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I'm stuck in a tricky situation, any advice?

4 points by cameronrawson ↗ HN
Hi there,

I'm stuck in a position in which I would love any advice. I'm in the process of a creating a startup with a friend, we face one problem, it's rather big, neither of us are developers. I've contacted many developers in the UK which is where I'm from and well... none of them will do it for equity, as again we face another problem, we are both under 18 and here in the UK the law stops us from doing anything and everything to make money. For us to incorporate to even be able to give equity away we would have to go through an even longer process then ever again due to our age.

I'm here to seek advice on exactly how we should try to find a developer to work for equity, we have applied to many startup incubators, YC included, however we feel we'll get the same feedback, we need a prototype.

What can we do?

13 comments

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icey
How much younger than 18? If it's within 2 years, you may be well served by spending the time building the software on your own - it's enough time that you can learn the basics of web development (go Ruby on Rails!) and then you'll have gained something from the venture whether you've succeeded or not.

I don't know what the incorporation laws are in the US with regards to age, but you may need to be 18 here as well.

cameronrawson
I'm 17, 18 within the next 6 months. I've started to learn PHP, I've heard that's the best place to start.
Roridge
I was working at the age of 16 in the UK.

Sounds to me like you need a guarantor, someone who is willing to be your company figurehead, I suggest a parental figure.

I live in the UK and I am a developer who would be willing to work for equity if the idea was right. But your problem really is that it's very hard to get someone to do something for nothing. You could always try oDesk can get some very cheap developers on there, knock you up a prototype.

roridge@hotmail.com if you want to email me an NDA and we can at least discuss your venture.

maxdemarzi
Under 18?

Obvious answer: Learn to code and build a prototype.

Second obvious answer: Go to college and make friends with computer science majors and build a prototype.

cameronrawson
I'm in the process of, I've bought PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS guides/books. When the time is right I'll be applying for CS too.
Roridge
Some people might prefer to handle the other side of a business, that shouldn't put them off having a start up company.
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bdfh42
We are a UK micro software business who have developed software products for equity in a start-up before (although to be fair the guys we worked with were able to drum up half a million pounds in Angel investment). You could pitch us your idea in confidence to Mike at MYcartons.com (which is an email address that I can kill) - we will respond with a proper address to any initial contact.
cameronrawson
Could you not just email me your direct website please, or address as the domain of your email is redirected to a parked domain.
nphase
No reason to incorporate, that will just be a waste of time at this point. Better than trying to find out how to make enough money to hire someone or how to land vc money, just learn to code or make some friends.

Most startup incubators won't fund startups founded by a team lacking developers. Learn to code - Idea people with coding skills are dangerous in the long run.

pg
Become your own developers by learning to program.