Looking to start a partnership with a programmer

[nmccutcheon]

I have a really good idea for an app that I have been playing around with for awhile. I am just in search of a programmer who would like to take on a project for 50/50 ownership in the company. Please email me if you are interested for more information. [e-mail]

Thanks!

[ninavizz]

Hi Nate: I'm somewhat in the same boat. To get my business moving, I will need a CTO partner to drive the ship forward. Getting a minimum-viable-product built though, is all on me. Which I'd gone-out, assuming I could find friends to help me out with. Nope. No time, summer taveling, and everyone's loaded-up with paying work.

I'm a UX'er by trade, a self-taught mechanic/builder by hobby, and languages are my achilles heel with learning. So, I've taken A LOT of flack for many years, for not learning how to code, beyond my basic understanding of how things all fit together, need to support each other, and being able to edit other peoples HTML/CSS.

As a solo-founder however, it's all on me to deliver. Advisors and investors have (as gently as possible) told me that.

https://generalassemb.ly/ is expensive, but it's done a great job in a classroom setting, teaching app frameworks basics to n00bs. When I have the money and the bandwidth, I'm looking forward to taking it. Then there's also https://www.hackerschool.com/about, which is a paid retreat, so expensive on many levels.

I was really impressed with the codeacademy.com experience, and it filled-in many blanks for me that made me feel competent in CSS and HTML, for the first time ever. Using Javascript with JQuery is going to be a much more daunting challenge, because its entire mental model I still don't grok.

But, I'm trying, anyway. I managed to get one critical JQuery piece to work, and the other—I gave-up on but am coding the page, anyway with a static stand-in. I figure that once I've gotten all of the HTML and CSS and what of the JQuery I could do, done, at that point it will be easier to get friends to help me patch the holes. If not, then I will just pay a freelance Javascript person, to spend a day patching holes (and I honestly don't see what holes there will be, taking a day). Remember: Minimum Viable Product, doesn't' need to be fancy. :)

From, a gal who's gone-in kicking and screaming with every bit of learning code... but will probably be a more well rounded CEO, for it.

[damian2000]

You should consider that many app developers won't take kindly to suggestions like this - its often seen just as a way to get some work done for free, with no risk on your side. There was a discussion on reddit the other day about exactly this subject ...

http://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/2h0uy1/whats_a_p...

[nmccutcheon]

Okay so as recommended. I am 28 years old. I am starting business school next year and really hoping to get a couple more projects under my belt. Recently a team of us developed an algorithm which predicts stock market movement. We are still developing the algorithm and automation behind the scenes but are seeing some very good returns over the last several weeks.

I can always provide more about myself, but my idea is an app that hopes to improve the customer experience, by connecting local business and customers in a way that has not been done.

Hope this help, I think 50/50 can work and I am willing to learn or do what it takes. I have been told I am an extremely resourceful person and not afraid to put myself out there to make a project succeed.

[yoloswagins]

Thanks for providing more details.

Your start market prediction algorithm sounds really neat. Let me know when I can invest :)

Often times, 50/50 partnerships fail because of differing expectations. What are you expecting from the other half of the partnership? What will you be able to contribute?

Many ideas can be validated by with manually, before software is written.

The CEO of [Treatings](http://treatings.co) used a spreadsheet to keep track of users, and sent all the emails by hand until he validated the idea. Off the top of my head, AirPair, ZeroCater, and WuFoo were all founded similarly.

Programmers are more amenable to partnerships where you've got a manual process that can automated, than an idea.

How are you going to improve the customer experience?

[nmccutcheon]

Ah! thank you! I actually think that may be a really good place to start =]

Personally, I would be able to contribute the other half of the operation. I have some funding lined up already as well as some connection for expansion and marketing.

[nmccutcheon]

Just to clarify the manual concept..

The owners of the above companies began with say their website, and then started to build a customer base before adopting an app or further development?

[yoloswagins]

Groupon started as a wordpress site. http://tomloverro.com/2010/08/19/groupon-1-0-started-on-a-wo...

For your idea there is a, 'secret sauce' that you fake until you have traction.

Say for example, your app improves the customer experience by drawing a smiley face on every receipt. You think that customers love seeing a smiley face so much that they'll come back the next day.

Rather than build a complex point of sale system that prints smiley faces on receipts, you do something simpler.

You hide under the counter, and draw a smiley face on each receipt yourself.

If people come back(validate your idea) then you can start signing up store owners.

Having several pre-sales, plus some stats about how your system demonstrably improves the customer experience will help you find an engineer to build out your idea.

If you share your USP, we can tell you how to manually validate your idea.

[yoloswagins]

Hey Nate, welcome to Hacker News!

Ideas are a lot of fun to think about, but it's work to bring them to fruition.

When it comes to a partnership, people want to know about you, and what you bring to the table.

Add a comment about your personal background, or your idea. Everyone here is working on their own idea, so your idea is safe :)

You'll find that people are more likely to ignore you, than steal your idea.

[ozuvedi]

I'm sick of working as a slave programmer where no one values good ideas and writing good code, thinking of scalability solutions. If you have respect for programmers, I promise you hard work and honesty !!

[styles]

50/50 never works.

[coralreef]

50/50 works for the people it works for.

[nmccutcheon]

Why do you think that?

[alain94040]

50/50 especially does not work in that situation, where the split has been decided already by one side before any developer shows any interest.

Find a developer first who is interested. They'll tell you their motivation. Maybe they believe in the idea like crazy and want to build this. If so, maybe 50/50 could work. Maybe they are just looking for an item on their empty resume and can commit only about a month on this project. If so, 50/50 definitely is a recipe for disaster.

[davyjones]

According to some people, if there is a tie, helps to have a veto power. 51-49 helps in that regard.