This looks like a cool op. 99.9% of people can't afford to do a startup unless it has near-zero costs.

Of course, a lot of what makes startups succeed is scarcity of resources and fear of imminent and public failure. You're taking that away and functionally creating an incubator, which have long histories of producing mediocre startups/products.

If I were you, I'd adjust it to: 1) Pay bread/water wages. 2) Give them skin in the game (equity). As much as you can stand. 3) Tell them they have 6 months to build something people want/like or their salary goes to zero and they can continue on like any other entrepreneur (for the love/belief in the project and the hope that they can make it go big). 4) Hire 2 people, not one.

Interesting. I am willing to do exactly this if more feedback comes in supporting it vs what I'm currently proposing. Thanks Tony.

I agree, for what it's worth. Fear is an essential component to the mix.

One thing I'd add -- building something people want isn't a silver bullet. Building something people want enough that there's value generated is. Mixing that up, which is way, way too often done on this site, is fatal.

This doesn't make any sense to me. What do you get out of it? What do you require of said hacker? Do want partial ownership or just someone to bounce ideas off of? What do you mean by in-residence combined with we-don't-care-where-you-live?

There's really not enough info there for someone to decide if it's interesting or not.

What do you get out of it?: Great products/apps What do you require of said hacker?: Build Interesting Stuff Do want partial ownership or just someone to bounce ideas off of?: Partial Ownership. What do you mean by in-residence combined with we-don't-care-where-you-live? It means you're a part of our existing company charged with acting & creating like an entrepreneur. Basically you get a salary to work on your cool ideas.

Ok, now I get it. You're more or less looking to hire a zany creative person to bring in some creative energy. Which is cool.

That said, in my opinion, the suspense, and really, the hard part, of being an entrepreneur is figuring out how to get a business to fly. Ideas and implementing them is the easy part. :-)

My feeling and experience has been that you have to iterate through enough ideas until you find one that actually works. Good ideas fail too.

Process most people follow: Step 1: Great idea Step 2: Find people to build it

Process smart people follow: Step 1: Great people Step 2: Find something to build

Process only stupid people follow: jump into something without having any idea what it is.

I think the poster means well, and good on him for that, but there needs to be more information if he wants to attract folks.

I'm adding info from feedback. This is a new idea for me so it's difficult to anticipate what people want to know.

Also, I'm not exactly stupid, just willing to take a risk.

Oh, I wasn't implying that you're stupid -- just that anyone would be to get particularly excited about your idea with the original info. :-)

Gotcha. I'm hoping to flesh our more details from feedback.

Tis days like these I kick myself for never getting any of my hobby projects into a psuedo-finish, presentable state...

Indeed. Finishing is a key characteristic.

Seems like the normal thing. From your blog: "You can't be normal and expect abnormal returns". Advice: open your mind. Some people are amazing at starting great things but not so good at finishing them. If you can balance that out, you win.

Out of curiosity, I presume the reason why you want a "young hacker" is because you can't afford an older one?

LOL no. Just someone who hasn't a lot of pre-conceived ideas of what is/isn't possible. We have those already. LOL

This is essentially like the patronage movement Giles talked about in one of his talks, eh?

Cool idea, good luck!

Whats the deal? Are you looking for an engineer or a partner for your firm

I'm looking for someone who creates cool apps to develop them in my company. If they're a hit we spin them out.

does it pay as much as being a real EIR?