Please Pitch Me A Win Win Venture

In my post yesterday, I asked that you not pitch me one sided ventures. Today, I’m asking you to pitch me win win ventures.

Let me start by saying, lot’s of programmers, designers, and other freelancers, are looking for great projects. They want to be part of something as big and bad as you do. Let’s work together to make that happen. I love bootstrapping. It’s the fastest way to get a company off the ground. Synergy, and a good plan, can overcome most obstacles.

I love exploring new ideas. A few weeks ago I attended the Kynetx Impact Conference, and the ideas were flowing all around me. Everyone seemed to have some idea how they could leverage the Kynetx API. I heard some excellent ideas. I even had one. It didn’t turn out to be something Kynetx was suited for, but I was encouraged to explore my idea thoroughly.

I can always get a sense of how good an idea I have when I run it by a few of my good friends. When they give me the “huh, that sounds interesting” response, I know I haven’t communicated my idea well enough, or it totally sucks and I need to go back to the drawing board.

I’ll use an example of someone pitching me an idea, and how they were successful at getting me on board. It started very out innocent. We met for a lunch. We talked about the idea, we sketched some things on paper, we talked about the holes, we talked about the market, we talked about the competitors. We really didn’t talk much about a product. We talked about a vision and an idea.

Then we met a few days later, this time with the understanding we would discuss a project. After about twenty minutes of hearing the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment this person has made in getting his project off the ground, I was sold. I would have done just about anything he asked. He even eked out a prototype on his own. Rudimentary as it was, I could tell he had put a lot of thought into it.

I would love to hear your ideas. I would love to help you get those ideas off the ground. I would be glad to connect you with people who have the means and ability to rock your project. I’m committed to helping others succeed. Because when you succeed, I succeed.

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Please Don’t Pitch Me A One Sided Venture

What is a one sided venture? It goes like this:

I understand you’re are a programmer? Well, I have this great idea for a product, it will be the next killer app, all I need you to do is sign this NDA, write a few thousand lines of code, and take a five percent equity stake in the company. I’ll do the rest.

That is a one sided venture. Why? Because the programmer is doing all the work, for air, and hoping you can do your job; sell the product to investors or customers.

I get this type of proposal at least once a week, if not more. I’m sure there are many projects that have had success with this model. But for the one that succeeds, thousands never make it off the floor.

I would love to have someone pitch me a venture where I’m offered compensation up front for the work I do, AND a stake in the company. Then everyone has skin in the game. Why do people think programmers should take such a risk? Show me you’ve got something invested in the venture besides the idea. Those are cheap, and I hear hundreds of ideas a year. For heaven sakes, I have hundreds of ideas.

That brings me to non disclosure agreements, or NDA’s. If I can get away without signing one, I will. When a lawyer tells you not to discuss your idea with anyone until they sign the NDA, they are smoking crack. Asking me to sign an NDA really tells me the idea isn’t that solid, or you think you’re the only one on the planet with the idea, which of course probably isn’t true. If not signing an NDA keeps me from accepting a project, most of the time it’s ok with me.

Look, if I had time to steal ideas, you would already know that about me before we spoke, which means you wouldn’t be talking with me in the first place. And if it came right down to me signing one, I would probably ask you to sign an agreement giving me full and exclusive rights to any code written. Seems only fair no?

All I’m asking is if you’re in the market for a freelancer to help get your project off the ground, don’t go in expecting they will fall all over themselves to help you, for free. Use some common sense. Show us that you are serious about the product and business. We’ll play ball if the venture seems legit, and you have a proven track record too.

In full disclosure, I’ve excepted work on speculation in the past, but I’ve always tried to give something tangible back in return. I would never expect to get something for free, and use it in a project I am making money on.

[off my soap box, let the flames begin]

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Looks Like Fancy Commenting Systems Don’t Rule

Over the past week I have been running a poll asking what WordPress commenting systems people like. The options were Disqus, IntenseDebate, Native – built in, or None. Here is how it broke down:

• 59% of respondents preferred native commenting to a third party system.
• 25% of respondents preferred Disqus.
• 16% of respondents preferred IntenseDebate.

These are completely un-scientific results. I’ll continue to run the poll to see if I can get more results, and I’ll update this post, or if the overall results change, I’ll write up something new.

What I find interesting is those who answered picked the native commenting system. Some of the things I would like to know is why? With the third party commenting systems providing log-ins for Facebook, Twitter, OpenID and others, the appeal to use these Social Network links doesn’t seem to be a draw.

I don’t particularly care one way or the other what commenting systems people use. I have Disqus installed on this blog, if for no other reason than I like being able to track and manage my comments on this and other sites who use Disqus.

Here’s a thought though. It would be cool to use a Gravatar type system, where your comments are tied to your email address, pinged back to a service, and then you can manage and track your comments on a wider range of sites.

My friend Scott Lemon (@humancell) also suggested another commenting system called Echo, you get more information on it here http://js-kit.com/.

If you would like to participate in my poll, please check it out here http://ow.ly/Hxj1.

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Vooks Will Crush eBooks

I paid for and downloaded my first Vook, Crush It!, an ebook with embeded digital media, like videos.

The funny thing is I already own the physical Crush It! book, and have read it twice. But the added value of watching videos from Gary Vanerchuk, which gives the book enormous value.

I would really like to see Vooks available for all mobile platforms. You can buy a Vook for the computer desktop, which is still pretty cool, and watching the videos is much nicer on a large screen.

Vooks will crush eBooks. Once authors and publishers see the possibilities Vooks have over eBooks, value will increase for the reader and drive more profits to the author and publisher.

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WordPress Releases New iPhone App

This post is really a test using the new WordPress iPhone App, http://iphone.wordpress.org, version 2.1. I really want to test the picture upload feature.

You do have the ability to manage comments, but if you use a comment plugin system like Disqus, you can't moderate those comments.

I do like that you can create pages with this tool. I also like that I can manage multiple blogs.

I don't like that I can't insert a place holder god a photo, so I have no idea how the format will look. And how do create a linked word? Doesn't seem exist.

This is a great tool for creating quick, non-complicated posts.

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