While I appreciate the creativity here, I would really be cautious about paying freelancers with equity. This can create a messy cap table that will likely cause problems when you go to raise money.
@kleneway Yeah it definitely seems like one of those "great in theory, terrible in practice" kind of idea. I think it would better serve as a marketplace to make connections, not necessarily make contracts.
@alteredorange@kleneway You nailed it. We initially started with the idea of contracts, and quickly realized facilitating the introduction / connection is what people are looking for on Loom.
@kleneway yeah, you're right, another thing to have in mind is that usually when you pay someone with equity you kinda want that person to be involved long term, not just as a contractor.
To be honest, I see Loom as a shorter path to finding your CTO or star engineer :P.
@kleneway Hey Kevin, thanks for contributing to the discussion about Loom! While we highly encourage everyone to be thorough and careful about who they let on their cap table, our goal is to facilitate these connections so that entrepreneurs, who might not immediately have the adequate financial resources to build their MVP, have a chance to require a cap table and ultimately a chance at becoming successful in their entrepreneurial goals. A product that requires a cap table is better than no product at all. :)
I really find this idea amazing because I personally know a lot of people with ideas willing to connect with remote developers/freelancers to build a product, but they lacked a transparent tool to manage this whole relationship.
Loom really makes this whole connection thing very easy.
You can pay the freelancer with equity or cash.
I also added the founders to this post, so hopefully they can join us and give more info on their initiative.
PS: I see that Loom was already featured on PH, but no Makers were listed and also it was listed in the pre-launch phase.
Concept is great Andy but what is your role in building trust between the freelancer and the business? What do you do to assist with due-diligence (skills, quality of work, reputation of the business etc.)?
@ravsydney Hey Ravi, founder to founder, thanks for contributing to our discussion about Loom. Our goal is to create meaningful connections. That said, we facilitate profiles that display work experience, long and short bios, work examples, and skill tests (amongst other smaller features). And that list of functionality to promote transparency and celebrate qualifications is growing every week. Beyond that, we encourage thorough communication through our integrated NDAs and messaging system.
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