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I don't know how I feel about this project. It feels like their product is a middleman, and sort of (maybe unintentionally) reinforces the idea that people "own

I don't know how I feel about this project. It feels like their product is a middleman, and sort of (maybe unintentionally) reinforces the idea that people "own" ideas... When I think about it, it's probably not actually different from just having an open collective that takes on ideas and builds them for clients for free, but this is a distinctively less personal feel... but 10% is (in my opinion) a pretty hefty amount of revenue to share for just hosting. If I'm understanding correctly, 10% revenue sharing for the simple value proposition of connecting you to people who want to build you app and hosting your app seems like too much. Maybe I'm just not open minded enough for this to seem like a great idea to me yet

bitsweet 12y ago
We're always looking at ways we can create more value for the community then the platform fee necessary to run it. Products on assembly benefit from administration of accounting, finances, legal, many operating costs (hosting) pre-profit, as well providing trust layer (with revenue) so that contributors on products know that if there is any success it will be fairly distributed to everyone. Most importantly there already is a community of other engineers, designers, and even creatives interested in helping with marketing/distribution. FWIW - other marketplaces often charge 30% or more (e.g. heroku, apple).
- hardwaresofton 12y ago
  These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Maybe I can try and describe the nagging feeling better: tldr - It feels like Assembly makes it easier for startups to be a machine with people-shaped cogs. I might also be completely wrong, and that is actually the better way to go (or the path that people will be happy to travel once they discover assembly) It feels like assembly is deconstructing the startup model (which is probably good and bad, maybe mostly good): - (+/- technical) founder => person with idea - initial dev team => contributors - VC => Assembly (w/ revenue share instead of equity) But I think that something gets lost in that deconstruction. The founders become "just" people with ideas, and not people who grew, nurtured and fostered a company/entity. I realize they are the core team, but learning all the accounting, finances, legal, and operating costs bits are kind of valuable to a budding founder. I may even go as far as to say that a person with an idea != a founder specifically because of the transformation that happens from having to deal with all that administration (otherwise known as running a company). Similarly for the dev team, they're invested... but I don't think they're as invested as they could be, or as part of the living breathing entity (figuratively) that is the company -- it's almost like being a freelancer/contract worker (more the disenfranchisement that might occur, I think, less the health benefits/other usual problems) And while the marketplace itself (Assembly) takes on quite a fair bit of risk in hosting the sites and providing all those services for free... I can't help but feel like the profit they may make comes at the cost of stunting the growth of a founder and her/his development team. If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. On the flip side, this could be a completely inane over-reaction, I may be on the wrong side of a trend that is about to be huge, and streamline startup culture in a big way.
  - bitsweet 12y ago
    > These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Thanks! > If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. I appreciate the candid feedback but this is the opposite of what Assembly is about; cogs don't make great products with care and attention. The internet is best at bringing people together to create something bigger then what any one person could do alone. Open Source and Wikipedia are examples of what can be created this way. I believe this is the case because of an open collaborative model - where people that love what they do can do so with their peers. They are free to create and innovate how they want, on what they want, and where they want to - ultimately leading to our best work. Assembly is trying to give people working alone on passion products the boost of an entire team of diverse skills and engaged partners - only there because they care about what they do - while at the same time ensuring all those participating can be fairly rewarded with any success that they create.
    - hardwaresofton 12y ago
      Thanks for clearing that up, glad that is the take on it @ Assembly.
semiel 12y ago
I think there are a lot of practical problems with Assembly's model, but it feels to me like an imperfect glimpse into what will someday be a really valuable model. I love the idea of being able to contribute to a project with minimal barriers to entry, and get an automatic stake in its success in return.
- hardwaresofton 12y ago
  Yeah, and this is the bit that makes me think that I'm thinking about it wrong. It actually seems like a win-win-win-win for everyone involved (idea submitters, contributors, assembly, and the end user), but I can't shake that sinking feeling.
- bitsweet 12y ago
  Hi @semiel. This is our vision and we're hopefully iterating towards a more perfect solution. We've thought intensely about the details but in reality, we're still learning from the community and constantly finding opportunities to improve. My email is matt@assembly.com if you ever want to share specific thoughts - they are helpful.
- bbcbasic 12y ago
  Yes I am wary of using it being based in a different country. To fully understand the legal implication will be more work than the help I am going to get on the project. I think it would be much more useful to have a meetup-style site to find people locally to work with, then let them organise between themselves if they want to start a company etc. On the other hand for a pure opensource, no profit, MIT-licence kind of thing Assembly would be OK. The problem is Assembly wouldn't make money out of that model. It maybe something that GitHub or Apache could promote though.
mamcx 12y ago
I'm tempting to do this, I have a almost-finished app but need help to end and release, however, look like doing this is giving away too much, and I have not see how pull-back from assembly if later in the road I need it.
- bitsweet 12y ago
  The best thing I can suggest is get involved with one of the existing community products first. See how the community helps each other and determine if there is value for your product. This is the path that founders have done in the past before eventually migrating their side products to the Assembly community. You can always email us if you have specific questions about the process.
- hardwaresofton 12y ago
  I don't want my comment to discourage you from exploring what Assembly has to offer. They could very well take projects in varying stages of completion and provide services, and maybe the costs can be worked out or something. Reaching out to them and asking how they handle your use case (someone with like 80% of a project done who really wants help for a final push + release), should be education for both parties.
joeyspn 12y ago
The idea is really good. They add additional services that can be really valuable in order to make you lighter during the product's take off. If still doesn't fit what you are looking for, StartupHub has a similar concept without taking revenue or acting as a middleman. Just focusing on the crowdsourcing and collab side (like the iWeekends). http://www.startuphub.io http://www.startuphub.io It should be up and running soon
taitems 12y ago
I couldn't agree more based off a recent experience with Formspree (an Assembly project). Currently their emails are running really slow, with tools showing an 11 minute delay between initiation and the email being sent. Want to let them know? They've turned off issues on the GitHub repository, they have no Twitter account, and you have to register for Assembly even to raise a bug.
- colevscode 12y ago
  Hi, I'm one of the creators of Brace Forms. I am really happy with the way formspree is working on assembly. Want to send feedback? There's a form at the bottom of formspree.io and we've got people in the community that are now responding to those customer service inquiries. Several have asked about the 10m delays. We switched email providers so we could improve our email deliverability and spam filtering. But the new provider is throttling us while they get a sense of our email traffic. I've been told that it should be back to normal soon. These are growing pains. Frankly I'm pleasantly surprised to see the project gaining momentum. The alternative would have been to shut it down.
  - taitems 12y ago
    The great thing about a Twitter account or using GitHub issues is that (ideally) you only have to answer a question once. You tweet out that you're aware of the issue and that you're working on it, or I browse for it in the GitHub issues and see it's already been raised and there's a pull waiting to resolve it. The fact that Brace/Formspree allocate so many points to customer service inquiries on Assembly sounds like you're being inundated with questions that could be managed in a more open fashion?

