How do I sell an idea to a computer programmer?

Are you sure it’s a computer programmer that you want to sell it to? That is sort of like saying “I have a great idea for a novel, and I need to find a writer to sell it to.” Writers don’t buy ideas for novels. They’re developing their own, or else somebody else is paying them to write something. As far as I know, programmers work more or less the same way.

Do you mean that you need a programmer to turn your idea into a program or application so you can sell it to somebody else?

Ideas are worth very little… They are only worth something when you actually do something – and that’s the hard part. My suggestion would be to “sell” equity, say 50% to a programmer. The programmer can do the actual computer work and you can do the sales/administration/whatever else is needed to function. Not many people are willing to “buy” an idea alone, and it is not protected.

@Jeruba and @raygunak are right. Ideas are really a dime a dozen. If you have an idea for a program that you think will be successful then if you want it to become a reality, you will have to pay the programmer. It may very well be a great idea that “is sure to take off” but, no, nothing is a sure thing. A programmer is not going to buy an “idea” from you. They probably have some good ones of there own. If you really think it is that good an idea, then you should and have to be willing to invest your own time, energy and money into making it a reality. You just can’t really sell and idea. You have to sell something tangible and real.

@raygunak I think a programmer’s going to demand upwards of 90% equity. As others have said, @dreamwolf‘s idea is worthless without being brought to reality, and most people aren’t too keen on a “you do all of the incredibly difficult work that most people get paid well for, while I do nothing, and we’ll split the profits.” I don’t know many programmers foolish enough to fall into that trap, nor do I know of any programmers who don’t have their own “million-dollar ideas” who are just waiting around looking to buy one.

The reality is that most good ideas have been thought of and tried. If you’re not seeing it out in the marketplace than it’s likely that either your idea sucks, it has been tried and it failed, or there are some technical reasons that you probably lack the knowledge to appreciate which would make your idea either impossible, or so expensive to code that it would never be profitable.

I used to think the same way, and got tired of having great ideas without the skills to bring them to life, so I taught myself how to program in my spare time. I’m still working on it, but there are many excellent resources out there for getting started, and it’s very doable to learn without taking college coding classes (although getting feedback from teachers is incredibly valuable if you can manage it). My suggestion for an easy-to-read, general purpose language that will be useful for many kinds of apps is Python.

I agree with those who say that you are going to have to hire a programmer, but I disagree about having to give the programmer equity. People who come up with great ideas for companies like Microsoft and Google do not get equity. They get a pat on the back and an increase in salary if they are lucky. You can and should get any programmer who works for you to sign an agreement handing over to you any rights to the software.

@LostInParadise You don’t have to give the programmer equity, but programmers tend to bill for over $100/hour, and a non-trivial project can take hundreds to thousands of hours to complete. Unless @dreamwolf has that kind of cash lying around, he’s most likely going to need to pay someone with equity. Also, in the early stages of a company, most of the people involved at the beginning of a project get equity. This includes Microsoft and Google. If you’re not giving them equity, there is little incentive to build the foundation of something great, but merely the obligation to satisfy the bare minimum requirement of the contract. I would never start a company without giving the initial players some equity, the incentives to break your back to make things work just aren’t there otherwise.

Signing on to an existing, well-established company is very different than working for a startup.

I think that you can work whit a computer programmer to realize your idea and after sell it gaining together!