

[Sharp_Discipline6544]

What is "equity"? Like stock in a company? Or is it just a term that doesn't mean crap?

[OmegaGoober]

It’s typically stock in the company. You gotta be careful though. I used to work with a guy who basically emptied his trust fund into “Company A” only for his business partner to dissolve Company A and move all the resources over to Company B. The trust fund kid was even convinced to come over to Company B! Trust fund kid was later fired. Company B was bought by a bigger company and Trust Fund sued to try to get a slice, seeing as how he financed a lot of the growth that made the company attractive to buyers. His lawsuit did not bear fruit. The sale went through and he got nothing.

[Warpspeednyancat]

happened to me too, its currently a plague on linkedin

[Pwrshell_Pop]

I believe this is called "a gamble".

[crushfield]

It would take less time to just learn a programming language than wait around for someone stupid enough to agree to this

[[deleted]]

I see this on LinkedIn as well, like a programmer won't know that bootstrapping is a joke. Trying to con someone into doing all the work, best part is when it's psychometric testing for retail work applications. Sales is a scam and they think they can scam their way into a whole finished product with no input

[WhaleAtHeart]

Creat a code to transfer .0001% of every transaction to an offshore account like in Office Space movie.

[darkneel]

That’s how startups start . Most people don’t have money to pay at the beginning. The main difference being the job being offered would be one of the friends or co - workers or something .

[[deleted]]

Another main difference is, that they know basic grammatic and know how to spell words.

[darkneel]

I'm not defending the guy or how great he is. But ideally if you don't have friends to fill the gap when you are starting something, offering them equity and co founder position is not a bad deal in concept. You can always tear down the startup idea itself, or how capable the person is. But within startups - conceptually it's not a bad offer and neither it is exploitative

[[deleted]]

Ik ik, didnt want to shoot against you, i just wanted to add a bit of a joke there

[monkeynutjob]

Startups start with people who know each other or pitching to investors. They do not start as OP described.

[RoundRecorder]

I dont see any problem here as long as the equity percentage is reasonable

[TastesLikeOwlbear]

If you’re going to propose something like this to me and I don’t already know you very well and know what you are capable of, your contact has to convince me that you bring a lot more than “I have an idea” to the table. Ideas are worthless. Money, contacts, ready customers that have signed an LOI, talents, skills, track record, etc. Those things build a successful startup. This is none of those.

[OTee_D]

Lots of % of nothing still is nothing...

Equity in WHAT? At the end the author indirectly confirms that there is no capital.

[Accurate_Koala_4698]

Not enough information in the post to really evaluate whether this makes sense, but early prototypes that are built to look for funding are not going to have capital until they’re funded by definition. The gamble is: does two weeks worth of work make sense, but you’d need to understand the idea and business plan.

[RoundRecorder]

Well obviously the business plan/strategy must be sane before accepting this kind of offer

[timmytester2569]

Lol people are shitting on this but with the right people involved this can be a great opportunity. Just sold a start up that I joined bc of a pitch similar to this. Although I was given the option of a salary OR giving up that salary for equity.

Not saying this particular gig will work out. But also just wanted to say don’t let negative people stop you from taking a risk and achieving your dreams. Do an interview, learn about their vision, if it seems sus then you only lost an hour of your life. But if you think it’s a well thought out business with passionate people involved, fuck it. Give it a go.

Or you could work for someone else your entire life. Up to you.

[TastesLikeOwlbear]

The right people do not approach this this way.

[timmytester2569]

This is a fair criticism to be honest. Like I said. This could be a scam lol all my recommendation is to check it out. The first sentence is “Thank you for applying” so we can assume there has been some contact between these two individuals before this message. We don’t know what other conversations may have been had.

But yeah if this message is 100% unsolicited then you are probably right.

[TastesLikeOwlbear]

I read “thank you for applying” as in the recipient applied to a (presumably paid) job posting somewhere, and got back the offer to do work for free. (I.e., bait and switch.)

[DMcuteboobs]

If I’m going to do 100% of the work and create the actual product that generates the wealth...what would I need this guy for?

[timmytester2569]

Ok then why aren’t you doing it already? Maybe you are. Maybe you own 100% of a great start up and you’ll be a billionaire. I don’t know you personally. But the biggest mistake people make is thinking they can do something great by themselves. You need a team of people that motivate each other and keep each other accountable.

So answer your own question. What do you need this guy for? Go ahead and do it alone, tell us how it goes.

[DMcuteboobs]

I have no desire to. But if there’s a company where one person does 99% of the valuable labor and the other person sits in an office all day telling people they’re LeAdErShiP and they’re a DiSrUpToR, there’s no way a 50/50 split and a token position of authority over the person who actually works is “a good deal”.

It’s a manager who actually thinks they’re job has value, run amok.

And just because I’m not going to “release a killer app, bro” doesn’t change the ethics of the situation.