bitsweet 12y ago

We're always looking at ways we can create more value for the community then the platform fee necessary to run it. Products on assembly benefit from administration of accounting, finances, legal, many operating costs (hosting) pre-profit, as well providing trust layer (with revenue) so that contributors on products know that if there is any success it will be fairly distributed to everyone. Most importantly there already is a community of other engineers, designers, and even creatives interested in helping with marketing/distribution. FWIW - other marketplaces often charge 30% or more (e.g. heroku, apple).

hardwaresofton 12y ago
These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Maybe I can try and describe the nagging feeling better: tldr - It feels like Assembly makes it easier for startups to be a machine with people-shaped cogs. I might also be completely wrong, and that is actually the better way to go (or the path that people will be happy to travel once they discover assembly) It feels like assembly is deconstructing the startup model (which is probably good and bad, maybe mostly good): - (+/- technical) founder => person with idea - initial dev team => contributors - VC => Assembly (w/ revenue share instead of equity) But I think that something gets lost in that deconstruction. The founders become "just" people with ideas, and not people who grew, nurtured and fostered a company/entity. I realize they are the core team, but learning all the accounting, finances, legal, and operating costs bits are kind of valuable to a budding founder. I may even go as far as to say that a person with an idea != a founder specifically because of the transformation that happens from having to deal with all that administration (otherwise known as running a company). Similarly for the dev team, they're invested... but I don't think they're as invested as they could be, or as part of the living breathing entity (figuratively) that is the company -- it's almost like being a freelancer/contract worker (more the disenfranchisement that might occur, I think, less the health benefits/other usual problems) And while the marketplace itself (Assembly) takes on quite a fair bit of risk in hosting the sites and providing all those services for free... I can't help but feel like the profit they may make comes at the cost of stunting the growth of a founder and her/his development team. If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. On the flip side, this could be a completely inane over-reaction, I may be on the wrong side of a trend that is about to be huge, and streamline startup culture in a big way.
- bitsweet 12y ago
  > These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Thanks! > If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. I appreciate the candid feedback but this is the opposite of what Assembly is about; cogs don't make great products with care and attention. The internet is best at bringing people together to create something bigger then what any one person could do alone. Open Source and Wikipedia are examples of what can be created this way. I believe this is the case because of an open collaborative model - where people that love what they do can do so with their peers. They are free to create and innovate how they want, on what they want, and where they want to - ultimately leading to our best work. Assembly is trying to give people working alone on passion products the boost of an entire team of diverse skills and engaged partners - only there because they care about what they do - while at the same time ensuring all those participating can be fairly rewarded with any success that they create.
  - hardwaresofton 12y ago
    Thanks for clearing that up, glad that is the take on it @ Assembly.

