Opinions sought...

[denny]

Today I received my first ever offer to work for pie-in-the-sky. I'm intrigued, tempted, and deeply suspicious. If anyone has any experience/opinions to cast on the following offer, please please share them with me...

From: [ name and email address ]
Sent: 13 May 2003 16:05
To: [ my professional contact address ]
Subject: Web project


Hi Denny

My name is [ name ], I'm the founder of a tech start-up company based
in the Greater London area.

My reason for contacting you is simple - I'm looking for a good perl
developer.

How did I find you?  I did a google search using the following search
criteria: "perl developer" "uk" "cv"

My company is developing a stand-alone Web-based email service that will
provide custom email solutions to a large international professionals
market.

Business highlights:

- Untapped market niche
- Defendable competitive advantage
- Cost effective traffic-driving marketing strategy
- Subscription-based revenue model
- Fixed technology needs
- Low monthly overheads


To prove the viability of our business model, we plan to launch a
prototype Web mail facility with minimal capital investment by July
2003.

In order to keep capital requirements to a minimum during test
marketing, a team of entrepreneurial minded professionals provide their
time and experience - on a part-time basis - in exchange for part
ownership in the business.  We currently seek a perl developer to
complete this team.

I'd really like to discuss this opportunity with you on the telephone
Denny.  Just give me 15 minutes to talk you through our business model.

I look forward to talking with you.

[ SNIP signoff and .sig ]

Among the things that make me suspicious are the deeply sales-oriented feel to the email, including what feels a lot like the mass-mailing bullshit trick of using my name towards the end of the text, to make it feel personalised. But I am looking for something new in my career, and this, if legit, would be very interesting to me. I just don't know how cynical to be about the whole thing...

Update: I should probably have mentioned that his .sig included a link to the company's website, which has a fairly professional looking webmail system up and running, including an offer of free trial accounts to interested potential customers. So they're not in the early early stages here - which makes me wonder if they've lost their original developer, and if so, why.

Comments

[deeteeuk.livejournal.com]

It reads badly. I have no deeper criteria, but it just reads like a pre written email. eg How did I find you? I did a google search using the following search
criteria: "perl developer" "uk" "cv", just seems like it was written by someone who just finished his spiel on how you could be a millionaire by next month, just send five dollars to......

Be careful mate. Looks dodgy.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

1) You are among the top ten hits for those search terms, so it's not so implausible that this was sent to only a few people.

2) They want you to work both cheeks of your arse off, but they don't mean to pay you a proper, straightforward salary; they're going to give you peanuts plus shares or some such thing. But since the business is going to be such a FANTASTIC SUCCESS, and the shares are going to climb THREE MILLION PERCENT anyway, it's going to be worth it!

4) These people who want to do a sales job on the phone can piss off. Email me the summary and I'll decide whether to make a call. Send me a mysterious email with a phone number and I shall reply by email. Asking "never mind your fucking business model, what's the salary?"

5) If they even suggest you might like to put your own money in, put their domain in your spam filter.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

1) I note that the link to my CV on google goes to a domain of mine that is currently suffering from a nasty period of being dead. So he must have been interested enough to go to the Google cache after the direct link was refused. I'm not sure whether to intepret that as good or bad though :)

2) The 'no salary plus shares of dubious value' thing is pretty much his entire proposal to me, it would seem. At least he was up front and honest about it. I don't have any experience of being paid in shares, like I say this is my first such offer, and I'm really not sure what to make of it. I just have these vague memories of lots of US-based online friends in the open source community who got dotcom burned quite nicely a few years back.

3) Never trust a cryptographer to count to 5 for you? :)

4) His business plan bothers me, even in the sparse details given - it sounds to me like a niche market version of another.com since they went to a subscription based revenue stream... and as I recall, they've been dying ever since. I'm not at all impressed with the notion that this is going to make any vast sum of money - I suppose it might make some though. The "I'd like to talk to you on the phone" thing was definitely another key phrase that made me suspicious - it does suggest a hard-sell pep-talk is incoming, to which 'no thanks'.

5) Very good point, thanks. I imagine alarm bells would have rung for me had the subject been raised anyway, but I'm glad you mentioned it in advance...

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

My opinion differs from the other two somewhat. I think that you should get involved but keep your eyes open. Make sure you're not being taken for a ride. But get involved. Make sure you know exactly what you're committing to and what you can expect in return. Get something formal in writing before starting, and preferably have your solicitor look it over too.

Above all, be careful not to pin your hopes on this. As you point out, you and all others are keen to find something different. Hope, at this time? Hmmmm...

Show me the money!

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I don't think talking to the guy for 15 minutes will hurt, though frankly if all he has as a business model so far is an over-the-phone spiel, I'd be highly suspicious - he should at least be able to mail you a shiny folder of something Powerpointed (hell, for part-ownership of the business and £7 an hour, I'll be his publicity bint!).

Make sure he gives you a bit of a clearer idea about salary; bearing in mind it's in London I imagine you'll want at least the wage you're on now.

Re: Show me the money!

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

As far as I read that email, there is no salary. It's my time on a part-time basis (read, every single spare minute I have evenings/weekends, possibly) in return for shares in a business that doesn't actually have a revenue stream yet.

I did say it sounded dodgy :) But potentially, this kind of thing can turn out legit, and worthwhile. I'd hate to miss an interesting opportunity because I was too suspicious... but even more I'd hate to get screwed over because I wasn't cynical enough. *ponders*

I suspect I'm going to go with ciphergoth's approach and mail him back asking for more details. Mostly I'll want to know what they're likely to expect from me, as I don't even know what the right questions are to ask about the whole shares-instead-of-wages thing...

Re: Show me the money!

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I'd hate to miss an interesting opportunity because I was too suspicious...

Don't be. You're looking for a job, not a "business opportunity". Business opportunities are for people who have a lot of money, and even then they're 99% bogus.

If they can't pay you a real salary, you'll probably work your guts out for the constant promise of money just around the corner that never materialises.