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Hey guys Sorry for the radio silence. I was intending on keeping the blog updated with anecdotes from the experiment, but ended up not doing so. I've received

by hmexx 13y ago

Hey guys Sorry for the radio silence. I was intending on keeping the blog updated with anecdotes from the experiment, but ended up not doing so. I've received a few emails from people mentioning that I'm throwing away the opportunity of turning the initial spike of interest into a long-standing readership/audience but the truth is that was never what I was after; I was genuinely keen on finding some cool new projects to work on. The experiment is going so-so. If you remember I green-lighted 5 projects. - 1 was aborted before start through mutual agreement after further market research - 2 were aborted because the devs did not manage to complete the MVP. Lack of motivation mainly. If I've learnt anything so far it's that lack of follow-through is still a major issue, and the promise of a little money and a partner to work with does not squash the problem as much as I thought it would. I suspect not being physically in the same space has a lot to do with it. That leaves 2, one of which is live and the other is about a month away still (slow progress) So it's unclear whether this structure works. Going to depend on the last 2. Even then, the sample size has been quite small so the results will not be conclusive. Guess will need to try a second round at some point! hmexx

hmexx 13y ago
Ps: written on iPhone. Apologies about formatting/typos
loceng 13y ago
How much money have you spent then so far? And thanks for answering.
ghc 13y ago
Interesting. I wonder how this compares with Google's Summer of Code program completion statistics (at least back when it started). If you wind up with several companies that are judged as likely to be successful, what will you do? You can't reasonably split multiple companies 50/50 with others, because you won't be able to give adequate time. Getting a business off the ground is just the very first step. You're practically dooming businesses to failure if you can't fully commit to them because you are splitting time between multiple companies. On the other hand, it wouldn't be fair to bet on one of the companies and then reject working on others, even if they might be viable businesses.
davidroetzel 13y ago
> Guess will need to try a second round at some point! Please do. I loved the idea when I first read about it. And as you said, 5 is a small sample size to draw any conclusions from. Maybe your experience from the first batch will help you choose better motivated developers to work with next time.
dietervds 13y ago
It's still a fascinating experiment at any rate. I hope that you'll do a second round, I'd probably apply. Good luck and keep us informed if and when you can!
lazyant 13y ago
I for one think a 50% success rate (2 out of 4 if we don't count the aborted project) is a great success given the 'Internet random stranger hookup' setup. With more rounds and more candidates we got a mini-PG now.

by hmexx 13y ago

hmexx 13y ago

Ps: written on iPhone. Apologies about formatting/typos

loceng 13y ago

How much money have you spent then so far? And thanks for answering.

ghc 13y ago

Interesting. I wonder how this compares with Google's Summer of Code program completion statistics (at least back when it started). If you wind up with several companies that are judged as likely to be successful, what will you do? You can't reasonably split multiple companies 50/50 with others, because you won't be able to give adequate time. Getting a business off the ground is just the very first step. You're practically dooming businesses to failure if you can't fully commit to them because you are splitting time between multiple companies. On the other hand, it wouldn't be fair to bet on one of the companies and then reject working on others, even if they might be viable businesses.

davidroetzel 13y ago

> Guess will need to try a second round at some point! Please do. I loved the idea when I first read about it. And as you said, 5 is a small sample size to draw any conclusions from. Maybe your experience from the first batch will help you choose better motivated developers to work with next time.

dietervds 13y ago

It's still a fascinating experiment at any rate. I hope that you'll do a second round, I'd probably apply. Good luck and keep us informed if and when you can!

lazyant 13y ago

I for one think a 50% success rate (2 out of 4 if we don't count the aborted project) is a great success given the 'Internet random stranger hookup' setup. With more rounds and more candidates we got a mini-PG now.