NO money. Get your idea built for nothing!

[CryptO]

About 1 year ago I had a project for a game that still hadn't been done yet and there seemed to be a market for.

After getting in contact with many developers I had quotes ranging from $5000 to $10000

I decided that I couldn't take the risk and I cancelled the project and my project went back to sleep.

Anyway. On another forum I got chatting to somebody about something or other then discovered this person is a talented programmer who has done some interesting work already and has a successful lead gen business.

It suddenly stuck me that maybe this person would like my idea. So I pitched it too him on Skype.

He liked it enough to commit programming time (for free) so I offered him 50%

What have I got to loose. All I had was an idea, a plan and the domain name that matches the name of the game.

We are already about 4 hours in and have agreed to spend an hour a night on the project.

So there you go.

If you have any ideas lying about opportunity may come up and you may find yourself able to get them off the ground for absolutely nothing.

You just have to ask the right person at the right moment.

 

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[BrucetonGuy]

(for free) so I offered him 50%

Technically not for free.....he is getting 50% of potential profits. However, congrats on making the "hookup". Best of luck on the project!

 

[TK1]

Felix Dennis' #1 rule of entrepreneurship: It's all about ownership

 

[CommonCents]

I just did similar on a web project, knowing I'd never get my idea done by myself, I partnered with someone who I know is competent. He'll do all the programming side and I have the biz stuff, equal money put in. The money part is impt, because it gives people something to lose and real skin in the game.

 

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[AndrewNC]

Felix Dennis' #1 rule of entrepreneurship: It's all about ownership

That is very true, but on the other end of things. 50% of something big is better than 100% of nothing. Not disagreeing with you, just stating another perspective.

 

[CryptO]

I think knowledge needs to be applied carefully otherwise it can cause you road bumps you may never get around.

If I said to Felix Dennis.

What is better?

100% ownership of my rediculous brainfart

Or

50% of a fully coded game that is out there.

I wonder what he would say?

 

[1PercentStreet]

Any contracts? NDA? Non-Compete?

 

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[deepestblue]

Don't quote this but I think Felix is in 33% with his partners in his US businesses (including MAXIM until its recent sale). But yeah I think his point was when you are starting out, carry 100% or as close to it as you can (which is what he did with his UK businesses IIRC) because when you sell you don't want to have to split the profits 100000 ways or 50%.

In any case, 50.00000000001% is enormously better than 50% and infinitely better than 49.9999999999%.

 

[H. Palmer]

50 percent of what?

Revenue, earnings?

What if the game doesn't turn out successful and needs tweaking? Does his share go up to 75 percent?

What if is it successful and could use another investor? Does his share dilute as much as yours?

Is your agreement in writing?

And how do you provide transparancy to your partner?

Not to discourage you but have you thought this through?

 

[CryptO]

I am on my mobile which is not ideal for posting.

I will discuss the exact details of ownership when we Skype this evening. Thanks for the concern but the objective of my making this thread was to say that it is possible to start a project with no capital whatsoever.

If you have a great idea but no capital. Get networking and doors will open! It is up to you to negotiate your equity.

 

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[EastWind]

Felix Dennis' #1 rule of entrepreneurship: It's all about ownership

Life rules - There are no rules, The only rules that matter are the rules you create.

Sometimes a piece of a larger pie is much bigger than the whole pie, where the whole pie is a smaller pie.
He couldn't make it happen on his own, so it was worth giving up ownership.

 

[hlopez22]

It's better to have 50% of something than 100% of nothing. I am in the same situation I have a great app idea (I know I know, everybody says that) but I really feel like its a game changer except I don't know how to write in Objective C and have been considering exchanging equity for programming.

 

[mayana]

During negotiations, it's better to start from the bottom and work up (i.e. offer 5% ownership based on the plan that the company will someday be worth $250,000,000 - that's a great return based on a few months or weeks of work). If you start negotiating at 50%, it puts you in a weaker position moving forward.

That said, I think it's great that you've gotten started and I definitely agree that most people would agree that owning 50% of a $25 million company is better than owning 100% of a brainfart. I'm with you there

 

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[AMCarbonaro]

I would have offered 49%

 

[CryptO]

I'm sure I could talk myself back another few percent.

