[dhuck]

I really didn't have anything negative to say about the Craigslist post - we've all seen this sort of naivety before. Most of us have even been there.

But what really bothered me personally is that this was posted in the Boca Raton Craigslist area. If you can afford to live in Boca (median home price: 420k, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bpretire/2006/snapsh...), you can afford to at least provide some form of compensation (beer? pizza? caffeine? hell, just take me out to dinner and I'll help draw up some cost estimates.)

Maybe I'm generalizing based on an area (and who has spare cash around nowadays anyway), but I'm so tired of people with plenty in the bank asking me to develop an idea for free.

If you have a "considerable history in marketing," you should know better.

[blackguardx]

I live in a place with a median house value of over $500k (north san francisco bay), yet I am not swimming in money. The key is that I don't own a house. The monthly payments on a 30 year mortgage would be more than my monthly after tax income. I rent an apartment.

Living in a rich area doesn't make you rich. Perhaps he lives in Boca Raton because that is where his last job was or where his wife works. Maybe his mortgage payments are so high that he can't afford to buy you beer.

I like to reserve judgment whenever possible.

Where do you live?

[dhuck]

I live outside of Boston, where the median home price is way north of 500k. And living in a rich area doesn't make you rich - I can attest to that personally, too: I rent, I eat ramen.

But I know that if someone made this proposition to me, in the Boston area, I'd expect something in return. I don't think asking for a meal or some beer is out of line. It's more symbolic than anything.

If you're not in the position to buy me a dinner in exchange for a few hours of my services, then I really wonder if you're in the position to start a company. No offense intended - but if you are about to go the VC route, then the VC will be asking you to make a lot bigger personal bets than a simple dinner.

But anyway, this is all speculation, and HackerNews isn't a place for speculation. I'd go back and edit my comment, but the edit window is expired. C'est la vie, mod me down accordingly.

My apologies if I offended anyone.