I'm sorry, but why is this here? Why is HN now a place to sell a failed project? I don't get it. If this were truly a "here, I started something, don't want it anymore, go grab everything I have from github" then great. But after reading the comments from the OP it sounds like they want to enter into a transaction to sell what little they have. Um... I don't read HN to be advertised to. Flagged.
Also, a valid comment. Where would be the best place to post this? Because I know this can help someone out here. Could be an interesting site a HN member could develop, I would support it, and I'm sure a ton of other HN members would!
Sorry if this sounds a bit mean, but what's to stop someone from taking the concept (which is interesting) and just running with it on their own without buying it from you? If all you've got to offer is some almost-definitely-terrible code for an outsourcing firm, some documents, and a few mock-ups, why do you expect someone to pay you for it?
And honestly, the fact that your first instinct was to outsource to India rather that learn to code yourself or finding someone local that you could work closely with, to me, means that you really weren't that passionate about the project in the first place or lack some basic judgement.
You call this project "accelerated" but I really don't see anything of any actual value in your description. If you were offering quality code in an useable-but-unpolished state, that might be a different story.
Again, sorry if that sounded mean-spirited, but I'm calling this like I see it.
The Student View thingie is full of errors. "Hallo" instead of "Halo", "dein Name" instead of "deine Naame", the proper base form is "sein". Conjugated: "Ich bin / Du bist / Er/Sie/Es ist / Wir sind / Ihr seid / Sie sind". I know, German is hard, but that should've been made by someone who knows a bit more about the language.
The chatbox, well, I'm not sure what they're trying to discuss, but it's nonsensical at best. Wanda Hoe isn't a common German name. It's also pretty close to Want-a-ho which probably isn't what you want.
There are lots of other errors. Not good. And "Learning will never be the same"? That sounds too dramatic.
/Rant. It's actually a pretty good concept. But it's just a concept without a good presentation.
Sure. Basically, I think the most important thing I would do next time if outsourcing to India is to find a company with a native English leader. If they have that, then the cultural differences can be minimized.
It's also how they want payments, how pushy they can be, and how they can't really seem to think for themselves. You have to have a rock solid brief, have everything designed beforehand (never have them design it).
Also, make sure you look at multiple companies, and bargain them down. Keep communication constant, and consistent.
We're trying to offer someone with some skills, the opportunity to get into a startup. We have genuine intentions. This was a lesson for us, and we think people smarter than us could take this far. We're either looking to sell, or looking to partner.
Is "true competitor" a technical term? Nearly everyone has competition, except a very small minority of government granted natural monopolies, like public utilities.
By true I mean very similar. We found a few generic services, but nothing that went for the angle we were going for. We looked into it, and our niche was a multi billion dollar niche.
If you're willing to give up some equity then I can get some work done for you. Sounds interesting, but would like some more info. Could you email me at Joshua.Estes@ScenicCityLabs.com
You should take a look at foreign education too. There's money in that. I just finished up teaching online ESL courses in Yeosu, Korea. There's a well established need for English tutoring and the rates for private tutoring in Korea can be around $50/hour.
Exactly! This sort of service can be provided internationally, nationally. You can spin it off and allow individuals to teach anything (Guitar, foreign languages, etc).
We had some backend work done by an Indian outsourcing company. You could continue with them and recode it, not sure you would want to though. We've got a lot of documents on what the site is about, and tech spec sort of stuff. We're also willing to commit a fair bit of time.
what kind of backend do you have? because if I were looking to take this on, I'd likely have my own ideas on "what the site is about". Tech spec sort of stuff means nothing. So really all you're selling is some mockups and whatever code you have - and if the code isn't substantial it would probably be more cost effective for me to recode it. I'm not trying to judge, I just think you may have overvalued what you're offering.
