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Offer HN: I will build your MVP for $2,500 in two weeks

22 points by rankam ↗ HN
Hi HN - this has been a number a times and I thought I'd give it a shot as I love developing web apps and would like to build up my portfolio. I will build a fully functional MVP in two weeks for $2,500. I'm experienced in flask, django, rails, and meteor and will let you choose which framework I use if that is important to you. On the front-end, I will use either Bootstrap or Materializecss - again your choice if you have a preference.

Here's the catch (there's always one), I don't have any work to show you, but I will mitigate your risk by delivering your MVP before expecting any payment. Prior to beginning work, we will agree upon a due date and functionality - when I meet both of these requirements, only then will I expect payment.

Linkedin and email info are both in my profile. Hope to hear from you!

23 comments

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sander2
What's the MVP?
mavdi
Minimum Viable Product
sander2
Cool, thanks. I learned something new :)
ColinWright
I haven't down-voted you, but I see that others have. I appreciate that sometimes the fastest way (although not always the best[0] way) to get an answer is simply to ask, but in this case a Google search[1] turns up the answer[2] as the second hit.

The great thing about that is that there are often extra, ancillary[3] things that turn up that are related and also useful.

[0] The best way to get an answer on the internet is to be loud, arrogant, and wrong. Then people will fall over themselves to correct you, and you can filter through the crap to find the right answer.

[1] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=MVP

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

glomph
Most valuable poet on the M I C
gxespino
I'm doing this right now and am on project #2. I'm charging $3k for an MVP also delivered in 2 weeks. My number one regret is not charging more. Even after negotiating feature sets and getting things down to bare minimum, $3k is not enough.
rankam
Yeah, I kind of assumed this, but it's something I'm willing to deal with once or twice. Luckily, I have other sources of income that have very flexible hours so it's not necessarily about the money. But, thanks for the heads up!
mgav
If this approach doesn't work, consider one or more small volunteer projects (maybe for non-profits) so you have a portfolio to share. Good luck!
rankam
Appreciate the advice, but I don't think I'm willing to work for free. If I really needed to build my portfolio, I could replicate the project management and inventory management web apps I built at work. However, I'd like to try something different, get some freelance experience, and maybe help someone grow their idea or business.
diegottg
Are you doing mobile apps?
rankam
Meteor has the ability to turn a web into an iOS and Android app quite easily. I've never used it, but would be willing to give it a shot. However, I would not be able to guarantee that it would work 100% correctly so there would be some (possibly significant) risk to the client.
ganarajpr
It would be great if you could include your github profile as well.

On a side note : I have seen similiar posts before and I am intrigued. But there is a question of definition here. What exactly would an MVP be ? The reason I ask is - different people will have different projects in mind. One clients project might be a simple mobile ecommerce site - another might be building a search engine , or an Operating System ?

What exactly could you do for projects like these in 2 weeks ?

rankam
Great question - It would be a web app so operating systems are off the table. Think along the lines of a project management app, users could log in, create projects, assign tasks, join projects & invite others to projects, assign each other tasks, and track each projects' budget. Something along the lines of that.

I would my link github, but it has nothing worth showing because all of my finished projects have been for work and are not available on github. I usually learn new skills by simply building out the functionality of that skill and then scrapping the toy project and moving on - I don't see a reason to spend time building stuff out I've done in the past and is not going to be used in this project (allowing users to sign up/in for instance). That may not be the best approach, but it allows me to have fun learning new skills and keeps it interesting.

kellros
Some words of advice:

- Watch this video: http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1

- Have a contract that stipulates what will be delivered and when, when payment is due etc. See this: http://www.docracy.com/topic/1e6bi5l90z/open-source-legal-do...

- Ask a hefty penalty amount for signing non-disclosure agreements (NDA's) - this is crucial for short term contract work

- Charge more. Figure out your hourly rate and average hours per day and extrapolate that out to a weekly rate. I reckon a fair amount is $50 an hour, while still staying very competitive with other software shops. See: http://internationalfreelancersacademy.com/why-you-should-ch...

- Be honest in what you can and can't do. Advise your client to contract out such work, whether it's designing the look and feel, designing logos or write content. Figure out or develop an advantage over other service offerings. Specialization is of key importance in consulting/freelancing work.

- Beware of overly stingy or difficult clients - it's sometimes necessary to fire them!

rankam
Awesome advice - thanks for all of the information! It's really helpful!
cgabios
Working with clients that are savvy enough to do milestone based-work rather than hourly work is another filter that hasn't failed me yet.
kellros
I guess it depends on how averse you are to risk and how long you can go without getting paid.

Never forget that a contract is meant to be negotiated - a contract's first draft typically contains a bunch of unreasonable or vague requests and wishes from the party that created the contract. Don't sign a contract until the vagueness has been clarified or defined.

It's up to you to negotiate the contract in your favor. To put it plain and simple; unless you negotiate a contract in your favor, you're going to have a bad time. Like the video said; if you have no contract, you're left with the sympathy card and that rarely works.

Another bit of advice: Keep track of all communications and have all word-of-mouth agreements put on paper (before you commit to anything, like signing the contract). I keep a projects folder per client containing communications, documents received etc.

Hourly billing only works when you keep a detailed log of what was done. It's definitely a lot easier to get paid for work if you provide a breakdown on what was decided and done. The descriptions should prove as motivations of why the work was necessary.

drallison
When did MVP become synonymous with some sort of web/mobile product?
richardknop
If you could do iOS app, this would be very interesting.
rankam
Hey Everyone - OP here. I've gotten several inquiries from people about my offer and they have all been great. I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments and upvotes that made the post visible as well as everyone who offered advice. I really appreciate it!

-Aaron