D
DeletedUser397
Guest
Haven't logged on in a while because I've been super busy with a startup project. I think the idea is excellent, it's already won a startup contest and was recently written about in the local paper. However, there's some concerns I have, and was hoping to get some thoughts / feedback.
I initially got involved during a startup contest event, because the 2 founders of the startup pitched a very similar idea as mine, so we decided to partner up. But during the startup contest, they focused on building a mobile app, and being that I'm a web developer, I didn't feel like I was contributing at all, so I bailed on them. Their team ended up winning the startup contest.
Fast forward a month later, and they decide that the mobile app wasn't where they wanted to start at (the mobile app builders dropped out of the team too), and they really need a web app, and want me back on as the developer. I got excited by the potential of it all, and started putting forth about 20hrs a week (in addition to working about 45hrs a week at my day job). Meanwhile, the 2 founders said they were working on an equity plan. Now here's the problem...
There are a total of about 14 people on the team. A couple freshman college students, a few professionals who work day jobs (like myself), and the 2 founders. Their strategy seems to be to sell the business or try to get investing in about a year. Right now they're looking for $300k-$1M for initial. But then the investor won't necessarily be an angel investor, meaning they take a chunk themselves. My main issue is that with a team this big, even if I get 10%, it wouldn't be worth squat unless they get like $10M, which then makes me question whether the idea and our execution can even lead us there or not.
So therein lies the problem. I would have been absolutely thrilled if it was a 3-4 person team, max. But 14?! It's too big. They seem to be wanting to do everything all at once... web app, mobile apps for various platforms, etc. and scope creep seems to be an issue. No equity plan has materialized yet, and I'm wondering if I should stick with this.
I'll definitely stick in it until we build a prototype for some local presentation that's coming up in about a week, but after that I think I may pull a 'Zuckerberg' and run the idea on my own. Especially given that I've written all the code so far (if anything, it's been a good under-pressure learning experience').
I initially got involved during a startup contest event, because the 2 founders of the startup pitched a very similar idea as mine, so we decided to partner up. But during the startup contest, they focused on building a mobile app, and being that I'm a web developer, I didn't feel like I was contributing at all, so I bailed on them. Their team ended up winning the startup contest.
Fast forward a month later, and they decide that the mobile app wasn't where they wanted to start at (the mobile app builders dropped out of the team too), and they really need a web app, and want me back on as the developer. I got excited by the potential of it all, and started putting forth about 20hrs a week (in addition to working about 45hrs a week at my day job). Meanwhile, the 2 founders said they were working on an equity plan. Now here's the problem...
There are a total of about 14 people on the team. A couple freshman college students, a few professionals who work day jobs (like myself), and the 2 founders. Their strategy seems to be to sell the business or try to get investing in about a year. Right now they're looking for $300k-$1M for initial. But then the investor won't necessarily be an angel investor, meaning they take a chunk themselves. My main issue is that with a team this big, even if I get 10%, it wouldn't be worth squat unless they get like $10M, which then makes me question whether the idea and our execution can even lead us there or not.
So therein lies the problem. I would have been absolutely thrilled if it was a 3-4 person team, max. But 14?! It's too big. They seem to be wanting to do everything all at once... web app, mobile apps for various platforms, etc. and scope creep seems to be an issue. No equity plan has materialized yet, and I'm wondering if I should stick with this.
I'll definitely stick in it until we build a prototype for some local presentation that's coming up in about a week, but after that I think I may pull a 'Zuckerberg' and run the idea on my own. Especially given that I've written all the code so far (if anything, it's been a good under-pressure learning experience').
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