Re: [Co-op Source] Acquiring users - things off the top of my head

[Bill Glover]

This is good insight, Meelad. 

> Well from Reddit, for example. Everyday tens of people are posting their ideas on Reddit and asking for technical co founders to join them. We'll list all of those to CoopSource, with the user's permission.

That's a very good idea. Most startups and especially two-sided markets like this need a Minimum Viable Product to launch.

But the people looking for cofounders on reddit may not be ready to accept CoopSource revenue sharing terms, so that might make things complicated. It wouldn't hurt to just email them and ask. A good example of that approach is the AppSumo launch. Noah Kagan just emailed Alan Shaaf and asked if AppSumo could launch with a deal for imigur pro license on a time limited discount. Alan said sure, and AppSumo had a product and proved it could find customers.

> ... We can list all of the projects we have completed in the past to start, and claim that they were made successful by using CoopSource. 

That might be taking it too far, for me. It's OK to be silent about some things and let people make assumptions as long as they get value for it, but misleading people directly will come home to roost, and it costs you immediately because you're putting off learning how customers will deal with real projects.

This idea doesn't need a single line of code to start.

Why not just work together on building CoopSource as a CoopSource first project and see how it work? No need to build anything in advance. Just step through the same ideas about revenue and ownership and collaboration. Maybe even break the whole thing up into small subprojects too and those can be some quick successes to fill in the blanks. If the team can't step through a small version of the idea with BitBucket and Google docs, then it's probably not going to work any better with a slick custom back-end.

Just my two cents. Great discussion.

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 9:40 PM Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm interested in working on this project, but only if it interests me and/or if there's a chance to get rich. Otherwise I'm out of here -

No, I'm not talking about CoopSource, I'm talking about what goes through people's head when they think of joining a project on CoopSource. (By what criteria do people get assigned to jobs anyways? Do they get to choose?)

This project will never take off without users. So how do we get users? Marketing helps people find the site. When people land on the site they should feel confident and excited to join CoopSource. People have to see that 1.) There are lots of projects to choose from 2.) They're going to get reimbursed for their work and 3.) There has been successful projects completed in the past.

1.) There are lots of projects to choose from: People should be able to find a project that fits within their interests and skill set otherwise it's difficult to keep them motivated and projects will not be completed.

 

Solutions: lots of content on the site, even if it's faux projects, faux comments and waiting lists, faux progress updates listed on projects, etc. In addition to the faux material that we ourselves have created, where can we get more "real" content/users from?

 

Well from Reddit, for example. Everyday tens of people are posting their ideas on Reddit and asking for technical co founders to join them. We'll list all of those to CoopSource, with the user's permission.

2.) Reimbursement - as you all have discussed, equity, $ from memberships fees, etc. 

 

3.) There has successful projects completed in the past: Again, just content generated by us. We can list all of the projects we have completed in the past to start, and claim that they were made successful by using CoopSource. My side project that I'd like to add to CoopSource is: www.tachitout.com

When people sign up on CoopSource because they found something that interests them, we'll reply that they've been added to the waiting list for the project and if someone else drops out, then they have the spot. BUT, there is no waiting list in reality. They might be the first person to even sign up for the project! Once enough people sign up for a certain project, we'll connect them together and get that project started.

We don't ever need to mention membership fees until WE ask someone to join a project. At that point I'll be the salesman and I'll get that sale. Any mention of someone having to pay money to join CoopSource will turn a lot of valuable hands away at first sight.

Let me know if I have anything wrong with respect to this project. Let me know if I can clarify anything I've brought up.

Super interesting stuff, everyone. Keep up the good work.

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[Alan Moore]

inline...

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm interested in working on this project, but only if it interests me and/or if there's a chance to get rich. Otherwise I'm out of here -

No, I'm not talking about CoopSource, I'm talking about what goes through people's head when they think of joining a project on CoopSource. (By what criteria do people get assigned to jobs anyways? Do they get to choose?)

I don't think that people who are motivated only by money will be a good fit for Co-op Source. I also don't think that most OSS advocates will find it interesting. I think there is a segment of the developer/entrepreneur population that is frustrated with trying to go it alone and lacks (or doesn't want) to borrow money (VCs/banks) or risk their life savings to pursue an interesting project.

