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There’s a really great post at this blog about how the writer, a developer named Ethan, was approached by some acquaintances with regard to a big idea they needed help in implementing. The usual banter ensues, in which Ethan discusses the terms by which he expects to be compensated. Whether in equity or at an hourly rate of payment.
The response from his pitch-man?
Hey, so, we aren’t really prepared to pay. I mean there isn’t that much to it, it’s just a PHP website with a MySql database, I was hoping you could just throw it together as a favor. Oh well, thanks anyway
The rest of his post echoes pretty much exactly how I would feel in this situation. “There isn’t that much to it”. That line destroys me. To anyone that might ever make that assumption – take a moment to step back, and really think about what you’re saying. It blows my mind to think that there are people out there that are so quick to make the leap that “there isn’t much to” someone’s craft.
“Dear Mr. Architect – can you design this house for me for free? I mean, there isn’t much to it, it’s just a house with a foundation and some walls”.
On another semi-related note. If you’re looking for someone to jump in on an entrepreneurial venture – the challenge you should expect to be faced with is to find that one special, talented individual that might share the same passion as you on this particular topic. From my perspective – that’s the key. Passion. Unless it’s for pay, it’s hard for some to get truly amped to knock out the creative, or code, for your new project. I’ve tried the same approach – “Work with me on this! We’ll rule the world“. It’s too nebulous a proposition for most, unless they know they’re going to LOVE this thing you’re creating.
My conclusion – work my ass off for a little extra money to invest in the paid services of my friends to help me where the help is needed. I just can’t ever expect to get something knocked out of the park by someone who’s going on my word – “This is going to be HUGE!”. If my name was short for something like … Joelstradamus … then maybe I’d be more eager to prognosticate on the magnitude of my many “next pet project”s.
Last weekend Sara and I were in New York City, mostly for some events she wanted to attend that were
sponsored by a blog network she’s part of. One of the things we were both looking forward to
was a brunch on Sunday morning with some of the people that work for the network (Partially because
I was allowed to go with her to this one! Ok, maybe only a little bit). Regardless, we had a really
good time and talked about a lot of different topics – one of which was a non-existent product that
I’ve been pondering for months now. A GPS-enabled card of some sort that could be used to track down
a lost wallet, bag, purse, etc. It’s a no-brainer right? One of those “I would buy that in a second
if they actually existed”, even though it doesn’t. The reason why is probably because of
technological constraints – cost of parts that are that small that could transmit instead of just
receive. But, once those parts are available – someone will prototype this up and will make a
fortune. Unfortunately that someone won’t be me. I’ll wait around with my credit card in hand,
waiting for a chance to purchase it (for my Mother and for Sara).
The conversation popped into my head today because of a post over at Mike Davidson’s blog about
some of the big ideas that powered what he calls a “Slam-Dunk Startup” – Youtube, Hot-or-Not,
Google and Amazon. One point he brings up is similar to the thought I had above, that it’s not just
the idea but the ability to execute with the overwhelmingly difficult details of providing enough
bandwidth, computing power and engineering know-how to hit it out of the park.
I often hear people say things like “if only I thought of YouTube a year before YouTube did, I’d
be rich”, implying that given first-mover advantage, that person could create a company as great
as YouTube. A statement like this completely disregards just how difficult YouTube was to build,
from having the balls to allow brazen copyright violation, to building a great user experience, to
scaling out the ability to serve millions of video streams a day. In other words, 99 out of 100
people who may have had the same idea at the same time would have failed to create anything
remotely as successful as YouTube.
I couldn’t agree more. Having the chutzpah to take that idea, to make something of it, and then
break through the barrier of monetary success and cultural ubiquity? That’s a huge mountain to
climb. The amount to which I can relate to this is by no means applicable – but being a solo
entrepreneur trying to build something (which is, by no means, that original) on his own is
extremely difficult. This is the reason why I have so much respect for the people that have done it.
The Alex Tews, Joshua Schacters and Gabe Riveras of the world have nothing but the
most tremendous respect from me. Odds are that I’ll never reach those heights, but the journey so
far has been the fun part. We’ll wait and see.
