Ask HN: Would I be of value to a startup... remotely?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6057494

by cheesedpm • 13 years ago

12 10 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

After a few bad freelancing experiences I find myself flat broke and reconsidering a lot of things in my life. I'm not quite at the stage of giving up yet, but I was wondering if there is room for someone like me to work for one of these up & coming startups. I guess it would have to be remotely as I'm in the UK.

The outside impression I get is that $TYPICAL_STARTUP goes for 20-something superstar college graduates - of which I am clearly not! I know that' a generalisation but how true is it? I'm sure I could of value to a company but would that matter in the end?

As for me, I'm one of those 'unicorns' apparently. I can knock out a swish design, code up all the HTML, CSS, Javascript and make everything work backend too. My experience covers everything from Wordpress to custom e-commerce stores, CRM, MRP, vehcile tracking, intranet work and iOS apps. I'm even quite handy at SEO. You could say I'm a generalist, but I do have some depth in these areas too!

I don't claim to the best or some rockstar but I do think I am pretty good and my breadth of experience gives me some advantages. I'm also a quick learner.

I can code HTML 5, CSS 3, Javascript (jQuery or not!), I've used SASS and the likes, AngularJS etc, PHP - I use mainly Codeigniter lately but also have experience in Zend, Cake etc. Wordpress is a given. I've also worked in Perl for a couple of years (with something called Interchange www.icdevgroup.org). More recently I'm building apps for iOS and Android.

As I mentioned, I'm totally broke now and I'm also in my early 30's. This is possibly a red flag to some people out there, as surely I should've made it by now?! However, it is what it is.

To be clear, I'm not looking for untold riches, I'd just like to be able to enjoy life and not dread a knock at the door!

So, TL;DR: Could a startup use someone like me?

mjankowski2• 13 years ago

Maaaaan, What is wrong with you? I mean... I'm Polish so please excuse me going straight to the point without English politeness :-)

I don't know the quality of your code and how fast you can build stuff, but to me your skillset looks exactly like a technical (co)founder. The world is full of broke 30somethings who are yet to figure out what they want to do with their life (including me)

In a startup world it's you who defines the terms - If they don't want to hire you, you build your own startup or hire them.

I'm currently working on two projects and there is always room for more (smart/handy) people. Let's have a chat and talk about opportunities we have.

kfk• 13 years ago

Where are you from in Poland? I have been there 2 weeks in June (paddling down the Vistula from Krakow to Gdansk). Very interesting country, I really liked Krakow(I live in Munich).

On which projects are you working on? I am coding a group purchasing/ecommerce platform in flask, foodtypically, the site will be up soon (hopefully).

mjankowski2• 13 years ago

Glad you liked it! I'm from Ełk (Lyck) and love this town - it's small but not too small and very scenic. We've had German tourists coming since 15th century :-)

Poland is... a 'special' country in so many ways - ppl taking pride in outsmarting the officials by exploiting all possible loopholes.

Currently working on two (not so sexy) projects: 1. an application for moneylenders to manage their customers and contracts (which looks like a hugely underserved and quite rich market) http://dkpro.azurewebsites.net/demo (google translate should help)

2. quick & dirty app for filling out monthly contracts. http://smieciowki.azurewebsites.net/ Aimed at small business. Alternative to messy MS Word forms). Ideal target: ~8-12 contracts monthly where it's already a headache to keep all the paperwork organized but not too big to hire a payroll professional. I did that process myself at my last company: it was at least 3hrs/month wasted in frustration, chasing ppl to correctly fill out and sign the form. So the pain is real.

IMPORTANT: Looking for someone to help me with 1. (coding and marketing) I'm very close to finish and I would LOVE to adapt and sell it in other countries! I'm willing to give a generous share of revenue!

rsto• 13 years ago

Why wouldn't you? Your skills fit the technology stack of many web-centric companies out there.

If it's your age you are concerned about: Being far away from Silicon Valley myself I can't tell you if age is that important there. Given that there seems to be a shortage of skilled hackers I doubt it. Besides: I read somewhere that the average age of YC founders is around 28.

Regarding work from remote: I don't know if it has to be a startup, but if not you might also consider applying at Mozilla or Canonical, both of which offer a range of remote work opportunities for tech people.

samchung• 13 years ago

I am thinking about starting a start up. No funding or anything. Its in the initial phase. If I had the funding you would be the kind of guy that I would want to hire. Its not age, but the skills that you have that is important. However, your location can also factor into you being hired. We should talk?

willholloway2• 13 years ago

I'm going to give you my best advice, because I've been where you are now and got out of it and I feel for you because there is nothing more soul sucking than lacking cash to move your ambitions forward.

I put everything into bootstrapping a startup that had decent traction ( ~ 1 million visits in a month). The problem was that advertising revenue was very low per user. merch was selling, but revenue per sale was low.

At the end I sold it for a small amount and was at the same place I was at the start, but with greater knowledge and experience.

I know you feel really low right now, but you can beat this.

You could definitely be valuable for a startup. I find though that its faster to find clients to consult for and get paid by them than it is to be hired.

