If I had a dollar for every "idea guy" who's pitched me on writing his great iPhone app for free (excuse me, for "equity"), I'd have...well, probably about $10.

A friend of mine wanted to sell me an idea. I laughed in his face and said "I have a list of at least 50 of my own ideas I can work on right now. There's no shortage of ideas. No one pays for ideas, they pay for work".

Oh, yeah.

Sometimes, though, they're friends and relatives who just aren't aware of how much work is involved. I don't want to be mean to them.

I usually just ask them how much capital they have to invest in the joint venture. That's typically the end of it. :-)

"Idea guys" who ask you to write their app for free, but not before signing their NDA, of course.

O

You know, for kids.

◯

You've got a bright future, kid.

As opposed to those mindless workers who don't think except when on a time clock.

Hey quit looking at the clock.

Your comments aren't doing you any favors. If what they're saying is bullshit, then shut up and don't give 'em the satisfaction (what do you have to prove?). If they're right, then consider what they have to say and act on it appropriately.

If he was in the states and not anonymous, this guy could be sued for "requiring" people to work more than 40 hours a week, which is illegal by federal law even for exempt positions. In an exempt position, the worker can decide to work more than or even less than 40, depending on need, but its their decision to make (hence exempt...), and if a manager/owner were to make that a requirement, they would find themselves in court very quickly, even if they made a statement to that effect. Hope parent is not in the states, has a good lawyer, or is anonymous.

Yeah you're right. I was hoping to engage in a productive discussion on the topic, but it's not happening.

For what it's worth, your comments lead me to think you might benefit from some introspection. Burn the thesaurus and whatever business books you're reading, too. I intend only exactly as much disrespect as the preceding sentences would indicate and admire your entrepreneurship despite it.

I wouldn't call this guy an entrepreneur, he's more like a greedy sweatshop master.

>I'm an idea guy

>learning how to code

>WordPress plugins

>iPhone apps like Santa Strike.

lol you wonder why

True, but only to a degree. Are you the "idea guy" (in addition to coding) or is everyone expected to produce good ideas and those are vetted by a group of smart people? Too many founders think they have some exclusive intelligence that is apart from everyone else which is a conceit that usually leads to unfortunate results.

I suspect I have more time in startups both successful and failures than you, and while no one knows every way to succeed they certainly can detect the patterns of failure. The hardest thing for any founder is to recognize the wisdom of their own employees.

I wrote that part of my profile as a way to say that I love coming up with ideas and putting a small team together in order to build them so we can test their merits. At the time, we had a lot of products and I couldn't lead them all (from a development standpoint).

That's changed as we have shifted focus to fewer ideas and better execution. We maintain a list of things we want to build, and vet every idea that comes our way, be it from a founder, an employee, or a customer.

That said, someone has to be the guy to draw the line in the sand.

Also, FWIW, I spend the majority of my working day writing code.

I love coming up with ideas and executing on them as well, but that's not what provides value in the particular role I'm in at present. It is a good sign that you are worrying less about ideas and more about execution, especially since most businesses revolve around one good idea that needs focused execution at the expense of "things that would be a good idea 6-12 months from now", because a business is what it is at a particular point in time regardless of the end-goal vision.

And yes, at times lines need to be drawn in the sand but those are pretty rare times when you have a good group of smart people and usually involve breaking impasses when there is no clear consensus. There's also the whole "I have a responsibility to shareholders at the end of the day" duty that many employees do not feel, but too often founders use both of these as excuses for "I think X, so it must be so" rather than questioning themselves in the face of disagreement with a group of people you brought on board because of their skills and intellects.

Frankly, I imbue no magical powers to writing code when it comes to founders of tech companies because often the tech is the least difficult problem to address. I know, I know, I speak heresy given the venue but I can code a great product far easier than what is required to build a good marketing campaign and sales strategy, and I at least can depend on my bash/vi session to be predictable unlike those that have to venture out into the customer acquisition arena with all its unpredictability.

Do you have a team of coding mercenaries? I am now quite curious about your company. Did you assemble a team to execute ideas for other founders? That seems like a pretty solid industry, if that's the case.

Edit: just saw some of you other posts, thanks for the info.

You can spend over 8 hours a day, average, writing code? That doesn't seems sustainable to me .