Sidepact: start a company with a full-time job

[wkoszek]

Hm. I’m a little puzzled. If you can’t meet other people to talk, you’ll have problems forming a firm. So my counter-offer to people reading this: meet with each other for lunch every Sunday. It’ll be $15/lunch. After 12 weeks of lunches you will know if you like the people and whether they have thr skills and can form your team anyway and not give anybody anything, especially the 1%. To find people who care, form a meetup, post on HN and Reddit. If nobody replies after 12 attemps, your idea is wrong and change your idea. This method lets you iterate through 5 ideas a year. If you dont have the idea and like coding - there are hundreds of post on how to find the idea. Ping me if you still have no idea. I can give you hundreds of ideas that I have no time building.

[johnrob]

People used to summarize YC in a similar way. The devil is usually in the details though. I think this program could be valuable to a certain type of aspiring founder.

[sidlls]

Attempting to market to random people seems like it is a different approach, perhaps complementary to this one. To me it seems like Sidepact is essentially acting as the curator of the top of the funnel you describe. They do the work of collecting people interested in doing something, then iterate together until matches are made and ideas are moved further along.

I think this is a better approach for people who say "I don't have an idea". Usually what they mean is that they don't have an idea they think isn't already covered by deeply entrenched incumbents (internet search) or hopelessly swarmed by competition willing to race you past the bottom of (quality x price) you're willing to stop at (games). What these people want is confidence and support to follow-through on them, even if they don't seem good, or to develop that spark that sets your idea apart from the rest, not a list of ideas to work on.

[manderchar]

We really hope that people feel inspired to do that too! We've found that for some founders, having structure and shared commitment go a long way and we'd like to support that part of the process. The equity is also there to ensure that the organization has aligned incentives and skin in the game.

[bmpafa]

> The program charges a $30/week to cover costs and participants must be located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sidepact takes a 1% equity stake in companies from companies formed during program upon incorporation.

[konschubert]

I would have thought that paying the fee would have been enough. A one percent stake seems a bit ... I don't know. They aren't investing or anything, right?

[bmpafa]

PS OP: there's a small typo in this copy on the site that I've edited out here, 'the program is...'

[sidlls]

I'd expect for a 1% stake to get something of value in return, like access to investors (angel and seed stage, not VC) to at least pitch the idea to, office hours with successful other company starters, etc. The $30/week covers what you're offering already and it seems like you get the 1% for basically nothing. On the other hand 1% of most of the companies that come out of this is likely to be worth not much.

[manderchar]

We aim to provide teams access to relevant angel/seed investors on the demo day at the end of the program.

[albertgoeswoof]

> Week 7-11: Build, prototype, and validate your solution with prospective customers

> The time commitment is Sundays 12-6PM for twelve weeks in fall 2018

Is 24 hours really long enough to build something valuable, prototype it and validate it?

When I build things in my spare time it takes me way longer than that... but then I don't write code full time for a living so maybe I'm just slow...

[bmpafa]

I think the usual approach with these 'sprint' methodologies is to use software like InVision, Figma, etc. to mock-up a prototype. No sense coding before you've got proof positive that users will care, the thinking goes.

See: http://www.gv.com/sprint/

[rozenmd]

Often times you don't have to build anything to validate an idea. Talk to potential users and get a commitment to pay for a product.

[manderchar]

We anticipate that mileage will vary by team, and that we'll support teams to reach these milestones. This includes helping find those customers and prioritizing feature development.

[dang]

It isn't cool to try to boost your post with promotional upvotes, whether from sockpuppet accounts or friends. That is against the rules here (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html) and we ban or penalize accounts and sites that do it.

[anitil]

Out of interest, how did you pick it up? (I understand you may not want to reveal this)

[andrewstuart]

I would have thought that many companies have intellectual property clauses that grant ownership of all IP to the employer, whether that IP is created on company or personal time.

How do you address this?

[lazaroclapp]

Depends where you live. California law renders those clauses null as long as the IP is generated outside of work, without use of employer equipment, facilities, internal knowledge or other IP already belonging to the employer. There are some potential issues if the side work "relates to the employer's business", so running any specific plan through a real lawyer is a good idea at some point. But, as far as I have heard, doing this is not uncommon when the side-project does not compete with the employer in any way.

IANAL. For specifics, see § 2870: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

Presumably some other jurisdictions have similar laws, and that is a factor in your job search if you are planning to work on anything on the side: pick a location with laws that allow this. Failing that, you can negotiate to retain IP on existing side-projects when you join a company, as an amendment to your contract.

[quaunaut]

In many parts of the country, this is effectively unenforceable. California, for example.

[manderchar]

Cofounders of Sidepact here.

We’re looking for ambitious engineers with or without full-time jobs, who want to start a company. Sidepact does the work of matching you with a team and establishing shared commitment on a meaningful problem. It’s like an extended hackathon, with the goal of bringing you to the validation and launch of your startup.

That’s our vision, and we hope you’ll join us!

[denverkarma]

Sounds like you’re trying to network people who want to “do something” but don’t have anything in-flight. How do you feel about engineers who already have a side hustle going and would like to find help to ramp it up?

[scottydelta]

Will you be open to someone who can drive every Saturday for 12 weeks to SF?

[unicornfactory]

I sense that this aims at solving the existential crises that a lot of young engineers at FAMGA are having.

[patrickxie]

This is a great idea. Can I apply with the following profile?

Entrepreneur currently working on scaling a startup I founded a year ago. Have a list of business ideas would like to pursue. Assembling a team is the biggest challenge.

Have skills in taking a product from idea to market fit. (technical + marketing)

[manderchar]

Yes, you fit the bill! :) We ask that you come in with an open mind to others' ideas and share the ownership of what you build together.

[vinceguidry]

This is very interesting to me. Not in SF, so I can't take advantage, but I'd certainly strongly consider an incubator service focusing on currently employed entrepreneurs.

[RobLach]

Man, this would be great way to soak up a bunch of concepts and then hire out a team of full-timers if those hobbyist founders happen to gain some traction.

[thebigtree]

Wish there was one for non engineers

[albertgoeswoof]

Given that there's no formal qualification as an engineer you could probably just show up and get away without writing any code...

[dexterdog]

Wish there was one for non bay area people done remotely

[manderchar]

That would be awesome. Maybe you can start one :)

[johnwheeler]

how do you get them to keep paying you the 30 weekly fee? how long do they have to pay it for?

[manderchar]

The program is 12 weeks, so the fee extends through that duration. At the end of the 12 weeks, there's a demo day (similar to YC). The fee aims to cover basic venue costs, snacks, and shared social events to build camaraderie.

[ThatHNGuy]

but how can I run a company if I have no time after my full-time job?