Community Project II

[rshindel]

I have been reading the thread on a proposed community-programming project. I am launching a company in the eHealth space, using a disbursed group of senior professionals working part time contributing “sweat equity” to get us from concept to launch. I’ve covered all the necessary operational areas (sales, finance, marketing etc) except for IT. I am looking for a project manager and a group of programmers that can create the IT piece of the project. It strikes me that, while not most cutting edge project, this would be an ideal project for your community to take on. It is very focused, of only moderate duration, provides for a significant “equity” position and most importantly, if we can launch this company with the distributed model we are using, we can clone the process, to help other quality projects, which cannot raise seed capital, get to market. Your thoughts? or email directly me at rshindell@HealtheTechnologies.com

[zachogden]

WaitWait. So what do you want us to help you do? Are you proposing we make something cool, and then your company uses it for your own use? Maybe I'm confused.

[rshindel]

Well yes, except the programmers who developed the product would have an ownership position in the company, so it would be, not for my company’s use but for OUR use!

And… as I said, if I can pull this off, we can use the same model to launch other technology-based companies. I believe we can have an impact on job creation within the technology community. So I think I am proposing a win-win-win situation.

[iDxMan]

Sounds like the below link (assuming that's you) has a few more details, but the entire thing sounds too vague.

http://www.killersites.com/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=1356#7424

-r

[rshindel]

Yes at this point I have been vauge. Before further disclosure, I wanted to float the trial ballon. When I get substantive interest we can have a discussion re the details

[rshindel]

Is that link to you? If so we should talk!

[zachogden]

What exactly does it mean to work for equity?

[rshindel]

While we're an LLC vs a Corporation (for a variety of organizational, risk, and tax reasons), the "group" of IT professionals will be "issued" ownership positions, in the company, under the same structure as the rest of the founders. Essentially, all the fouders are sharing 2 pools of "stock" of 15% and 20% (pre money) ownership of the company which is being distributed, based on amount of time contributed to launching the company.

[iDxMan]

You mean am I one of the other posters in that thread? No, I just found it in a google search.

-r

[rshindel]

OK.

[zachogden]

Look, I just don't know about this. For starters, you haven't really outlined a product. No one will volunteer to help you unless they know what they're getting into. This whole market-share thingy sounds great, but what will the application be?

[sicarius]

That, and what I am sure you are not stating very clearly is that the equity is only paid once the company is profitable. In other words, your paid staff gets money to manage a product that will never be profitable all the while making use of a cheap if not free labor pool.

Also, I assume that the "founders" get first dibs.

[rshindel]

Very cynical. As I've already stated, everyone is working for sweat equity, not just the "free labot pool" as you describe it. And the "free labor pool" are infact Founders along with everyone else.

Now it is true that no one gets paid for there "sweat equity" until the company is profitable, but that's the nature of a start-up. And it is also true for the money investors when they come in.

[rshindel]

Re Zach's last message:

To give you a brief and very superficial overview of what we are doing, we are a development stage company founded to take advantage of the opportunities presented by merging Web technology with new and innovative enabling technologies, which, when combined, provide a powerful yet cost effective behavior modification system, which can be applied to a number of chronic health issues. Initially the Company is focusing on the related issues of overweight and obesity and diabetes.

We believe that our approach and products are unique in a number of ways:

The products are designed around current, peer reviewed, research and proven efficacy.

Each product is designed around a core protocol that:
Is a combination of Web and enabling technologies that provide multiple contact channels with the client.

Is proactive in contacting clients, to provide intervention and support.

Incorporates a community-building component, to build and communicate with both a virtual and face-to-face support group, for each client.

As with other aspects of our products, we have designed both monitoring and proactive intervention components to encourage participation in the community.

Each product is designed for delivery through multiple distribution channels; ASP / Hosted, Private Label, and the Internet.


While I understand that this information leaves out any real detail, we are currently addressing, internally, the issues of confidentially and non-disclosure, but Igiven this overview, my hope is that we can begin a dialog to our mutual benefit.

[zachogden]

So maybe one of your first products would be a video-conferencing suite? I was just thinking, it talks about "face-to-face support", but sometimes this isn't possible, and there still is a big market for that kind of stuff. Interesting either way. Does your company have a website?

[zachogden]

Oh wait. Its at the top.