Don't get me wrong w.r.t. Open Source. I love it but I just think it lacks a business model so it doesn't fit as a solution for many kinds of problems/environments, say, the enterprise market or online services.

 

This project will never take off without users. So how do we get users? Marketing helps people find the site. When people land on the site they should feel confident and excited to join CoopSource. People have to see that 1.) There are lots of projects to choose from 2.) They're going to get reimbursed for their work and 3.) There has been successful projects completed in the past.

There will be a continuum from Ideas -> Project Proposals -> Projects -> Products

I envision there being a way for people to float ideas that they have - either problems or solutions and the system (Co-op Source) will attempt to do matching between people who suggest or vote on the same ideas. Members can vote for ideas and those with the most votes percolate up until there is momentum to start a project.

I have several concrete ideas/projects that I would love to get some help on. Once I have the site up and running I'm planning to post them for others to review.

I think it is worth running through a specific project from start to finish in order to iron out the larger questions around ownership, licensing, profit sharing, etc. etc. before opening up the flood gates for more projects.

I also don't think it is a good idea to have a lot of projects that don't add value (think Etsy clone or yet another javascript framework) to either society at large (solving problems in the medical domain) or in software engineering.

 

1.) There are lots of projects to choose from: People should be able to find a project that fits within their interests and skill set otherwise it's difficult to keep them motivated and projects will not be completed.

 

Solutions: lots of content on the site, even if it's faux projects, faux comments and waiting lists, faux progress updates listed on projects, etc. In addition to the faux material that we ourselves have created, where can we get more "real" content/users from?

I have been looking into what it takes to grow a large social network - it appears that starting in a narrow domain, nailing that first and then growing it to a larger audience is the approach that works best (I have references but not at-hand.)

 

 

Well from Reddit, for example. Everyday tens of people are posting their ideas on Reddit and asking for technical co founders to join them. We'll list all of those to CoopSource, with the user's permission.

2.) Reimbursement - as you all have discussed, equity, $ from memberships fees, etc. 

I think for those who simply want to make $ in trade for labor have plenty of places to go for that kind of thing. It isn't out of the question that we could utilize their skills but that complicates things somewhat.

If you look at Valve as a point of comparison, they outsource all their accounting, marketing and other administrativia so they can focus on writing good software.

Part of the value of Co-op Source is to reduce the friction of starting and running projects. While this is still an open question, I think keeping the "splitting the pie" as simple as possible is a worthy goal.

 

 

3.) There has successful projects completed in the past: Again, just content generated by us. We can list all of the projects we have completed in the past to start, and claim that they were made successful by using CoopSource. My side project that I'd like to add to CoopSource is: www.tachitout.com

That shouldn't be necessary. As I mentioned above, we can start small with a few ideas/projects - build those out, start getting revenue to help us build things out further. I will take a look at tachitout.com shortly :-)

I have an idea for building a version of the Datomic database in C++ for the embedded systems market. It would be somewhat different as that market has a different set of constraints and concerns but I think the general model is very good and solves the 90% that would be low hanging fruit. Also, I'm familiar with the embedded systems scene so that is a start.

 

When people sign up on CoopSource because they found something that interests them, we'll reply that they've been added to the waiting list for the project and if someone else drops out, then they have the spot. BUT, there is no waiting list in reality. They might be the first person to even sign up for the project! Once enough people sign up for a certain project, we'll connect them together and get that project started.

We don't ever need to mention membership fees until WE ask someone to join a project. At that point I'll be the salesman and I'll get that sale. Any mention of someone having to pay money to join CoopSource will turn a lot of valuable hands away at first sight.

I think there needs to be two different levels of cooperatives. First, the "parent" Co-op Source cooperative that provides for the general membership, incubating projects, finding consensus around ideas/projects. The membership fees for this co-op would provide for the site hosting and what is left over can be used to sponsor projects and/or contribute to open source foundations, etc.

Next, each project would probably need to be it's own cooperative. I think each project probably has it's own unique set of challenges and a one size fits all approach wouldn't work for everyone.

So, for example, a developer could join Co-op Source, suggest ideas and find others who are interested in the same things and together they can form a project. That project could borrow from Co-op Source's library of available contracts, membership rules, etc. in forming their own co-op so they don't have to start from scratch. They can use things that have worked for other co-ops/projects.

