marcamillion

I have a very small company and we all work from home. I am trying to setup a seamless backup solution for all of our machines.

I am going to use Dropbox Pro to sync all of our important stuff, but we have large media files that we need backed up.

I want to get a dedicated server in my home office and setup a network share (over the internet) where they can just drop large media files in that folder/network share and it automatically gets uploaded to my server.

Then I would like to backup that server to some remote service.

My partners have Macs, I have both a Mac and a PC.

Is there a simple system/solution that will allow me to do all of the above seamlessly?

I am very technical, but I am looking for the simplest solution to both setup and work.

Are there dos and don'ts when it comes to approaching someone to buy their business?

Especially businesses that are going well and growing organically and the owner/founder is comfortable and has no need to sell.

How do I broach the subject that can optimize the likelihood that they would realistically entertain the idea of selling their company or more importantly selling to me?

As a software developer, I know how time consuming all aspects of project management on freelance projects can be.

From creating the initial Scope of Work to ongoing managing client expectations and general project management can be a major distraction from what you want to do -- build product.

If you are interested in exploring the outsourcing of the administration and project mgmt of your projects, leave a comment here or email me at marc dot gayle+hn at gmail dot com.

What service have you always wanted someone to provide, product have you always wanted someone to build, skill you have always wanted someone to teach you, that you would pay $10,000 today for?

Please don't say random things, especially if you don't have $10,000 to spend right now. The whole idea of this question is to try to potentially discover value and to price out those that want "Snapchat for dogs for $500".

Edit 1: Requests like "Lifetime Access for" also don't qualify as viable responses....for obvious reasons.

I am a Ruby & Rails developer. I am starting a newsletter that focuses just on refactoring. The idea is to get a walk through from the developer that refactored the code, so we can learn about their thought process.

Ruby is naturally the first language I want to start with, but if you have some examples from other languages then I am game to exploring those too.

Would any HNers be willing to contribute by discussing a few refactorings they have done? They would have to be from an open-source project (or public repository on Github or Bitbucket), so others can look at the history.

If you are interested in discussing a refactor you have done (or a few) just email me at marc.gayle+refactoringhn@gmail.com or reply to this thread with contact details.

Thanks!

I am building a novelty gift company, where we are selling our products in various retail locations. I live in Jamaica so I can't just get into Walgreens/CVS and fit into their distribution network.

So my question is, as a Startup where can I go to learn about building a physical distribution network from scratch?

I know where to find guides on programming, finance, academic subjects, etc.

But no clue about where to find good, accessible (free/cheap) info on this stuff.

Also, what software can I use to manage my inventory in all of these locations.

Imagine I (or an employee) is doing all the inventory reconciliation in each store, and then invoicing them for sales made. Is there any YC company that creates software that may help me with this? Or is there any other software that has appeared on HN that will help me with this?

The only ones I know of are huge MSFT or Oracle solutions, which are obviously not suitable for a startup.

As a freelance developer, I deal with the typical feast & famine problem of projects. Some times during the year, I get lots of project requests and other times I get none. When I have lots, I leave a lot of money on the table because I usually am up to my ears and I don't want to take on any more nor do I want to hire someone.

But when I am free, I have to start looking for projects again.

Then it occurred to me that I would love to be able to pass along the excess projects I get, for a referral fee (say 5% of the value of the project). But the obvious issue with that is that I would need to have a constant network of developers with different skillsets that can competently complete those projects.

So what I would like to do is develop a network that does two things.

1. Rewards you for passing along a project/client. 2. Manages the completion of those projects.

So my questions to HN are: 1. Do you have excess projects that you get from time-to-time that you would be willing to pass along to a network like this? 2. Do you have projects that you would like completed where other marketplaces/platforms haven't worked well for you? If so, would you care to share your concerns. 3. Would you want to be a participant in this network to work on projects/gigs that are passed along to you?

Another thing I was thinking is that say you have a project you want to pass along, but you want to project manage it (almost like being a product owner), then we could facilitate that for a higher fee than the 5%.

All of this is obviously very immature, and still at the idea stage.

I would love your feedback on everything, how I can improve the idea, what are things I am not considering, etc.

I am an experienced Rails developer, and I recently launched a service[1] targeted at non-techie business owners to help them increase their revenue by building new products. The issue I am running into is that there isn't a niche for "people that want to launch a new product that don't know they want to launch a new product yet". So it is hard to target.

Right now I am doing cold email, direct sales. As you can imagine, the response rate is very low -- not only because it is a cold email, but also because I am essentially creating a new market.

What you need to do is: - Land at least 1 sale, with no spend. - Help me build a repeatable process that will allow me to land more sales without you. - The 2nd point has to be proven by you supervising me land a 2nd sale using that same process.

In exchange, I am prepared to offer you either: - Development services equal to the value of 1 sale (sales start at $15K+). - A fully developed MVP, where we both agree on a reasonable feature set to help prove your hypothesis. I have a lot of experience building MVPs, so I can help you with this.

The only caveat is that I don't do mobile apps, so it has to be a web app. Also, I won't come out of pocket for any expenses related to the development of your MVP (aka buying a template or paying for any on-demand services we need -- AWS, Heroku, etc.).

I am reasonable if you are reasonable.

I have experience building marketplaces[2][3], and many other types of web apps that do all sorts of third-party API integrations (from Stripe, Github, StackOverflow, Twitter, etc.). In general I have a decent amount of product (MVP) experience.

If you are interested, either email me at: marc+offer@mymvpblueprint.com or just reply here with your info for how I can contact you or any questions you may have.

[1] - http://mymvpblueprint.com/increase-revenue.html

[2] - https://refactormeplz.com/

[3] - http://uibuytes.herokuapp.com/

I am an experienced Rails developer, and I recently launched a service[1] targeted at non-techie business owners to help them increase their revenue by building new products.

The issue I am running into is that there isn't a niche for "people that want to launch a new product that don't know they want to launch a new product yet". So it is hard to target.

Right now I am doing cold email, direct sales. As you can imagine, the response rate is very low -- not only because it is a cold email, but also because I am essentially creating a new market.

What you need to do is: - Land at least 1 sale, with no spend. - Help me build a repeatable process that will allow me to land more sales without you. - The 2nd point has to be proven by you supervising me land a 2nd sale using that same process.

In exchange, I am prepared to offer you either: - Development services equal to the value of 1 sale (sales start at $15K+). - A fully developed MVP, where we both agree on a reasonable feature set to help prove your hypothesis. I have a lot of experience building MVPs, so I can help you with this.

The only caveat is that I don't do mobile apps, so it has to be a web app. Also, I won't come out of pocket for any expenses related to the development of your MVP (aka buying a template or paying for any on-demand services we need -- AWS, Heroku, etc.).

I am reasonable if you are reasonable.

I have experience building marketplaces[2][3], and many other types of web apps that do all sorts of third-party API integrations (from Stripe, Github, StackOverflow, Twitter, etc.). In general I have a decent amount of product (MVP) experience.

If you are interested, either email me at: marc+offer@mymvpblueprint.com or just reply here with your info for how I can contact you or any questions you may have.

[1] - http://mymvpblueprint.com/increase-revenue.html

[2] - https://refactormeplz.com/

[3] - http://uibuytes.herokuapp.com/