5 ms·

Show HN: I made a simple platform to find founders and buy side-projects

80 points by heyarviind2 4y ago

Hi Guys, I got overwhelming support and feedback from my last post about secondfounder.com but still, I felt the need of connecting founders together so that they can together buy a side project. It's very often when a non-technical founder buys a project they have to find a technical founder to take that project further. Today I have implemented this feature in secondfounder.com Link: https://secondfounder.com/find-founder https://secondfounder.com/find-founder Your feedback is always welcome. Thanks

VoidWhisperer 4y ago
Few UX suggestions: 1. People might be more inclined to be interested in applying to be a co-founder if they can actually read the information on the founder/company before applying. However, currently there is a login barrier to seeing that information which may cause some people to decide it isn't worth it and leave the website without looking. 2. Add an easy way to close the login modal. Currently the only way I found was th e back button and that isn't a good solution for the reason in #3 3. Don't hijack the user's history and take control over the back button, it is very user un-friendly
- heyarviind2 4y ago
  noted, gonna fix this before producthunt launch
- RamblingCTO 4y ago
  > 3. Don't hijack the user's history and take control over the back button, it is very user un-friendly yes, so much this. not as worse as hijacking my scrolling, but this comes second
aliqot 4y ago
I keep getting 'login to continue' when I click. Anybody have an account I can use? Edit: OP stopped responding and it doesn't seem like anybody made it past the login-gate. If someone from the future is reading this, please take note, this is not the way to demo.
- heyarviind2 4y ago
  sorry i didnt get you, can you explain more please?
  - aliqot 4y ago
    Which part?
    - heyarviind2 4y ago
      > Anybody have an account I can use?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - lelanthran 4y ago
        > Anybody have an account I can use? People don't want to create an account just to view things.
        heyarviind2 4y ago
        some information are only available to verified users to limit spam.
benj111 4y ago
Semantic quibble: A founder founds a company, if you're buying it you aren't a founder. More broadly is there a market for side projects? I could understand someone's side project expanding to the point they need to bring someone else on board (which is what the name implies to me). It seems to me that if the founder is selling its probably because there isn't money in it. Or at least I would be concerned that the bulk of sales are for that reason rather than because the founder has another job or something.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- echelon 4y ago
  If a side project isn't a company and then someone else buys it and turns it into a company, I'd argue the purchaser is the founder. If you take open source software or some white label solution and sell it, you're a founder. If a company goes bankrupt, you buy the assets and then launch a new company. Founder.
- codegeek 4y ago
  It is a bit more nuanced. I bought a 3 month old "side project" which had like 10 customers at the time and I have bootstrapped it into a low 7 figure business with a totally new tech and lots of pivots/business changes. I call myself the founder for all practical purposes. Everything about this business was setup by me and the team I built from the ground up except the initial market validation which btw we have changed anyway since the customer profile is now different.
- stockboss 4y ago
  would you consider Elon Musk a founder of Tesla?
  - lajamerr 4y ago
    I would. But in general I would consider anyone a founder of a company if they had a significant impact before the companies first product/service went general availability to their target demographic. If they already had a general release of product or service. I wouldn't consider them a founder if they joined afterwards.
joenot443 4y ago
So is premium a "premium" experience or is it meant to be the base functionality of the site? Two of the premium offerings are: • Contact directly with the founder through messages • Find and contact second co-founder That seems like the entire reason anyone would use the app, am I wrong?
- heyarviind2 4y ago
  You are right, also you cant access the basic info of the project, all the sensitive information is provided to those who are premium. this is just to filter out the spam provide the real value to the founders/sellers.
  - xmprt 4y ago
    By providing real value to founders/sellers, you're taking away so much value from potential co-founders such that no co-founders will want to use this. And if there are no co-founders, then why would founders or sellers use your platform?
Brajeshwar 4y ago
Check this out, I believe it was popular on Hackernews some time back - https://microfounder.com https://microfounder.com
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
manv1 4y ago
This is really an interesting idea, because there are people who literally can't take it to the next level...but it's not really big enough for a capital infusion. I guess I'll be hunting for something I can turn into a lifestyle business. Then I'll just roll these lifestyle businesses into riches! I would have done this with one of my old companies years ago if this had existed. At the time I was making like 80k/year off of it for maybe 30 minutes of work a month. Now the market is gone, but still.
proptecher 4y ago
Unable to signup. Stripe checkout error "A valid Importer/Exporter Code (IEC) is needed to present in USD. Please contact contact https://support.stripe.com/contact/email https://support.stripe.com/contact/email if you have any questions." I'm using US AMEX which works fine on all other Stripe checkouts I use.
- heyarviind2 4y ago
  I contacted stripe and they said there is an ongoing problem with AMEX Cards with Indian stripe users. Could you please use a different card?