Also, if they use the Co-op Source license(s) then that will reduce friction once lawyers become familiar with the terms, just like what happens with open source licensing. The cost to have a customer's legal team review licensing terms is too high so by using a common license this becomes easier over time.

 

Let me know if I have anything wrong with respect to this project. Let me know if I can clarify anything I've brought up.

Thank you for your post! I hope I addressed your comments properly. I tend to spew my own ideas because I have been thinking about this for so long... Please let me know where I missed your points!

 

Super interesting stuff, everyone. Keep up the good work.

We are still working out the details so please hang in there... thank you for all the suggestions and ideas.

Alan

 

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[Alan Moore]

inline...

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 2:19 PM, Bill Glover <bill.th...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is good insight, Meelad. 

> Well from Reddit, for example. Everyday tens of people are posting their ideas on Reddit and asking for technical co founders to join them. We'll list all of those to CoopSource, with the user's permission.

That's a very good idea. Most startups and especially two-sided markets like this need a Minimum Viable Product to launch.

I'm trying really hard to get an MVP built. Part of the slow down has been that I decided to write it in a language I was new to and had trouble settling on a web framework. That is behind me now and I'm productive again.

Here is what is in my MVP:

0) Landing Page - basic Co-op Source messaging/concepts.

1) Membership - join, login, logout, profile (includes interests, goals, values ranking, preferences), search/browse

2) Ideas and Proposals - search/browse/visualizations, create proposals, tagging, comments, voting

3) Projects and Teams - create, join, repository/keys, IRC/messaging, project-specific ideas and proposals, tagging, comments, voting.

4) Sales and Marketing - register products, services and profiles as reseller, consultant, integrator, service provider, potential clients, etc. Available generally and per-project.

5) Accounting - real-time open financial statements, balance sheet, income/expense, cash flow, dynamic equity splits.

6) Governance - educational material about cooperative bylaws, contracts, legal issues, employment law, etc. This last one is the hardest to spec out because the features depend on the overall agreements, governance model and other topics that are still TBD.

I've got #0 and #1 working and am starting on #2 and #3. Items later down on the list might not make the initial launch because they are fairly nebulous and require hashing ideas out with the group. They are not ready to be baked into code yet :-)

Aside: At some point I also want to be able to initiate some of the above activities via integrations with external services such as twitter, hacker news, reddit, etc. Members could then suggest ideas, proposals or vote via twitter hashtags and the like. This would allow us to connect with engineers and others where they spend a lot of their time talking about these things. I'd try to fit into a part of what people are already doing rather than attempting to change their existing behaviors.

 

But the people looking for cofounders on reddit may not be ready to accept CoopSource revenue sharing terms, so that might make things complicated. It wouldn't hurt to just email them and ask. A good example of that approach is the AppSumo launch. Noah Kagan just emailed Alan Shaaf and asked if AppSumo could launch with a deal for imigur pro license on a time limited discount. Alan said sure, and AppSumo had a product and proved it could find customers.

I'm not familiar with AppSumo or the launch but I think the basic approach works. One company I have thought of partnering with is LegalZoom since they already have a ton of expertise that we need. I'd like to get a bulk discount if we can drive business their way, lowering costs for both Co-op Source and individual projects. Bulk discounts could also be negotiated with providers such as GitHub, Slack, Datomic, etc.

 

> ... We can list all of the projects we have completed in the past to start, and claim that they were made successful by using CoopSource. 

That might be taking it too far, for me. It's OK to be silent about some things and let people make assumptions as long as they get value for it, but misleading people directly will come home to roost, and it costs you immediately because you're putting off learning how customers will deal with real projects.

Agreed. Here is Peter Thiel's take on starting a new network:

"... network effects businesses must start with especially small markets. Facebook started with just Harvard students— Mark Zuckerberg’s first product was designed to get all his classmates signed up, not to attract all people of Earth. This is why successful network businesses rarely get started by MBA types: the initial markets are so small that they often don’t even appear to be business opportunities at all." (1)

This is a great book. I will share my thoughts in a separate post after I re-read it.

