Likewise, I’d ask: how do you find a serious entrepreneur?
I’m an Embedded Software Engineer. Few years back I’ve been approached by a wannabe entrepreneur, with a great plan to build a product.
Everything started with a discussion on LinkedIn, then some Zoom, then a word document, 9-10 pages long, containing a set of system requirements. The guy had worked in the same field as myself (automotive) and he knew at least how to write down such requirements. That was a big plus. Nonetheless, that was the only input.
I’ve spent a lot of time to setup a complete project structure, laid down proper software requirements, created some initial design documents, set up Bitbucket/JIRA/Confluence ecosystem, created first demo software, prepared the deliverables and then…he said that plans are changed indefinitely as he got a nice offer from a big company and he’ll get back into full time employment 😐 That was it.
He did pay something for my work, but an infinitesimal value, compared to what I’ve done.
Now, you’d say that I was naive not to charge per hour, but bear in mind that I wasn’t a freelancer and I wanted to literally join in as a “partner” on the embedded software side with a hope to achieve something greater on the long run. I basically ended up doing some 4-5 weeks of evening/weekend work, almost for free. That work was done on my spare time.
Likewise, I’d ask: how do you find a serious entrepreneur?
I’m an Embedded Software Engineer. Few years back I’ve been approached by a wannabe entrepreneur, with a great plan to build a product. Everything started with a discussion on LinkedIn, then some Zoom, then a word document, 9-10 pages long, containing a set of system requirements. The guy had worked in the same field as myself (automotive) and he knew at least how to write down such requirements. That was a big plus. Nonetheless, that was the only input.
I’ve spent a lot of time to setup a complete project structure, laid down proper software requirements, created some initial design documents, set up Bitbucket/JIRA/Confluence ecosystem, created first demo software, prepared the deliverables and then…he said that plans are changed indefinitely as he got a nice offer from a big company and he’ll get back into full time employment 😐 That was it. He did pay something for my work, but an infinitesimal value, compared to what I’ve done.
Now, you’d say that I was naive not to charge per hour, but bear in mind that I wasn’t a freelancer and I wanted to literally join in as a “partner” on the embedded software side with a hope to achieve something greater on the long run. I basically ended up doing some 4-5 weeks of evening/weekend work, almost for free. That work was done on my spare time.
Since then, I’ve stayed away of such “promises” 🤭