$3.5 Million Worth of Programming for $700! OK, How About $3000?

This makes me want to reach through my screen and grab an idiot by the shoulders and shake some sense into him.

There are web sites where you can post requests for programming projects. Independent developers will reply with quotes. Then you negotiate with them, select a developer, and supposedly complete your project on time and on schedule.

About once a month I see a job posting like this one I found on a site called Scriptlance.com.

 

This guy, “itadvisor” writes,

“I purchased software called rbackup and am going to sell the licenses i purchased but am looking to develop a similar application to perform the same exact function. I need to be able to install the application on a client and also on the server. Please look at the application at http://rbackup.com. We can begin discussions after you take a look at it.”

This person says he has bought my software, and he likes it so much that he wants someone to reproduce it. He even sends his prospective partners in IP crime to one of my web sites.

So far seven people have responded, absolutely sure that they can do what RBS spent $3.5M to do, for prices ranging from $700 to $3000.

You can’t write ANY online backup software like mine, or Mozy’s, or Carbonite’s for anything short of six figures! What are you thinking? ARE you thinking?

Not only do the Seven Dwarfs who responded to Mr. “itadvisor” think they can do it for less than $3000, they think they can do what took my team five years, and Carbonite’s team two years, and Mozy’s team three years, in less than 45 days!

“techbongo” says he can do it in 10 days for $700. I should hire him. He has super programmer powers that can bend space, time, and dollars.

If you like RBackup, why not just buy a license to use it? Call us up. We’re reasonable people. We don’t bite. Why wait 10 days for super-programmer to reproduce our software when you can just buy a license and have it running in an hour?