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Ask HN: Where Should I Look For A Programmer To Partner With For My Start Up?

9 points by GaryLivingston ↗ HN
I am looking to find a programmer/designer or two to partner with in order to continue building my start up company's website.

I can only offer part ownership of the company in the form of stock issued to them. It is a legal S-Corp. How much stock depends on the amount of work and input offered. I do not have capital at this point.

I originally launched my site in 2005. It is a Social Magazine about all forms of art and the business of being an artist.

Its content is by and large about and by the community. The goal for every piece of content is to inspire and educate people.

33% of the profits once monetized will be donated to charity every quarter.

Every piece of content is linked together using a system like facebook's pages. We released that feature in 2005. This is one example of how I know my concepts and ideas of how they should be executed are still ahead of the curve.

In 2006 everything came to a halt because I became very ill and almost died. I was out of commission for years and my entire personality was altered for this time due to a tumor.

While dealing with that my original team had to take on new jobs and what capital I had raised was used up.

I am not looking to find a programmer to take advantage of and not compensate them what they deserve. The plan is again, to offer part ownership of this company and split income accordingly once the site is monetized.

I have a very extensive plan for how this entire project will scale.

I just don't know where to look for a potential partner to build it out with me.

I am based in Los Angeles but I am willing to travel between San Diego and San Francisco if there are good meet ups going on where programmers look for start ups to join.

If there are good places to meet programmers online please inform me of those sites.

Please advise me on where to seek a new partner or two. Thank you.

Sincerely, Gary Livingston

13 comments

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codingstaff
Gary, I am not sure if developers would be interested to partner/share the stock of non-profitable company. Usually good developers get at least one inquiry as such a week. Therefore, they got to be very careful. Besides, nowadays it is extremely hard to get a startup developed by an individual, you need to find a team. I would strongly suggest to hire a team. And make sure you hire the best of the best, not the cheapest of the cheapest. Of course, it costs money... but... in software development you always get what you pay for or less. I would suggest joining a solid software development team as a marketing or sales pro and get hours-for-hours deal from them.
GaryLivingston
Yeah, I understand the concern. I'm a freelance photographer (have been since 2000) and I prefer to work for cash. However, I do take on projects from time to time in exchange for a % of future income.

I'm currently filming a documentary for a band under such conditions. I believe in their music and their passion and I know there is a market for the DVD once it is a tangible product.

I know it might take some time but, I can find others that believe in my passion and vision to make this highly profitable and successful. I just need to know where such people congregate.

I'm all about building a team. That is for sure. This is my second go at this and I learned a lot before my brain fried out haha. I am not about to make the same mistakes twice.

I do appreciate the suggestion about trading hours for hours. I do enjoy bartering for services/goods with my photography (just did a simple shoot in exchange for a heap of brand new hockey goalie equipment, wee!). I didn't even consider that option for teaming up with a programming team. So, thank you for that.

GaryLivingston
Sidenote: I would hire and pay a very high rate if I was able to. Unfortunately, that illness had me out of work for years and I am just now getting back to the job market. My savings are shot from what my medical insurance didn't cover of my half a million in bills.

I swear I am not someone that looks to take advantage of others or unfairly compensate myself at the expense of another. I believe in the same notion you have about paying for the best of the best and paying what they deserve.

I just simply can not do that at this time so I can only offer what I have and fair ownership of what they put into this.

I hate when people try to take advantage of me as a photographer. Part of why I started this project is to undo that mentality of taking advantage of others and using this project to establish higher rates for all creative people.

Just, one step at a time.

codingstaff
Sorry to hear about health problems you've gone through. Wish you the best luck and, yeah, as a web developer/designer, I know it is really hard for people in creative services nowadays.
codeslush
You're in LA - look up coloft - they are in santa monica and have a website of the same name. They have a lot of events for startups and the owners are fantastic people.

You have all kinds of hacker groups in la too. go to meetup.com and see what you can drum up.

My observation is that LA startup scene is really heating up and I wish you the best.

GaryLivingston
Thank you for leads to both. Coloft sounds great! I think my friend has gone to a few of their events. So, I'll be sure to drag him with me.

I'll see what meetup.com has to offer too. Thank you again!

iworkforthem
You could post on the monthly "Who's hiring" thread on HN. Lots of programmers look at it for interesting gigs.
GaryLivingston
Will do! I'll be sure to look through others first. Thank you for the suggestion.
haploid
IRC
akkartik
Care to elaborate? (Assuming it's not sarcasm.)
haploid
Sure. Freenode and EFNet tend to have significant concentrations of talented developers and developer/managers.

I think many people would be surprised at the caliber of people who idle( usually as ops )on the various programming-related IRC channels. Of course, these channels also attract droves of newbies looking for help, often with elementary homework projects. But if you use a decent vetting process, sorting signal from noise can be fairly trivial.