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Ask HN: Popup mobile/web dev shop only on the weekends

5 points by andyjsong ↗ HN
We all know that devs are in high demand and usually the best have FT jobs at the top companies or they're trying to start something on their own. Companies don't have the talent/time, devs don't have time or don't want to commit significant time.

I've been doing some market research, and found that devs always have an interesting side project or try to attend hackathons to solve problems during the weekend.

Why not get paid handsomely for it? Like $7k-$10k in a weekend. Just to give a rough format of the weekend:

Qualified devs give availability for weekends they want to hack and more importantly, screen out undesirables, (PHB, egotistical devs, etc.) you're here to have fun and get paid.

Popup dev shop finds clients that want to test an idea or rapidly prototype something along with a significant deposit to show that they're serious + fee to cover weekend running costs. Projects get selected based on interest from the pool of hackers + availability.

Friday - Sunday: hack with all amenities provided, food, beds, shower, etc.

Monday: Present to the client the product. If they like it, we get paid, if not, something to put in your portfolio and meet fellow qualified hackers.

Mutual understanding from the client and hackers that there is no obligation to continue working on the hack after the weekend is over, but at least they have a working prototype which they can buy.

Rinse and repeat. The popup dev shop.

Thoughts?

16 comments

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bdunn
You lost me at "if they like, we get paid, if not something to put in your portfolio...", especially when preceded with the lure of $7-10k for 3 days.
andyjsong
This will changes as reputation of the shop changes. You can't expect a company to fork over that kind of money only to have nothing done.
karterk
Then, wouldn't 2-3K of guaranteed work be better than a lure of 7-8K? If you are looking at top-notch devs who can code and execute an idea from scratch, that's not a bad deal at all.
andyjsong
I don't think 2k-3k will cover the costs for the dev. Just to humor you with the breakdown:

- Friday night: Plan and agree on approach

- Saturday morning to Sunday night: hack

- 4-5hrs sleep/night + breaks and tomfoolery

Maybe getting 35 hours of actual solid work comes out to $200-$228/hr. $2k-3k would be way too low esp. after taxes unless there is a way to skirt the IRS.

mikeburrelljr
Al Capone advises that you don't "skirt the IRS".
andyjsong
Some reason I can't edit my own comment, but even $200/hr is low. I used to work in economic consulting and I only have a BA in economics. My company charged the clients $400/hr for my services. Good lawyers charge $1,000/hr, why shouldn't good hackers make $400k-$500k/year just in salary? Fuck stock options, that's just the cherry on top. I've been reading that a good dev makes 125k to 150k, I think that's cute, but devs are still under valued in this market. Let's do something about it.
true_religion
Lawyers have systemic and geographical barriers to competition.
Zev
Weekend projects are guaranteed to be fun. A job is, unfortunately for a lot of people, not.

Convincing people to have less fun and work a second job is a hard sell -- made harder because most people who are capable of building something in a weekend already have pretty well-paying jobs.

andyjsong
I agree, but I wouldn't consider this a second job. You have no obligation to show up every weekend, jobs do. This is hackathon with the best people working on fun[1] problems and getting paid to do so.

I share your guaranteed fun of weekend projects and that's what I want provide.

[1] You decide what's fun by showing up or showing interest in a project.

coryl
What client is going to pay $7-10k for weekend dev's work and "fun"? Who fixes the inevitable bugs afterwards? People pay developers to work on their ideas to exact spec, not to experiment and hack.

You're looking at the market from the supply side, you need to look at it from the demand side which is far more important.

andyjsong
I've got clients that are interested and it's been done with lot's of overhead at regular hackathons except, the devs you get are a crap shoot and lots of distractions that hinder the process of actually shipping something.
dougbarrett
Of course clients are going to love it because they're not going to pay for anything unless they want to, and they are going to try to bring you down to as low of a price as possible.

Where I see it, you don't care what the price is really, because you'll always get the same percentage of the cut no matter what the selling price is.

I don't think the issue is that a lot of devs have side projects and never finish them, I just think it's the fact that we work on side projects and we get distracted by paying jobs, outside life, etc.

If you can make this work, then more power to you. If you really want to get interest, you should try to get college kids that don't already have years of experience and already in full time jobs, they'd be more willing to get something to put on their resume for the risk of not getting paid.

DistortedRhymes
If you could actually guarantee that I would get a really high quality product, that worked, and didn't have lots of bugs (it can have a few tweeks still needed), I can customers people being interested. What you would need is to ensure that the end product is awesome and DOES work. More so what I can see is this as a business idea - where people can come to a company for an amazingly fast turnaround time. Dealing with web design and development firms is a disaster from my experience. Even the level of customer care they provide when you approach with a potential $20,000 is terrible.
helen842000
I think building an MVP in a weekend is possible.

I suggested something similar to this recently. Like startup weekend for your own ideas, except the developers get paid.

xoail
If you are in NYC, I'd join you. I love to hack over the weekends and would definitely love to get paid for those hacks.
andyjsong
In the South Bay by Mountain View. You can start the NYC chapter.