[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Does this idea make any sense?
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Ask HN: Does this idea make any sense?
Hi there, I would like to get your perspective on this idea, does
it make sense?, I happen to think dev shops are broken, and this
may be a better approach, let me know your thoughts?
https://www.rebaseapps.com
Author : AhmedMujtaba
Score : 22 points
Date : 2022-07-17 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
| mirthturtle wrote:
| I don't think the math works. $5k + $500/m, for 6 months: that
| tops out at $160,000 yearly revenue for the 20 projects. Even if
| it's the same 4 employees spread across all projects, that's $40k
| yearly salary each as a base. Sounds bad!
|
| It'd take years for any winning bets to pay off and I don't know
| how you'd pay your employees.
| yellowapple wrote:
| Wouldn't be too bad for me (as a dev) if it's with the
| understanding that I'd be working part-time. Even 20 hours a
| week would net a pretty decent junior-level pay (and 10 would
| be even better).
|
| They'd have to be really simple projects, though, if I'm
| expected to bang out 20 of 'em a year.
| klohto wrote:
| There are other countries than US :)
| twic wrote:
| The one way it makes sense is as a mechanism to buy cheap
| equity stakes. The person running the scheme adds more money to
| pay market rates for sufficient staff, which effectively buys
| them a 5% stake in each company.
|
| If it is the same four people across all companies, and their
| fully loaded cost is 200k (not a lot in the valley, but plenty
| in many other places), then that works out as 32k for a 5%
| stake. Compare that to Y Combinator's 125k for 7%.
|
| If you accept that you can't run 20 startups with four people,
| no matter how much Club-Mate you feed them, then you could try
| staffing each position at 25%, and be paying 200k for that 5%.
| Not so hot, but maybe still good enough?
| weare138 wrote:
| I have a feeling they have some VC backing and they're just
| farming the work out to cheap overseas companies and
| freelancers. Sounds like it's some quasi-incubator banking on
| finding a billion dollar unicorn.
| potamic wrote:
| You might want to showcase your profile and what makes you
| valuable. Differentiating on commercials might work, but I hope
| you're aware of risks that come with fixed billing.
|
| Also, that pricing sounds insane for a 4 people team. You're
| probably not looking for engagements that last more than a month,
| but even with that I don't know how you can make decent income to
| pay the team.
| yessirwhatever wrote:
| Dev shops aren't broken, and this idea does not make sense. No
| quality work can come out of it, and honestly it sounds more like
| a trap or a funnel for scammers to front as entrepreneurs.
| amelius wrote:
| If they provide the technical input, how do you prevent them from
| just stealing your idea?
| popcalc wrote:
| Would make more sense to do exactly that.
| [deleted]
| foobiekr wrote:
| Honestly how is this different from a very expensive offshoring
| provider?
| [deleted]
| superb-owl wrote:
| I can't imagine getting anything decent for that level of pay.
| Unless you're essentially a venture fund making long bets on that
| 5% equity and you have a ton of upfront funding.
| superb-owl wrote:
| Is that technical team spread across all ten projects? If so
| that's basically 4h per week per company, barely enough to
| remember what they're building.
| conqrr wrote:
| I'm looking for something similar for a sales cofounder. Someone
| who could help validate and pitch Saas Ideas and get a commitment
| on subscription, before I develop the product.
| foobiekr wrote:
| No.
| [deleted]
| thenerdhead wrote:
| There has been an uprise of agencies/studios/dev shops trying to
| make their offering "limited" and thus promoting some fear of
| missing out by feigning scarcity.
|
| I think these ideas can be creative, but I feel bad for those who
| can't do the math for themselves and also build the
| team/contractors that would likely make them successful in the
| long run.
|
| More and more "startups" are just disguised digital agencies.
| arrow7000 wrote:
| Is this your startup?
| [deleted]
| justsomeuser wrote:
| I do not think it is a good idea because the people building the
| project have no skin in the game.
|
| Your initial ideas need constant iteration as you interact with
| reality to see what works.
|
| A team that will leave in a few months for the next thing have no
| incentive for iteration or great execution - both which are
| needed to interact with reality to find something that works.
| alkonaut wrote:
| Yes, so long as
|
| 1) the pay for the technical tesm is in a country where you can
| pay sub $25k/yr (which is most countries on the planet but rules
| out North America or most of Europe). Because there won't be
| enough money to pay much more.
|
| 2) So long as all these projects are technically simple. Don't be
| an incubator for new ideas. Make CRUD apps for orgs that want to
| replace a spreadsheet instead.
|
| But as some kind of incubator or operating in EU/US? No.
| thriftwy wrote:
| Software developers around the world are not going to work for
| $2k/mo. Even in cheaper countries they realize it takes some
| money to get into middle class, or they would consider moving
| closer to where the action is.
|
| Especially since you need a few generalists who should work
| with minimal oversight (and indeed provide one).
| sickmartian wrote:
| Really depends on where you are I guess, but I found no info
| about you in the link.. also the top right link that says how
| many spots are left sends me to google.
| rodolphoarruda wrote:
| I like the idea! However, the price is challenging for Latin
| American founders like me who are currently in bootstrap mode.
| jot wrote:
| I've worked in a similar way to this in the past and at similar
| price points.
|
| Most of the time I ended up with one of two kinds of founder:
|
| 1) Very price senstive with a lack of investment mindset. With
| that kind of budget they would have been better off investing in
| themselves to either: a) Learn to code or develop some other
| valuable skills. b) Build a profitable service business.
|
| 2) Very busy running another business without the time to do the
| work of finding customers. They would have been better off
| either: a) Focusing on growing their current service business. b)
| Creating a non-software product such as a course, book, templates
| or a newsletter.
|
| In general non-developers need to be prepared to invest at least
| an order of magnitude more than that. Any less and it's unlikely
| they'll take it seriously enough to succeed.
|
| This is assuming you are aiming at clients with North
| American/European levels of purchasing power.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| tyronehed wrote:
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