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Accepting free help for my closed source project from stranger
Hello everyone!
Today I received a suggestion from a Reddit user offering to help with my project (polidict.com) for free, without any expectation of future revenue, just to gain experience in creating end-to-end products.
My project currently has 0 revenue and no active users. The code is in a private repo. I work full-time, so I can’t dedicate much time to it.
The worst-case scenario is that someone could steal the project, but it currently doesn’t have any value. On the other hand, if everything goes well, I’ll get some much-needed help.
What do you think about this?
Today I received a suggestion from a Reddit user offering to help with my project (polidict.com) for free, without any expectation of future revenue, just to gain experience in creating end-to-end products.
My project currently has 0 revenue and no active users. The code is in a private repo. I work full-time, so I can’t dedicate much time to it.
The worst-case scenario is that someone could steal the project, but it currently doesn’t have any value. On the other hand, if everything goes well, I’ll get some much-needed help.
What do you think about this?
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Interesting. This is a 50-50 problem in my opinion. Are you able to do a background check maybe?
I can try. GitHub looks real, but still anonymized
Gotcha. I'm not pessimistic but I always try to think about the worst. In your case the user could gain your trust via this first "gig" and then he could have bad intentions in the future. Like a social engineering scam. But this seems really far-fetched.
I would not trust a stanger on the internet.
I don't get why he would not create something by himself to gain experience.
Worst case he'll steal your project.
Best case he'll make changes but you will waste time reviewing his code.
I've had volunteers like this on several projects, and it can work out great. I'd suggest doing some research on them (i.e. the background checks already suggested), and possibly having them sign an NDA. You can have GPT write one for you, and it would get you some more information about the person (address, real name). If they're not willing to share that, it'll be a 🚩
Which area of expertise can they help to improve your project? Do you feel you're lacking in that area?
I hardly ever meet people on Reddit, but if I do, I'll move our conversation to a more appropriate place, like LinkedIn DM, so I can see their profiles. You can tell it's easier to track as well, which is true.
I don't know, make them work for a bit.
It’s not about area of expertise. I might benefit from having external contributions, just because I work full time and can’t do enough features/polishing that may benefit my users.
And yeah, of course we will move to DM / other platforms once we agree about the future plans.
Good to know then. Seems like you already know what to do.💪
So here's the thing: Ideas are cheap. It's the execution that matters. It doesn't sound like your project has a lot in the way of execution right now, so if you were going to get help on it, now would be the time.
Even if he steals the idea, he'd still have to execute on it.
If you're wary, you can make a contract.
I know he said he'd be okay getting nothing except experience, but I'd personally feel weird about that. I'd come up with some type of payment structure (or even equity) once you start monetizing. That way you don't have to pay before it's monetized, but you're also honoring his contribution.
Again, that's something to put in a contract.