The What
There is a small cute neighborhood in the middle of Tel-Aviv. As I was walking there a few nights back a strange though struck me. I was on a long alley, with every other building having either a small coffee-shop, a bar or a restaurant. And surprisingly, they were all packed full.
And that reminded me of another place, very similar but with a very important difference: “The internet”
The Internet is not unlike a huge mall. It is packed full of tiny niche stores (startups) trying to make it big (or small). And as any self-respecting small business, they will all burn a bunch of capital (usually time in this case) and close down if enough customers don’t show up. But unlike that little alley, most of them are almost empty now. Hardly a customer in sight. There are simply too many businesses and too few clients here. Too many niche coffee shops and tiny “vintage water bottle” businesses. In the restaurant business, people would tell you it is insane to open another tiny “mom’s breads” place. But the young entrepreneurs keep on coming, with the bright light of belief in their eyes.
At first I was sad, so many talented developers, investing so much of their time and effort. And all fighting for the same small crowd. Instead of working for hire and making huge salaries, they invest that time into projects that, for the vast majority, will not cover the investment. Thousands of programmer hours being thrown in vain..
But then the opportunistic entrepreneur in me woke up and slapped me hard, square on the face. Those millions of dollars in engineering fees are not really disappearing. They are actively being consumed by people like.. me. I am the direct benifactor, the one who keeps getting top quality work for virtually free.
The How
I already have about 5 different companies that I pay 10-20$ a month, for different services that would of taken me months to implement.
And the amazing bit ? They are working so hard to get customers and improve their product. That if something is missing from their offering, a quick email, and a few weeks later I have the features I want. For FREE!
Just imagine going to the local restaurant, paying 10% of the bill and getting the cook to add that custom vanilla and pepperoni sandwich that you love so much. Sounds crazy ? Well not in the current Internet world.
Sure it might look like a win-win situation. I get a product I need for ultra-low cost. They get a paying customer and improve their offering. But I still feel a little bad. Because I know that most of them will never makeup for the time and heart they invested.
But for now I got teams of brilliant people working for me, and that, at only ~2,000$ / year.
Now that’s a GOOD deal.
“I already have about 5 different companies that I pay 10-20$ a month, for different services that would of taken me months to implement.”
Like whom? What sort of services? Could you please elaborate?
That’s a steal. You can’t get somebody to work for you at $2000 a month here. Forget about a year.
Sounds interesting. Could you give some examples? What services should I be thinking of?
@Josepth @DXL
- The large, cheap and most time saving: GitHub, MailChimp & WebFaction
- The small and “bendy” – a bunch of analytics (real-time chat & satisfaction/feedback forms)
How do we get in contact with these developers? Could you recommend any.
@Sarwar Its not about developers working for free. Its about small startups that provide 80% of what you need, willing to do the extra 20% at no charge.
Yep – small business philosophy – I help small business’ by being affordable and also reduce hourly rates for retainer contracts – By working fully web-based overheads are minimal. Interesting point about retainers – hours go down as well as up eg a 40 hour monthly retainer – between 27 hours upto 78 hours but averages out at 44 hours over the year – so another saving of 4 hours.
And when those small startups go out of business the services on which you depend will probably cease to exist and you’ll need to scramble to replace them.