So... I've been approached by a former food truck owner with virtually no background in tech, technical education, research,
development, etc. They want my team and I to build them what is, basically a GPT4 wrapper that helps early-stage
founders with finding resources for their needs (yes, I suggested the Google search). This team has no product and no technical ability. It has already issued stocks to a board of advisors who (in my opinion) haven't advised them of anything to build even a sensible beta. Their website is insanely premature and the team currently would've been better off if they didn't get into the tech world given their random backgrounds.<p>In short, they want my team from our previous startup to build this for them for FREE after they gave even the lawyer equity, (yea I know) but the soon-to-be CTO is also a family friend. So it makes saying no hard, which is why I am here.<p>What do I tell this massive red flag of an operation?
Forty-something former CTO here. Just tell them what you want clearly & concisely.<p>Do you want cash or equity? From your description it seems clear that you don't believe in the team or mission, so presumably value equity at zero.<p>Since you mentioned "my team and I" - I'm assuming you're running a dev shop or work with a few freelancers open to this type of work. If so - You could do something like giving them a one-page proposal for a 1-3 month MVP "sprint series" to "help them validate their concept" (at your current rate).<p>Don't "feel bad" for putting your desires first. It's the right thing to do. Also, don't judge them. I've seen some real underdogs pull through (it's rare so don't bet on it).
Gut reaction: Talk to some older people, who've been around business for a few decades, on the sort of polite-sounding, emotion-numbing buzz-phrases which they would use to say "no, never".<p>BTW - has this family-friend-turning-CTO ever done you (or your previous-startup team) any 7-ish-figure financial favors? I'm thinking "no".
Never work for free!
Either cash or equity.
You should expect an equity relative to your amount of work multiplied by the median freelancer hourly rate in your region.
For example: I put in 3 months of work, that should be at least 30.000$ of value.
If the company is worth 100.000$ I expect 33% of shares in equity.
Everything else is fraud.
I’d suggest showing your friend the teams of the AI companies that are getting funding. And maybe sharing the stories of the weed gold rush founders who all got crushed by PE. Yes, the opportunity with AI is vast, maybe even so vast a food truck owner could found a company that wins. But the competition is the most intensely well funded and resourced companies and teams - ever - in human history.<p>The Wright Brothers owned a bicycle shop before they pursued their dreams of flight. But want most people don’t know is they founded the bicycle shop to pay for their passion for flight.<p>Background matters some. Motivation a ton more.<p>You don’t owe anyone the duty of playing the greater fool.
Just did this two weeks ago. I finally got an offer after 3 works of prototyping for free...no cash. I said "sorry, I need to be paid cash to work on this".<p>That was the end of that.