Ask HN: An idea for a web develoment collective

[datapimp]

The economy seems to be picking up. I am getting hit left and right with offers to do web development, whether they're from people who just want to hire me on an hourly basis, people who want to retain me for X number of hours a month, or people who are looking for a technical co-founder.

I also have a few of my own ideas I'd like to develop ( but not a lot of money to pay for the things I lack, i.e. good domain names, graphic designers, iphone developers. )

On top of this, I have a decent client base already and am steadily pulling in about 100k a year.

How many other developers are in the same situation? What would be a good model for partnering up with other freelance developers in similar situations?

My thinking is if we combine income, combine clients, and combine man power, we can work a lot more efficiently, and with more security and stability. Having partners with redundant skill sets would also free each other up to go on extended vacations comfortably.

Also we could set aside a few hours a day to work on projects which we own, and which over time turn into a portfolio of money making assets.

Are there any existing collectives like this? Any good models to base this type of organization off of? I'm thinking if successful, we'd want to hire additional people but not necessarily make them equal partners off the bat.

[tonystubblebine]

There are lots of companies like this.

Adaptive Path - been around long enough that many of the original partners have left. Took one foray into product development, MeasureMap (acquired by google).

Pivotal Labs - have one product, Pivotal Tracker, that's been well received but doesn't seem to generate revenue. Good reputation as Rails consultants.

MailChimp - Now just a product but was originally The Rocket Science Group doing web development.

37signals - All product now but originally was a consulting partnership. Not sure what happened to the original partners. Seems like only Jason is still active.

ENTP - Rails consulting and makers of Lighthouse.

I only have anecdotal info on those companies, but have a few thoughts.

The biggest seems to be that you need to have provisions for handling new and leaving partners. For example DHH is new to 37signals but got cut in enough that he now owns a Lamborghini. It seems important that you could allow for that.

On the leaving side, I think at least three of the original Adaptive Path partners have left. AP is still going strong, so you know they did the partnership in a way where they aren't burdened with non-contributing partners taking all the profit.

On the other hand, those three partners left to start their own startups, so there was something in the dynamic where doing product work required leaving. I think this might have been a lesson they learned during MeasureMap. They were so big that only a few people were working on the cool sexy project and I think it might have caused conflict.

I think the other big issue is leadership. I think AP had a rotating CEO position. I guess other partnerships might have a more clear leader. But regardless of the structure, I'm pretty sure that you need to make sure there's a clear and transparent accounting system that everyone buys into. I've heard lots of problems cropping up around financial misunderstanding.

Email me, I'd like to talk more about this: [email protected]

[kls]

I am in the exact same boat, I left my corp job and started looking around for a CTO position with some start-ups (east coast). I started freelancing in the mean time to buy time to find something I really wanted to get into. Did not see anything, so I just continued on with the freelancing. I am doing about 200k a year, but man, I don't think I have seen a week under 80hr in 3 months. I would be interested, but I am rooted in the east coast, I have aging grandparents that I am the caretaker of. If you are looking to do the whole thing distributed, let me know I might be interested.

[datapimp]

Hit me up @soederpop