80 points by heyarviind2 4y ago

VoidWhisperer 4y ago

Few UX suggestions: 1. People might be more inclined to be interested in applying to be a co-founder if they can actually read the information on the founder/company before applying. However, currently there is a login barrier to seeing that information which may cause some people to decide it isn't worth it and leave the website without looking. 2. Add an easy way to close the login modal. Currently the only way I found was th e back button and that isn't a good solution for the reason in #3 3. Don't hijack the user's history and take control over the back button, it is very user un-friendly

heyarviind2 4y ago
noted, gonna fix this before producthunt launch
RamblingCTO 4y ago
> 3. Don't hijack the user's history and take control over the back button, it is very user un-friendly yes, so much this. not as worse as hijacking my scrolling, but this comes second

aliqot 4y ago

I keep getting 'login to continue' when I click. Anybody have an account I can use? Edit: OP stopped responding and it doesn't seem like anybody made it past the login-gate. If someone from the future is reading this, please take note, this is not the way to demo.

heyarviind2 4y ago
sorry i didnt get you, can you explain more please?
- aliqot 4y ago
  Which part?
  - heyarviind2 4y ago
    > Anybody have an account I can use?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - lelanthran 4y ago
      > Anybody have an account I can use? People don't want to create an account just to view things.
      - heyarviind2 4y ago
        some information are only available to verified users to limit spam.

benj111 4y ago

Semantic quibble: A founder founds a company, if you're buying it you aren't a founder. More broadly is there a market for side projects? I could understand someone's side project expanding to the point they need to bring someone else on board (which is what the name implies to me). It seems to me that if the founder is selling its probably because there isn't money in it. Or at least I would be concerned that the bulk of sales are for that reason rather than because the founder has another job or something.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
echelon 4y ago
If a side project isn't a company and then someone else buys it and turns it into a company, I'd argue the purchaser is the founder. If you take open source software or some white label solution and sell it, you're a founder. If a company goes bankrupt, you buy the assets and then launch a new company. Founder.
codegeek 4y ago
It is a bit more nuanced. I bought a 3 month old "side project" which had like 10 customers at the time and I have bootstrapped it into a low 7 figure business with a totally new tech and lots of pivots/business changes. I call myself the founder for all practical purposes. Everything about this business was setup by me and the team I built from the ground up except the initial market validation which btw we have changed anyway since the customer profile is now different.
stockboss 4y ago
would you consider Elon Musk a founder of Tesla?
- lajamerr 4y ago
  I would. But in general I would consider anyone a founder of a company if they had a significant impact before the companies first product/service went general availability to their target demographic. If they already had a general release of product or service. I wouldn't consider them a founder if they joined afterwards.

joenot443 4y ago

So is premium a "premium" experience or is it meant to be the base functionality of the site? Two of the premium offerings are: • Contact directly with the founder through messages • Find and contact second co-founder That seems like the entire reason anyone would use the app, am I wrong?

heyarviind2 4y ago
You are right, also you cant access the basic info of the project, all the sensitive information is provided to those who are premium. this is just to filter out the spam provide the real value to the founders/sellers.
- xmprt 4y ago
  By providing real value to founders/sellers, you're taking away so much value from potential co-founders such that no co-founders will want to use this. And if there are no co-founders, then why would founders or sellers use your platform?

Brajeshwar 4y ago

Check this out, I believe it was popular on Hackernews some time back - https://microfounder.com https://microfounder.com

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

manv1 4y ago

This is really an interesting idea, because there are people who literally can't take it to the next level...but it's not really big enough for a capital infusion. I guess I'll be hunting for something I can turn into a lifestyle business. Then I'll just roll these lifestyle businesses into riches! I would have done this with one of my old companies years ago if this had existed. At the time I was making like 80k/year off of it for maybe 30 minutes of work a month. Now the market is gone, but still.

proptecher 4y ago

Unable to signup. Stripe checkout error "A valid Importer/Exporter Code (IEC) is needed to present in USD. Please contact contact https://support.stripe.com/contact/email https://support.stripe.com/contact/email if you have any questions." I'm using US AMEX which works fine on all other Stripe checkouts I use.

heyarviind2 4y ago
I contacted stripe and they said there is an ongoing problem with AMEX Cards with Indian stripe users. Could you please use a different card?