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My main beef with this posting is that I represent a possibly large percentage of Entrepreneurs who have potentially amazing ideas that just don't attract the "

by meezyy 17y ago

My main beef with this posting is that I represent a possibly large percentage of Entrepreneurs who have potentially amazing ideas that just don't attract the "free" tech talent that they need to get off the ground. What makes this worse is that literally as I was writing this comment, I got my denial email from Y Combinator...

Mz 17y ago
Sorry about the denial letter. Bummer. But I don't really understand the rest of your post. And I don't know how to comment on it without sounding ugly. Care to expound?
- meezyy 17y ago
  Well I was just saying that people within our market understand what a great opportunity our idea is. However, for some reason, we aren't able to get the web designers and developers we need, interested in working with us, without providing immediate financial compensation.
patio11 17y ago
I have been approached, numerous times, by friends, acquaintances, and random folks on the Internet who think that their napkin is just a bit of free engineering away from being Google. I will not comment on the contents of your napkin. However, with regards to "'free' tech talent": I've been programming for twenty years, got into a good school and graduated with an engineering degree, got into the workforce and realized I knew nothing, fumbled forward for a few years increasing nothing to a little more than nothing, then founded my own business and worked hard for three years to get to a sliver more than a little more than nothing. When you have done the work necessary to know a sliver more than a little more than nothing, you will have all the "free" tech talent you need. And you will know exactly how much "free" costs.
- meezyy 17y ago
  We already have a well thought out and award winning business plan written. But I'm sure we can all agree that business plans mean nothing without execution. And execution in our case, means design and development.
dstorrs 17y ago
My suggestion would be to join a local college games club. There is tremendous overlap between techies and people who play non-mainstream games (e.g. Rail Baron, Dominion, RPGs, San Juan, Fluxx, etc). Playing card / board games with people for a few months, means you will: a) have a lot of fun b) make new friends c) have a chance to get feedback on your idea d) discover who the talented CS / designer / whatever people are, and get a pretty good picture of what they are like. If you're looking to take someone on as a technical co-founder (which I presume, from your mention of 'free tech talent') you'd better know in advance if you can stand to be around them. General games club meetings are fun and will provide you with contacts and information on those contacts. If you want an in-depth picture of someone, get into a role-playing game with them. To use D&D references: do they play the cleric and heal the party, or the assassin and backstab their teammates? Do they hog the snacks? Can they listen to other players' suggestions politely and implement them if they are better than their own ideas? Do they participate in the group when it isn't their turn to speak, or do they have their laptop open in order to play WoW && IM && check email? There may or may not be "right" answers to any of the above questions, but they will give you a lot of information to make a decision on. You will also find that college games clubs consist of more alumni than current students. This is a great way to network to experienced people (techies among them). As an example, at the Columbia games club, we have someone who currently works at Google. I met my co-founder at CUGC.
- meezyy 17y ago
  Do you mean Columbia University in NY?

by meezyy 17y ago

Mz 17y ago

Sorry about the denial letter. Bummer. But I don't really understand the rest of your post. And I don't know how to comment on it without sounding ugly. Care to expound?

meezyy 17y ago
Well I was just saying that people within our market understand what a great opportunity our idea is. However, for some reason, we aren't able to get the web designers and developers we need, interested in working with us, without providing immediate financial compensation.

patio11 17y ago

I have been approached, numerous times, by friends, acquaintances, and random folks on the Internet who think that their napkin is just a bit of free engineering away from being Google. I will not comment on the contents of your napkin. However, with regards to "'free' tech talent": I've been programming for twenty years, got into a good school and graduated with an engineering degree, got into the workforce and realized I knew nothing, fumbled forward for a few years increasing nothing to a little more than nothing, then founded my own business and worked hard for three years to get to a sliver more than a little more than nothing. When you have done the work necessary to know a sliver more than a little more than nothing, you will have all the "free" tech talent you need. And you will know exactly how much "free" costs.

meezyy 17y ago
We already have a well thought out and award winning business plan written. But I'm sure we can all agree that business plans mean nothing without execution. And execution in our case, means design and development.

dstorrs 17y ago

My suggestion would be to join a local college games club. There is tremendous overlap between techies and people who play non-mainstream games (e.g. Rail Baron, Dominion, RPGs, San Juan, Fluxx, etc). Playing card / board games with people for a few months, means you will: a) have a lot of fun b) make new friends c) have a chance to get feedback on your idea d) discover who the talented CS / designer / whatever people are, and get a pretty good picture of what they are like. If you're looking to take someone on as a technical co-founder (which I presume, from your mention of 'free tech talent') you'd better know in advance if you can stand to be around them. General games club meetings are fun and will provide you with contacts and information on those contacts. If you want an in-depth picture of someone, get into a role-playing game with them. To use D&D references: do they play the cleric and heal the party, or the assassin and backstab their teammates? Do they hog the snacks? Can they listen to other players' suggestions politely and implement them if they are better than their own ideas? Do they participate in the group when it isn't their turn to speak, or do they have their laptop open in order to play WoW && IM && check email? There may or may not be "right" answers to any of the above questions, but they will give you a lot of information to make a decision on. You will also find that college games clubs consist of more alumni than current students. This is a great way to network to experienced people (techies among them). As an example, at the Columbia games club, we have someone who currently works at Google. I met my co-founder at CUGC.

meezyy 17y ago
Do you mean Columbia University in NY?