(1) Thiel, Peter; Masters, Blake (2014-09-16). Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (p. 50). Crown Religion/Business/Forum.

 

This idea doesn't need a single line of code to start.

Why not just work together on building CoopSource as a CoopSource first project and see how it work? No need to build anything in advance. Just step through the same ideas about revenue and ownership and collaboration. Maybe even break the whole thing up into small subprojects too and those can be some quick successes to fill in the blanks. If the team can't step through a small version of the idea with BitBucket and Google docs, then it's probably not going to work any better with a slick custom back-end.

I agreed in general. Initially I wanted to build it all myself and when Atlassian and GitHub came along at first I was crushed because I thought they had built what I was building. However, I see now that I mistook the infrastructure as my end goal... but it wasn't. Those collaboration tools are a necessary but insufficient step along the way. Long term it may be necessary to provide some of those features directly within Co-op Source for tighter integration, cost savings, etc. but for now *using* them is the best way forward.

My initial MVP is designed to provide a starting point, a kernel if you will, that allows us to bootstrap and build the remaining infrastructure through itself. Some of the initial projects could be aimed at adding features for our own use. Later, some of that code could then be re-used on other projects for sale externally, etc.

I totally agree that having a concrete project to work on using the process (however manually) will help wring out the kinks and allow us to figure out what works and what doesn't before attempting to scale.

 

Just my two cents. Great discussion.

Thanks for your insights Bill.

Alan

 

On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 9:40 PM Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm interested in working on this project, but only if it interests me and/or if there's a chance to get rich. Otherwise I'm out of here -

No, I'm not talking about CoopSource, I'm talking about what goes through people's head when they think of joining a project on CoopSource. (By what criteria do people get assigned to jobs anyways? Do they get to choose?)

This project will never take off without users. So how do we get users? Marketing helps people find the site. When people land on the site they should feel confident and excited to join CoopSource. People have to see that 1.) There are lots of projects to choose from 2.) They're going to get reimbursed for their work and 3.) There has been successful projects completed in the past.

1.) There are lots of projects to choose from: People should be able to find a project that fits within their interests and skill set otherwise it's difficult to keep them motivated and projects will not be completed.

 

Solutions: lots of content on the site, even if it's faux projects, faux comments and waiting lists, faux progress updates listed on projects, etc. In addition to the faux material that we ourselves have created, where can we get more "real" content/users from?

 

Well from Reddit, for example. Everyday tens of people are posting their ideas on Reddit and asking for technical co founders to join them. We'll list all of those to CoopSource, with the user's permission.

2.) Reimbursement - as you all have discussed, equity, $ from memberships fees, etc. 

 

3.) There has successful projects completed in the past: Again, just content generated by us. We can list all of the projects we have completed in the past to start, and claim that they were made successful by using CoopSource. My side project that I'd like to add to CoopSource is: www.tachitout.com

When people sign up on CoopSource because they found something that interests them, we'll reply that they've been added to the waiting list for the project and if someone else drops out, then they have the spot. BUT, there is no waiting list in reality. They might be the first person to even sign up for the project! Once enough people sign up for a certain project, we'll connect them together and get that project started.

We don't ever need to mention membership fees until WE ask someone to join a project. At that point I'll be the salesman and I'll get that sale. Any mention of someone having to pay money to join CoopSource will turn a lot of valuable hands away at first sight.

Let me know if I have anything wrong with respect to this project. Let me know if I can clarify anything I've brought up.

Super interesting stuff, everyone. Keep up the good work.

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[Alan Moore]

inline...

On Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 8:18:42 PM UTC-8, Meelad (CA) wrote:

Really great info, Alan.

I agree OSS lacks business models! But they execute the product so well, don't you agree? There's got to be a way to get the best of both worlds, great biz model and excellent product.

OSS does have it's issues, from:

http://airccse.org/journal/jcsit/0611csit08.pdf

"Some other researches are able to identify some alarming potential problems in the OSS Projects and their communities. In certain phase of the projects, the software system will increase in complexity that makes it more difficult to be managed by the communities [14][28]. The ad hoc development of the Open Source System also creates possible decline in quality [28], coupling explosions [3], and creating poorly coded source code [12], lack of formal process [8], high entry barrier for new developer to contribute [2], the poor architectural design and lack of supporting tools which is comparable to modern software development methodology [11], and lack of documentation which prohibits new developers to immediately join in the projects [12]. As for the Open Source Communities themselves, the alarming problems are the frequent / rapid turnovers of volunteers [12] and the fact that only very few Open Source Projects attract enough support to develop properly [17]."