But I like and respect the guy for the risk he is prepared to take with me so I think he deserves to get a good deal.

 

[CommonCents]

Whatever you do, just make sure you have an operating agreement in place BEFORE you get down the road. This is a huge mistake many make, including myself, having learned a hard lesson years ago.

They cover who's going to do what, under various contingencies. Several templates out there to get you started.

Here is a good summary article on taking on a partner:

Bringing on a Business Partner? Avoid This Common Mistake | Entrepreneur.com

 

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[CryptO]

Whatever you do, just make sure you have an operating agreement in place BEFORE you get down the road. This is a huge mistake many make, including myself, having learned a hard lesson years ago.

They cover who's going to do what, under various contingencies. Several templates out there to get you started.

Here is a good summary article on taking on a partner:

Bringing on a Business Partner? Avoid This Common Mistake | Entrepreneur.com

Ok, I will get an operating agreement in place asap and I'll look at that article.

Speed +

 

[amgchristian]

Awesome but risky. He can walk away with your idea because he's the one that knows programming.

 

[CryptO]

The coding is pretty much finished.

I managed to find somebody to do the graphics for ZERO CASH - that is the idea of this project (so I can't complain) - Well, I have given the artist an I O U for some writing work but no money changed hands. He's happy with that!

This is an image of the homepage. Do we need to get the graphics improved? Shall we proceed with this?

 

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[tincho1492]

It looks good. What about adding a subtle pattern so it don't look so plain.

 

[CryptO]

It looks good. What about adding a subtle pattern so it don't look so plain.

Okay, I see what you mean, maybe some kind of faint green dollar signs or squiggles? - tilled in the background

 

[CryptO]

Felix Dennis' #1 rule of entrepreneurship: It's all about ownership

He also says

"I couldn't have done it without my partners"

 

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[yahdmon]

Agree totally and going forward that should be the most any smartlane person offers. We ought to want control and in this case, almost all cases for that matter -- 50/50 does not make for good business.

Since that is already the agreement, you need a tie-breaker, someone both of you can agree to break an impass if that ever becomes an issue.

I would have offered 49%

Congrats on taking action also. I don't know what your product is but I get the feeling it will succeed. Send me a note when you are ready for investors beyond the development work ;-)

 

[CryptO]

pm sent

 

[CryptO]

How about this?

 

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[MCD]

I like that, the blue really makes the Pokeage logo standout.

 

[tincho1492]

Do you think that placing the "How old do I look?" text above the image makes sense? So the user don't have to scroll to the bottom of the page to know what the page is about.

 

[CryptO]

Ok we can try that. Thanks

 

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[CryptO]

My talented partner has introduced some functionality to the homepage.

You can see our progress at

PokeAge - The Age Guessing Game!

We are using something called Ajax, which means that between guesses there is no refreshing of the page to add a new photo. This means it loads fast - check it out!

The inside pages are going to include - Lobby room, purchase chips screen, chat funcionality, invite friends, p0ker style tables for competing against fellow pokeage players, from low to VIP stakes, face recognition for detecting if the uploaded photo is suitable or not! and much more

We have a good feeling about this one.

At this early stage there is somebody interested in investing (and we didn't even ask for that).

 

[DennisD]

My talented partner has introduced some functionality to the homepage.

You can see our progress at

PokeAge - The Age Guessing Game!

We are using something called Ajax, which means that between guesses there is no refreshing of the page to add a new photo. This means it loads fast - check it out!

The inside pages are going to include - Lobby room, purchase chips screen, chat funcionality, invite friends, p0ker style tables for competing against fellow pokeage players, from low to VIP stakes, face recognition for detecting if the uploaded photo is suitable or not! and much more

We have a good feeling about this one.

At this early stage there is somebody interested in investing (and we didn't even ask for that).

Well congrats! I love the new background looks very good.

When I hired my coder I didnt want to offer him a share of the profits... so as he does work and sends invoices... I find creative ways of coming up with the money (landscaping work, selling ebooks, writing on textbroker, adsense) and everything's been working out so far for me.

I'm on my kindle so i couldnt check out the site... from afar it looked a lot like "poker age" though. How will you promote this?

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2