To All Startups (in Brussels)

Bootstrapping is hard. You know it. I know it. We all know it.

Kodesk is still on tracks but it’s taking much more time and effort to get to an “investable” state than we expected. So it’s time for a little bit of creativity.

What I need is a part-time job that keeps me involved in the startup community while paying the bills, filling the fridge, and still leaves me with enough time to work on Kodesk.

What you might need is an iPhone/iPad developer with an entrepreneur mindset, who is not too expensive and can work alongside with you as your business matures, without any long-term commitment or fixed-price contract.

So here is my proposition to you.

From January 2012 onward, I’m offering my iPhone/iPad development services for 400€ a day, up to 3 days a week. If a startup needs me 3 days a week, I’ll work with one startup. If 3 startups need me for 1 day a week each, I’ll work for 3 startups. You get my point.

A few points for clarification:

• This offer is limited to startup companies only, which means innovative companies who have not reached break-even yet. If your company doesn’t fit that description and you need my services, I will apply my standard daily rate (600€/day)
• What I mean by iPhone/iPad development is mostly native app development. I can possibly help you with with mobile web development too, but I’ll do my best to dissuade you to go that route because of integration and usability issues.
• This is a contracting offer. I’m not interesting in you hiring me as an employee, as it makes it more complex for both you and me, more risky for you and less flexible for me.
• I can help you more than 3 days a week on a specific period of time but I’ll have to make up for it and I would like it to stay an exception.
• I’m not a designer myself but I can implement someone else’s design. That said, most of the time, for the first application of a startup, there’s not a lot of design required as we can mostly use the default styling with some customization.
• I have very flexible terms, you can try me out for a few days, and once you are convinced, we can sign a monthly contract. I send you my bills at the end of each month, and all I require is to be paid with 15 days after you receive the bill.
• I’m really here to help you and accompany you in a partnership relationship. I’m not interested in client/provider relationships, chasing after payments and all that. If the relationship goes bad, I don’t renew my contract and I’m done. And I’ll ask for your financial status before I start to work.
• Whatever happens, the source code for everything I do will be stored in a location you can access and I’ll do my best so that you can take over the development with your own employees or other contractors at any time.
• I can also help you with app mock-ups, App Store set up and publishing, I can even train you about iOS development so that you can easily take over what I do.
• I’d rather work in person with startups in Brussels and the surrounding area, but working remotely over Skype can be discussed.
• Given my short experience as an entrepreneur myself, I can also help you with discussions about your business model (I love lean startups).
• Of course, I have already developed a few iPhone apps, including 2 that are on the app store (MooPlan and ConferenceGuide), and 2 private ones that I can show you if you want. But the best way to test my skills is definitely to try me out for a few days.
• Last but not least, if you have nothing developed yet, not even on the backend side, I can help you with technology choices and development there too. I’m not a Ruby-on-Rails  or Python developer, I have done some PHP development but I hate it. I can talk to you about Groovy and Grails, the technology stack I chose for Kodesk and the great advantages it has in terms of scalability, productivity and ease to find developers.

So if you are interested in this offer and you want to know more, feel free to contact me at [email protected] or leave an open questions in the comments below.