 

"Then the business people/marketers can take it from there, after we build the product" is the feeling I get from you guys. That's fine if you guys think the marketing side isn't important, but I believe there needs to be some balance and I'm here to help you guys see the non technical implications of something like this.

I absolutely think that the marketing part is important. I fully expect project members to include testers, tech pubs, designers and many others to be involved. However, I think that without developers the rest of it is a non-starter. I'm sorry if my focus has been on developers. Of course, being a developer myself, this project is "scratching my itch."

We welcome all kinds of folks to join our efforts. I liken it very much to Hollywood and movie productions with a much longer time line and fewer "beautiful people" :-)

 

Interesting concept I just thought of: Coops on CoopSource work secretly and rapidly to create the product that people envision and post to forums like the entrepreneur subreddit. Is that confusing?

The main problem I see is that it takes a lot of time to build anything of value. Trivial apps are probably not worth the overhead of a cooperative and can usually be built by one or two people.

However, the idea of reaching out to those who express a desire to collaborate in various forums is a great one. I have been trying to do this by reaching out on Twitter and in other online forums, user groups, blog posts, etc. I will usually post a comment or send the author an email gently introducing our mission and encourage them to come to this email group so that we can get everyone in one place to start with.

If you have time this would be a great with to help get this thing moving. Don't oversell the idea, this should be a program of attraction rather than promotion, at least initially. Developers are very suspicious bunch and can smell a sales job from a mile away, even when one isn't in play :-)

 

Imagine this scenario...

Reddit post 3/2/2015 from guy name Alex in Kansas: I have a project that I've been thinking about for ages...it's an app that allows people to do this and this. I don't have any business background, money, or connections but what do you guys think and can anyone help me get my (probably hopeless) project done?

AND THEN...A SHORT TIME LATER...

Reply to Reddit post: Hey Alex, heard you need for product X. I'm with CoopSource, we're a new kind of this and this and we want to give you some really exciting news. We went ahead and built your product. It's all yours buddy. Here are the keys. We want you to take it and fly off and make it the next big thing. Isn't that neat? We're not joking. Of course, we do retain some ownership of the product, so please sign here and here...we hope you get rich bud!

 

Alex will probably fail, but,

News will get out. It's a quick way to get publicity and people talking. The end goal is for people to proactively come to CoopSource with their project. These people want their own product to call their own. When this influx of real users happens is when we can be choosy, choose projects democratically, charge membership to dev and charge the nontechnical people to get their products done.

What we need are a core group of people to hash out the remaining decisions so that we can spin up an MVP. We probably shouldn't be trying to evangelize to people who are not receptive to the cooperative principles to begin with. Also, listen for dissatisfaction with open source and for OSS contributors with taker-fatigue. Let them know we think we have a solution to the free-rider problem and that we use democratic and cooperative principles to build products and services of value.... at least that is my "elevator speech" when I make contact outside my immediate circle of developer friends and colleagues.

Thank you for helping us think about these things. I know you expressed that you wanted to help but were not a developer (at least I think that was you?! Correct me if I'm wrong...). This is exactly the kind of help we need so please keep it up! I hope you don't take offense at honest feedback, please don't hesitate to give it right back! This will keep the bullshit factor down and keep us all grounded :-)

I can always count on Bill to tell me I'm wrong... ok Bill, bring it on!

Take care.

Alan

[Alan Moore]

Yes, this makes sense and is also what Bill was advocating.

If we are looking at task oriented tools then I suggest Asana over something like Google docs but that is just my preference.

I am still continuing to work on an MVP. I have already adding tasks to asana for the requirements and design aspects so that others can give their input.

I think the two biggest things that need work are the license and bylaws. Help sorting those out will define much that comes after.

I will send invitations to asana for anyone interested - just say "yay" or "nay" and I'll add you to the project.

