Ask HN: I would like to help founders

2 modelcroissant 6 5/24/2025, 8:29:55 PM
Hey everyone, I’ve been in the tech space for over a decade and have seen all sorts of startup ideas from the whacky to the brilliant. What grinds my gears is how many of these ideas never materialise into something meaningful. And if they do, poor execution often kills them before they get off the ground.

As a software engineer, I’ve noticed a real disconnect between capable tech talent and ideators. Skilled engineers are often well paid and avoid high risk, early stage projects. What’s left is a saturated market of freelancers who lean on boilerplate and buzzwords, often resulting in bugs, delays, and broken promises. On the flip side, proper consultancies are prohibitively expensive and often charge more for overhead than outcomes.

So here’s my thought: I want to offer a service that bridges this gap. I want to provide honest consulting and technical scoping for free to help founders find the best technical solution for their product, handle the delivery (which would be paid based on complexity), and include free post-delivery aftercare with a grace period to resolve any post delivery issues.

I think this could be an affordable way for founders to circumnavigate the complex topic of tech whilst getting the most for their money.

Does this sound like something that would be found useful?

Comments (6)

steviee · 8h ago
Very cool. I even noticed this disconnect with bigger and big companies a lot. And also would offer help, however not for free. I do software for 40+ years and I've seen things go well and go south... Worked in a company with 4 customers and in a company with 25M customers and lots with numbers inbetween...
modelcroissant · 8h ago
100% regarding the big companies, it gets so much worse the bigger the company gets. I had this experience when I worked for a company of 6k+ employees.

Ps I’m not offering to build for free, but the pre build consulting and post handover limited time support I don’t mind

steviee · 8h ago
I'm quite out of illusions here. Small startups I'd also help (consulting-wise) for free. Bigger companies however already did so much harm to their employees with how they manage change (hint: they don't) that there's a fee attached...
modelcroissant · 7h ago
Yeah, makes sense in your case, personally I wasn’t planning on working with big companies, a David and Goliath battle I’m not willing to face at this point in my life
Saul1998zx · 1h ago
6451937099
Saul1998zx · 1h ago
6451937099