[bbalfour]

Hey everyone. I am joining the Web 2.0 craze with a new startup and am looking for a knowledgeable partner. Even though I am usually against being paranoid about keeping new concepts secret, this falls into one of the few times that I think it is necessary. For this reason any person who is interested will be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before discussion.

I am a young, experience enrepreneur. My background can be found on my blog at http://www.brianbalfour.com. I do have access to funding but have decided not to take it until we have an initial site developed. This means I can not offer a wage for work, but I am offering equity (I'm looking for a partner, not an employee).

I have already started the initial design and programming.

Feel free to pass on the info to people you think might be interested. I must move quickly on this if it is to be succesful. I'm looking at a launch date in early June.

Candidates need to have the following qualities:

-Expert/VERY good with XHTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL
-Must have decent experience with JavaScript
-Knowledge of AJAX a plus
-Design skills also a plus
-Entrepreneurial Minded
-MUST like SPORTS (hint) and be familiar with Web 2.0 strategies
-Preferably located in Chicago or Boston (Experience and Personality trumps this requirement)

Please send:

-Resume (or past experience)
-Code Examples
-Websites you have worked on
-Websites you like

PLEASE serious inquiries only. You can email me your info at brian@brianbalfour.com.

[Day2]

I'd encourage you to post some generalities about your idea. Say what you are going to do-- you don't need to say HOW you are going to do it. If you're looking for a partner, you want passion. You want someone who reads about the problem you are going to try to solve and says, "Wow. I'd KILL to work on that project."

No smart entrepreneur would sign a non-disclose/non-compete without more data. I would counsel against signing one AT ALL.

What happens if they decide they don't want to work with you and then have a client down the road that has a similar idea? What happens if they've already thought of a similar idea? What happens if they pass on the idea but get a job offer from someone in the same industry 12 months down the road?

What happens is that they either have to pass on an opportunity or allow you to have ammunition to sue 'em.

Here is some required reading on the value of ideas:

http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

[bbalfour]

I knew I was going to get criticized for not posting details. I myself am not a fan of keeping ideas secret either. I think there are very few cases in which you should. See my blog post about it here.

The critical thing needed for success with this idea is being first to the market. Unfortunately just like most web 2.0 projects, and the internet in general, there is no real process that can be protected or kept from being copied very easily.

I'll use an example site that everyone here should be familiar with....look at a site like Facebook.com. Nothing that isn't very easy to copy if you have some general programming skills. But they were the first to launch a social networking site just for college students. There were about 50 copy cats (some better, some worse) that tried after facebook's initial success, and the copy cats are now nowhere to be found. The only reason facebook has been so successful is because they were the first to the market and to reach critical mass.

You are right I do need to find someone with passion. See my published article on that topic here. And that is what I plan on doing.

I'm also taking into consideration the audience I am posting to. Have I talked to all of my friends and people I meet about the idea? Of course because I know the chances of them trying to do it is slim to none. But the fact is I am posting to a forum of extremley knowledgeable and motivated people who are just waiting to pounce on a good idea.

I am not asking for anyone to sign a Non-Compete, only a Non-Disclosure. Those are two completely different things.

In any case, all of the situations that you presented are null and void because an initial version of the site will be launched within 1-2 months. Once it is launched and is public knowledge, any NDA is void and people can do whatever they want.

I appreciate your comments and I would tend to agree with you in most cases, but this is one where I do not.

[akula]

is this a consumer start up?

[Day2]

Heheh. Facebook was the first mover, eh? Nope. There were social networking sites before that (several focused exclusively on the college market).

Google "First Mover" and read through the first two pages of articles. Most VCs will toss out executive summaries of folks who claim they are the first movers... It generally means they just haven't done their research.

But, heck-- I've been wrong before. I look forward to seeing the site in 4-8 weeks (FAST!). But if I can do 5 minutes of googling and find someone who is doing exactly what you're doing (and started before you did), you owe me a nickel. ;-)

NDAs are still pretty painful-- lots of possible scenarios where it can expose the signer to legal liability... And it's odd that you are saying that they can't share your ideas, but could steal them and implement the ideas themselves. Sure you don't want a non-compete clause?

G'luck with the venture.

Incidentally, Jobby (in my sig) has about 1400 web geeks in the system that you can easily filter for the skills you're on the hunt for. Dozens in Boston and Chicago.

Cheers,

[F360]

Anyone want to give a quick summary of what Web 2.0 is? Ive gone to some "web 2.0" sites, and the only difference I could see was alot more curves :P

(yes, Ive googled first to try and find out) It just seems to be the lastest buzzword.

[nado]

Originally Posted by F360

Anyone want to give a quick summary of what Web 2.0 is? Ive gone to some "web 2.0" sites, and the only difference I could see was alot more curves :P

(yes, Ive googled first to try and find out) It just seems to be the lastest buzzword.

hehe, it isn't really defined.

Although I tend to see them as more centred toward user interaction (social apps). You can also kind of distinguish a "web 2.0" site by the way it looks... simple, clean, big fonts, very little text etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

[CP Mr Ofevaw]

Please provide more information about your idea...

[adamg]

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

I aint really into it at all. just a concept for now.

[CP Mr Ofevaw]

To me, "web 2.0" means a site that improves a service similar to another site by adding features like RSS and tagging ... Or perhaps the ever-so-famous "user-generated content".

For example, if someone came out with an eBay or Craigslist-like site that featured RSS and tagging (to make finding listings ALOT easier), I would consider that to be a "web 2.0" version of eBay and/or Craigslist.

[bbalfour]

Everyone is right...there is no real definition of Web 2.0. It is just a term to generalize the "second coming" of the internet. If you have noticed latel