Just this month I posted to the monthly Freelancer thread here on HN. Someone from across the country called me, I modified my contract and they signed it and the next day paid me via pay pal. The cash was in my bank three days from first contact. In the first three billable hours I understood their system, set up test servers and had the basic functionality they needed done. I automated a task that was key to their core business thus saving a lot of their employees time.

So if you need money fast I recommend consulting.

MOST IMPORTANT

Forget that you are broke. It is irrelevant to your clients. It is not their problem. You are being hired to help them. Communicating that you are broke will lower their confidence in you, lower the amount they will pay you and cause general animosity. You must be professional at all times.

You must have a solid but simple contract and a professional accounting system. Freshbooks is amazing in this regard.

There is a certain kind of client that you are perfect for. You need to find companies with revenue that need technical help for their core business. If you can solve these problems for them quickly, communicate well and be responsive and professional you will find plenty of work.

You are low on one kind of resource (cash), but have a wealth of very valuable knowledge and skills. Do not forget that you are a wizard of the modern era, capable of creating incredible wonders that are impenetrably complex and confusing for the uninitiated.

Here are my actions steps for you:

1) Set up Freshbooks accounting for online invoicing and online payment

2) Draft a simple contract. Only bill for materials and time. I have clients pre-pay for anywhere from 5 hours to one weeks worth of time. This way the risk is low for both of you and you can avoid lengthy negotiation. They pay a high rate for the flexibility and no long term commitment. You are like an on-demand EC2 instance and thus are worth the highest rate per hour.

3) Work efficiently and be organized with records. Shell aliases, master an editor like vim, set up git repos for skeleton projects in your stack of choice, use git smartly, reuse existing code etc... Your clients will be paying you a high hourly rate and you need to show results for them.

Treat every pre-paid block of time as a job interview. You must impress them every time. Avoid unnecessary overhead like complex time estimation. Work for at least somewhat tech savvy clients. Avoid small businesses that are cash strapped. Don't charge flat rates for projects.

Even if it takes you a few extra hours to get something working for them in the first block of time do it and don't ask for more money until you show them something working.

It only takes one good client to change your outlook 100%. Follow these steps and you will succeed and life will get easier. I went from being desperate to having more work than I have time for and needing to turn people down.

Good luck and godspeed.

boothead• 13 years ago

I love your site Will, it's a really nicely designed, to the point resume page!

Just out of interest how do you find these types of clients you mention? I guess you're looking for medium sized "real world" non-tech companies that you can come into an sprinkle your wizardy tech magic over, to either save, or make them more, money...

I'm thinking about going roughly the same route after I have some contracting money built up to give me a buffer.

willholloway2• 13 years ago

Thank you! Building the site was easy with a template from wrapbootstrap.com that I customized. It only took ~2-3 hours from inception to launch.

I love the picture of the Triborough bridge because its just a short walk from where I am and gives the viewer an instant location for me which is important because one of my advantages is that I am a quick subway ride to Manhattan.

I have gotten good clients from referrals from family and from people I meet at parties and in bars. Sometimes you have to do it Ricky Roma style, but with ethics.

Here in NYC there exists a cornucopia of entrepreneurs with revenue that absolutely need someone who can guide them through a world of technology that they desperately need but do not understand.

Watch Glengarry GlenRoss, internalize the essence of Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin's characters, then throw out all of their manipulation and abuse and apply idealistic hacker ethics. Be a good person, but realize that this business is for closers only.

Some of my best clients though are from Hacker News Freelancer threads, but theres nothing like the thrill of closing a contract with someone you just met at a bar.

My best advice to you if you go this way is to have multiple clients that need ~10 hours per week of work, or always have short projects in the pipeline. This way you are less needy for the client and your income is diversified. I believe that there are a lot more businesses that would benefit from ~10 solid hours of a smart developers time per week than there are that need something brand new built from scratch. This also makes you more affordable.

Clients are running businesses and are busy and this way when they get caught up with stuff and can't get back to you for a couple days you just work on another clients stuff or your own side projects.

I love working this way, but I might be taking a short term on-site contract soon because it's a chance to work with very cool, very smart people in a great environment and collaborate.

fecak• 13 years ago

To echo some of the sentiments here, I don't know why you even question your potential value to startups. Assuming you self-assessed properly, your skill set falls directly in line with what many companies are seeking (JS, HTML, CSS are all relevant, as is iOS/Android). Being in your early 30's is certainly not going to exclude you from being hired, and having some experience should be a positive for you. I don't think people are yet to see early 30's as some red flag (but I'm over 40 so what do I know?).

Why do you feel you would be restricted to only working remotely? It appears you are not aware of any startup scene in the UK. In talking to some recruiters in the UK, I assure you that there is a vibrant tech scene in at least certain parts of the UK.

Dedicate some time to finding a job. Take it seriously, get a portfolio of code together and be able to demonstrate what you are able to do. I don't think your age is a factor at all, but the ability to write good code trumps (almost) all.

wisty• 13 years ago

Yes. Ask them. You can find start-ups pretty much anywhere (maybe try http://www.crunchbase.com/), they don't exactly try to stay invisible (especially if they have funding). I'm willing to bet if you sent in emails to 10 of them (personalised, pointing out how you know their stack) one of them will have stuff you can work on.

All that crap about 20-year old rockstars is just that - crap.

Ask HN: Would I be of value to a startup... remotely?

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