FratMusic.com searching for tech co-founder
9 comments
As a university student, I can attest to the popularity of fratmusic.com - it is a resource used my many of my friends from across the country at different universities.
It's recent shutdown caused quit a bit of chatter among all of us and we were sad to see it go. It would be great for it to come back with an even better and more substantial offering.
It's recent shutdown caused quit a bit of chatter among all of us and we were sad to see it go. It would be great for it to come back with an even better and more substantial offering.
I'd like to add a little bit to this discussion. Disclaimer: I wrote most of the site's code and worked extensively with Mark for the past few months.
To start, Mark is a great co-founder. He doesn't code, but he always has a strong vision about the product. Yes, at first I thought that a visionary co-founder was a glorified way of saying over-zealous MBA, but Mark has the ability to see both the forest and the trees when it comes to building a product and developing software on a constrained schedule. The two of us worked extensively on the product, building and scaling it from a simple flatpage app to something that appealed to college kids around the US while handling 22 concurrent req/sec.
I left FratMusic for two reasons. First, I didn't have enough time to dedicate to developing the site. Second, I was concerned with some of the legal issues that the site could be facing. Despite this, I know Mark has been working diligently to find a way to make the site work. If I had more time, I definitely would have stuck with the project.
Technically, the site is pretty fun. I wrote it all in Django and it comes with some interesting problems, both tech and systems. From a technical perspective, I spent a fair bit of time trying to better recommend music to users, and to A/B test purchasing avenues through iTMS and Amazon. From a systems perspective, the site has a grown a lot. Last semester, we were doubling our slice's ram just about every three weeks. We switched from Apache to nginx and are now running in a full MySQL / python / fcgi / nginx / memcached environment. There are a lot of fun challenges in there to.
FratMusic is a household name on a lot of college campuses. Here's a twitter search: http://twitter.com/search?q=fratmusic. Our facebook page has about 25K fans and is growing. The site is very simple, but it works.
Anyways, if you have any questions, feel free to ping me as well. [email protected].
To start, Mark is a great co-founder. He doesn't code, but he always has a strong vision about the product. Yes, at first I thought that a visionary co-founder was a glorified way of saying over-zealous MBA, but Mark has the ability to see both the forest and the trees when it comes to building a product and developing software on a constrained schedule. The two of us worked extensively on the product, building and scaling it from a simple flatpage app to something that appealed to college kids around the US while handling 22 concurrent req/sec.
I left FratMusic for two reasons. First, I didn't have enough time to dedicate to developing the site. Second, I was concerned with some of the legal issues that the site could be facing. Despite this, I know Mark has been working diligently to find a way to make the site work. If I had more time, I definitely would have stuck with the project.
Technically, the site is pretty fun. I wrote it all in Django and it comes with some interesting problems, both tech and systems. From a technical perspective, I spent a fair bit of time trying to better recommend music to users, and to A/B test purchasing avenues through iTMS and Amazon. From a systems perspective, the site has a grown a lot. Last semester, we were doubling our slice's ram just about every three weeks. We switched from Apache to nginx and are now running in a full MySQL / python / fcgi / nginx / memcached environment. There are a lot of fun challenges in there to.
FratMusic is a household name on a lot of college campuses. Here's a twitter search: http://twitter.com/search?q=fratmusic. Our facebook page has about 25K fans and is growing. The site is very simple, but it works.
Anyways, if you have any questions, feel free to ping me as well. [email protected].
FWIW, I'm not dyslexic and still had to read this a couple times before I saw something other than "FartMusic".
Also, "frat" is not a positive word in most people's minds.
Two good reasons for changing the name before you do anything else.
Also, "frat" is not a positive word in most people's minds.
Two good reasons for changing the name before you do anything else.
What will this site do that Grooveshark or Last.fm doesn't, besides market to a different demographic?
I find the term "cofounder" to be way overused, especially on HN lately. Once a company has been founded, and an initial product launched, how is it possible to "hire" a cofounder?
Also:
> The site needs someone young and hungry to work their ass off for equity.
If you can't afford to pay a programmer, you should probably just work your own ass off.
Also:
> The site needs someone young and hungry to work their ass off for equity.
If you can't afford to pay a programmer, you should probably just work your own ass off.
There are two (more than two, but let's stick with two) basic views of how we define concepts. One is that we define concepts by definition. A cofounder is someone who helps to found a company, therefore (by logical definition) an already-founded company cannot acquire more cofounders. The other is that we define concepts by comparison to bundles of referents. For instance, we know that Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Paul Graham, and Gordon Moore are all called "cofounders", and that they worked their asses off for equity. If your startup is looking to hire someone who works and gets paid just like a cofounder except without actually cofounding the company, it's looking to hire someone who resembles our "cofounder" referents even if it doesn't fit the technical definition.
Hence, this controversy just comes down to different ways in which people define and use concepts. Personally, I find it useful to be able to think in both modes.
Hence, this controversy just comes down to different ways in which people define and use concepts. Personally, I find it useful to be able to think in both modes.
It is a cofounder though, maybe not literally or by definition, but someone who plays a large part and owns a large stake in the project. I didn't see anything about hiring, he's looking for a technical partner.
>If you can't afford to pay a programmer, you should probably just work your own ass off.
Are you suggesting that it is unethical for people to work for equity?
Are you suggesting that it is unethical for people to work for equity?
Depends on the type of equity being offered, and who it's being offered to.
The equity being offered here is probably worth nothing, or worse, is a liability. Especially since it's being offered to a "young and hungry" AKA "green" programmer who doesn't know that yet.
The equity being offered here is probably worth nothing, or worse, is a liability. Especially since it's being offered to a "young and hungry" AKA "green" programmer who doesn't know that yet.
I'm looking for someone that is going to drive the site forward without having to watch over them. I'm looking for someone to take ownership of their work. Thus, equity.
One simple request: Can you please make sure you provide adequate counseling about the tax implications of 'working for equity' that given an already-launched product can be quite onerous?
This is HUGE. The new hire can wind up with a substantial tax bill, and no cash to pay it with. Don't gloss over this!
Surely the government would accept equity in an ambitious young startup poised to reshape the world of online music.
Why not. They seem to accept equity in over-priced homes.
You assume the OP knows them himself.
You're a far more optimistic person than I am.
You're a far more optimistic person than I am.
Equity isn't worth shit til' the person receiving equity to build the product builds the product (thus making the equity worth something). All developers should avoid these catch 22 situations; I know I do.
[deleted]
Who are you and what do you bring to the table?
who are you and what do you bring to the table?
To be honest, Zack's question is spot on when looking for a co-founder; especially when all you're giving back in return is equity.
Who are you? What have you done in the past? Can you show the community what you've done so far? I think the legal trouble you mention also needs some explanation (assuming you can talk about it in this open of a forum). A little effort can go a long way here.
Who are you? What have you done in the past? Can you show the community what you've done so far? I think the legal trouble you mention also needs some explanation (assuming you can talk about it in this open of a forum). A little effort can go a long way here.
You don't know Zack, but he runs a kickass online music service, bootstrapped by himself and he built everything.
[deleted]
To be fair, at the very least Zack has links in his profile and >2000 karma on HN. Yours is a brand new account with no bio.
The site needs someone young and hungry to work their ass off for equity. Interested programers should contact [email protected].
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/fratmusic.com#