Also, for more realtime collaboration we can use IRC or, my preference, an app called slack.com. For crude drawings there is a nascent app called prcrsr.com... It is early days and that app still needs work but it is fun to use :-)

Alan

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"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe

On Mar 3, 2015, at 8:30 PM, Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

I'm trying really hard to get an MVP built.

 

 What if we don't even need an MVP? What if CoopSource is not a central website service meeting place for technical Coop seekers, but an idea and brand in general that does not need a place to meet.

Let me explain...

We can communicate and meet in google docs. Other than that it's just tasking out work and making sure that person completes it. If they don't compete it, it gets reassigned to someone else. And then everyone delivers their work back to the Coop technical leaders who put it all together. The product is then QAd and delivered to the recipient.

In this model, the only website we have is a CoopSource landing page to discover news and information about Coops and CoopSource, but it's not a user platform. It'd just be any other business page that discusses our services, about me, etc.

Does this make sense?

[Alan Moore]

I heard about assembly and have communicated with their founder to some extent. I have purposely stayed away because I wanted to iron out my own thinking on how to organize, UI, etc. before being influenced by their choices on these matters.

Maybe I'm far enough down the road now that I can take another look at it.

What is your username over there?

Alan
-- 
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe

On Mar 3, 2015, at 8:02 PM, Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Excellent ideas.

I agree no line of code is needed to start. Google docs and BitBucket is a great idea.

I actually propose we move it over to assembly.com. I joined a few days ago and so far am really enjoying using their service of allowing people to organize and work on projects/startups together, but they focus on the "all around" aspect of the start up. Marketing, non-technical work, as well the technical side.

Since CoopSource is focusing on the dev, there's no competition in using Assembly. And it's a pretty active site so you'll meet people on the same mission as you and the expertise to boot.

[Bill Glover]

On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 8:18 PM Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

"Then the business people/marketers can take it from there, after we build the product" is the feeling I get from you guys.

I'm really very much the opposite. I've spent too many years building things that may or may not even be used. My latest side project efforts have been entirely in the Eric Ries, Andrew Chen, Ash Maurya, Lean vein. I don't ever want to build something no one needs again.

Reddit post 3/2/2015 from guy name Alex in Kansas: I have a project that I've been thinking about for ages...

 

Reply to Reddit post: Hey Alex, heard you need for product X. 

My startup is based on solving problems described in an Ask Me Anything thread by a guy who represents an underserved market. I'm thrashing it out and launching this coming Wed.

I hadn't considered handing it over to him. It didn't sound like he wanted to solve the problem for others, he just wants to use the solution. It seems like in this case, I'm looking at a customer pain rather than an entrepreneur's pain. Your idea is very interesting for CoopSource especially.

[Bill Glover]

On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 9:11 AM Alan Moore <kahun...@gmail.com> wrote:

If we are looking at task oriented tools then I suggest Asana over something like Google docs but that is just my preference.

Asana is great, and I've been wanting an excuse to try out Slack. Please send me invites. I can't promise how available I'll be, but I will definitely do what I can.

I'm starting to have trouble following the forum threads. I've been trying to use Google inbox for this, but it's "helpful" features are just not up to what an active mailinglist requires, so Slack would be a great idea.

 

[Bill Glover]

Normally I'm pretty open about what I'm working on, but with this idea I'll have to be a little vague for the sake of my customers. I'll just say that it is legal and related to turnkey business automation. Hopefully I'll get to a point where I can share more, but think  of this as my inital startup to free me up to work on other things.

On your idea. Anything that streamlines that connection between the people who have a real pain and a solution that solves it for the right price is going pay off really well eventually. And a win could fund alot of development for CoopSource.

On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 7:00 PM Meelad (CA) <meelad...@gmail.com> wrote:

Very interesting...please elaborate...

 

My startup is based on solving problems described in an Ask Me Anything thread by a guy who represents an underserved market. I'm thrashing it out and launching this coming Wed.

I hadn't considered handing it over to him. It didn't sound like he wanted to solve the problem for others, he just wants to use the solution. It seems like in this case, I'm looking at a customer pain rather than an entrepreneur's pain. Your idea is very interesting for CoopSource especially.

Thanks! I was surprised by my own idea too! I guess it's been something that's been on my mind that I was trying to put into words.

A unique way to connect technical and non-technical co founders.