semiel 12y ago

I think there are a lot of practical problems with Assembly's model, but it feels to me like an imperfect glimpse into what will someday be a really valuable model. I love the idea of being able to contribute to a project with minimal barriers to entry, and get an automatic stake in its success in return.

hardwaresofton 12y ago
Yeah, and this is the bit that makes me think that I'm thinking about it wrong. It actually seems like a win-win-win-win for everyone involved (idea submitters, contributors, assembly, and the end user), but I can't shake that sinking feeling.
bitsweet 12y ago
Hi @semiel. This is our vision and we're hopefully iterating towards a more perfect solution. We've thought intensely about the details but in reality, we're still learning from the community and constantly finding opportunities to improve. My email is matt@assembly.com if you ever want to share specific thoughts - they are helpful.
bbcbasic 12y ago
Yes I am wary of using it being based in a different country. To fully understand the legal implication will be more work than the help I am going to get on the project. I think it would be much more useful to have a meetup-style site to find people locally to work with, then let them organise between themselves if they want to start a company etc. On the other hand for a pure opensource, no profit, MIT-licence kind of thing Assembly would be OK. The problem is Assembly wouldn't make money out of that model. It maybe something that GitHub or Apache could promote though.

mamcx 12y ago

I'm tempting to do this, I have a almost-finished app but need help to end and release, however, look like doing this is giving away too much, and I have not see how pull-back from assembly if later in the road I need it.

bitsweet 12y ago
The best thing I can suggest is get involved with one of the existing community products first. See how the community helps each other and determine if there is value for your product. This is the path that founders have done in the past before eventually migrating their side products to the Assembly community. You can always email us if you have specific questions about the process.
hardwaresofton 12y ago
I don't want my comment to discourage you from exploring what Assembly has to offer. They could very well take projects in varying stages of completion and provide services, and maybe the costs can be worked out or something. Reaching out to them and asking how they handle your use case (someone with like 80% of a project done who really wants help for a final push + release), should be education for both parties.

joeyspn 12y ago

The idea is really good. They add additional services that can be really valuable in order to make you lighter during the product's take off. If still doesn't fit what you are looking for, StartupHub has a similar concept without taking revenue or acting as a middleman. Just focusing on the crowdsourcing and collab side (like the iWeekends). http://www.startuphub.io http://www.startuphub.io It should be up and running soon

taitems 12y ago

I couldn't agree more based off a recent experience with Formspree (an Assembly project). Currently their emails are running really slow, with tools showing an 11 minute delay between initiation and the email being sent. Want to let them know? They've turned off issues on the GitHub repository, they have no Twitter account, and you have to register for Assembly even to raise a bug.

colevscode 12y ago
Hi, I'm one of the creators of Brace Forms. I am really happy with the way formspree is working on assembly. Want to send feedback? There's a form at the bottom of formspree.io and we've got people in the community that are now responding to those customer service inquiries. Several have asked about the 10m delays. We switched email providers so we could improve our email deliverability and spam filtering. But the new provider is throttling us while they get a sense of our email traffic. I've been told that it should be back to normal soon. These are growing pains. Frankly I'm pleasantly surprised to see the project gaining momentum. The alternative would have been to shut it down.
- taitems 12y ago
  The great thing about a Twitter account or using GitHub issues is that (ideally) you only have to answer a question once. You tweet out that you're aware of the issue and that you're working on it, or I browse for it in the GitHub issues and see it's already been raised and there's a pull waiting to resolve it. The fact that Brace/Formspree allocate so many points to customer service inquiries on Assembly sounds like you're being inundated with questions that could be managed in a more open fashion?