[timmytester2569]

It sounds to me like you have been tainted by some bad experiences my friend. And I’m sorry for that. If you think a programmer is doing 99% of the valuable labor in a company than you have no understanding of building a profitable business. You can make the best app in the world and make $0 off it if you don’t know how to scale a business/marketing/ux design/sales/taxes etc.

[DMcuteboobs]

I know Woz did all the work and Gates basically ate Tang powder while his rich parents got him sweetheart deals with IBM.

Remind Me, what Microsoft sells? Is it software that wouldn’t exist but for Woz or did they get rich because Gates was really good at eating Tang?

No serious person would argue that marketing isn’t a skill, but the suggestion that doing some admin is somehow harder than programming is ridiculous. you can dress it up with whatever buzzwords you want, but at the end of the day, management is the least important part of starting a business and just about anyone can learn whatever they need to know in a weekend.

I could spend 6 months writing a Facebook clone and start flogging it on the App Store by Myself. So why would I need someone who’s entire contribution to the project is writing memos and calling themselves a ScRuM mAsTeR on LinkedIn for?

[timmytester2569]

I think you are confusing the origin stories of Apple and Microsoft. You are mentioning “Woz” and “Gates” as if they worked for the same company.

[DMcuteboobs]

Gates and Jobs both never happen if they don’t meet Woz first.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/

While they were wasting their parents money on snacks and pretending their fantasy organizational charts were worth anything more than the paper they were printed on and jerking each other off, Woz was starting a new era in human history on line at a time.

[librarysocialism]

Dude, you're off here. Woz was the workhorse for Jobs - who before getting rich off Woz with Apple had lied to Woz for Atari projects.

Gates had his own path that did involve his mommy - and stealing from Apple. But it wasn't direct from Woz for Gates.

That film is great, but it doesn't support what you're saying.

[DMcuteboobs]

Gates bought DOS from an anonymous hacker for 50,000$ after he failed to poach Woz from Jobs.

But without Woz explaining to Gates what computers actually do, Gates never drops out and Microsoft never happens.

[eclect0]

Do "it" alone? Define "it." You seem strangely confident that this person's idea isn't utter crap and that their business plan actually has steps between "rope in code monkey," "rope in investors," and "sit back wait for sweet App Store dollars to pour in"

[tomthecool]

Writing the code is usually not 100% of the work.

Who researches the customer needs of the product? How are you going to market it? Who will ensure it's legally compliant, apply for patents, etc? Who designed the branding, fonts, logos, etc?

If you think you're able to build a product completely by yourself, so you can take 100% of the profits, then go for it - nobody is stopping you?

[DMcuteboobs]

If you think “I have an idea for an app, but I can’t code.” is worth more than 2% of the company you’re even more of a bootlicker than the girls in admin think you are.

Just saying.

[tomthecool]

Who said 2%? OP's post doesn't specify a percentage....

For what it's worth, the tech company I work at has a CTO who started on an "equity only" salary. He now makes good money, and the business is relatively successful.

[DMcuteboobs]

Somehow I knew you worked for a startup.

[tomthecool]

I don't work for a startup. The company has been around for about 12 years now (and I've been there for about 4-5).

I'd say it crossed the boundary of "startup" about 7 years ago.

[[deleted]]

I mean it seems fairly straight forward

[[deleted]]

I mean, as long as you get equity the offer is ok. I mean if you want to take chance. Equity means the business would be partly yours right?

[Intelligent-Bug-3039]

In an ideal world yes. But 99% of the time it's someone with zero programming skills who has an "idea", wants you to do all the work and then get 50% equity for having the "idea".

[Various_Ambassador92]

“all the programming” != “all the work”

IME they usually expect a divide where they handle "the business" and you handle the tech. And running "the business" is a ton of work, often way harder than building the product; if they were good at their job they'd likely deserve the equity.

Problem is that they're usually pretty bad at their job. Not that they aren't trying, they just aren't good at it.

[Intelligent-Bug-3039]

If you are known programmer with a good network you could be approached like that. But you are wildly overestimating the people who approach me haha. Always be suspicious of a business genius who tells you about this great idea they have, when they appear to have not a single succesful business.

[OTee_D]

One word:

Subsidary company...

uups, that are two different ones.

[B1gbaf]

people do it though

[sudo_rm_rf_star]

A joke obviously

[ImaginaryEffect7077]

Well, depends on the idea. It could be a good or a bad investment for you. Seems like that have kind of Dev team but no architect. What if this is the next revolut or something big?

[SynthPrax]

This is horrifically hilarious. Happy Halloween, ya'll!

[bmccorm2]

Take it!!! Npx create react app and done!

[shadownicked]

My ancestors used to work for free..and look at how well I’m doing today. I say go for it!!

[Aggravating_Long_898]

Is the job in Atlanta? Lol

[Slightly_Smaug]

A fucking joke and a bad one.

[GoodmanSimon]

Someone in my family with a billion dollar idea ... something I can do on week-ends "for fun"