[dbrush]

The $987,345,897,349,875 question is...

<ultra bold>What, PRECISELY, is it that you want the members of this community to do?</ultra bold>

- Write code for you? - Write a check to you? - Let you invest in our startups and liquidate by the end of the month?

The X-Men should bring you on as a cofounder for your keen ability to stump people with your being vague. This may cause problems for Professor, though, because he'd then have nothing to read.

[rms]

Seems like it involves making money in whatever we want and pledging this money to Andrew Yates's venture "in spirit" and he needs to get 100k worth of profit pledges. I think it has to be money that would have not been made if it wasn't for the challenge, but this point seems unclear.

He is apparently offering 3k to people that are willing to work at this under his direction. I would probably take him up on the offer but I'm on the other side of the USA and only have fake hacking skills.

[andrew_yates]

Pledge profits "in spirit" in a collaborative effort to actually build something that makes money.

[rms]

It was just kind of confusing because this type of challenge was new to all of us, like I imagine it was to you as well. Good luck with your new job, I'm sure it will be an interesting VC firm.

This is of course very bubble-tastic but there is a lot of money in popular Facebook apps. I saw an app for "Fans of Grey's Anatomy" that had 100,000 active users yesterday, there is definitely money in reproducing fan sites for popular TV shows and bands and movies as Facebook applications.

[axod]

I'd love some numbers on that:

Does 'active users' actually equate to profit? I hear clickthrough rates for advertising on facebook is something like 0.05% If 100,000 users were active, that would equate to 50 clicks on adverts, which is probably going to make enough money to buy a coffee or something.

[rms]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=58193

Apparently the advertising clickthrough rates are better in the apps, possibly because a lot of facebook app advertisements are paid ads for other apps.

[andrew_yates]

Haha, yes, deliciously bubble-tastic.

Also, "VC firm" means something else that we're not doing. This is an angel fund run by bored geeks in silicon valley. That's it.

[sbraford]

Does the money have to be freshly generated revenue (on top of either a $0 starting amount or $X existing revenue).

i.e. I have a business that generates $5k per month, saying you can use that towards your goal "in spirit" is pretty silly, right?

BTW have you heard of Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment? http://www.stevepavlina.com/million-dollar-experiment.htm

This sounds a bit like it only for startups.

[andrew_yates]

Count the profit difference from changes you made in your business.

Million Dollar Experiment: I haven't heard of this, but you're exactly right. I'm glad I core dumped this idea here first. Wow, risk is hard in practice as a tech guy.

[sbraford]

Ok. I'll pledge mine.

It would be nice to have some kind of buddy system to help encourage one another and share strategies / techniques.

Current profit: ~ $3k between my various businesses.