I'll be frank, if I was Jim Gaffigan, I wouldn't hire you.
The reason for me is twofold: The asterisk, and the lack of product.
The Asterisk:
You make it very hard to understand what "Free*" actually means. When you later say "we'll need to take a small portion of revenue..." a lot of red flags go up in mind. What if I want to deploy the product on my own server, where I will take care of the bandwidth and other costs? Will you still give me your product for free, since the only money you asked for was to cover bandwidth?
The Lack of Product:
I don't see a demo (tell me if I'm wrong) showing how you have this turnkey "Louie CK model" solution up and running. If you don't have that, that means I'll be your guinea pig as your first customer. If I'm putting a product out there, I'm not willing to chance being a guinea pig because if problems occur (data stolen, server outtages, etc) it's my reputation that will suffer as a result.
I was at this point of thinking 6 years ago - "Hey I know i'll find the content makers and i'll do allt he other work, and we'll split profits. It'll all work out so great because i'll make them so popular, but really I am totally expecting them to do all the work of getting people there".
It's a bad way to start a 'business'. It's a bad way to move forward on an idea. And it's a surefire way of setting yourself up to be looked at as worth... wait for it... nothing.
Instead of trying to entice him to pay you nothing, entice him to pay you 35k. Wouldn't that get you so much further in his eyes and also, in yours? Wouldn't that give you so much more runway to actually do the amazing job you're expecting of yourself, and also the one you're setting Jim Gaffigan up to expect of you also?
I see things like that, and I immediately think amatuer - because I was right there, thinking that way. And I didn't achieve anything of substance until I woke up from silly dreams of making it big by jumping on the backs of giants.
Agreed. This is a good deal for someone like me who wouldn't want to spend $35k, nobody knows me and I could take a flier on some random guys. But, if I'm a famous comedian, I'm looking for someone I can trust who has done this type of work before. Not the lowest price.
Sorry that the asterisk wasn't clear, I've changed the language. I don't think you're our target market, the people we're going after don't know how to set up their own EC2 clusters and build a custom video player, so we handle the hosting.
As for the cost, the reality is that a project like this takes a lot of bandwidth, and wouldn't be feasible at all if we weren't taking 5%.
Lack of product is a valid criticism. We've been focusing on customer development before actually building the thing, specifically because we need feedback in order to formulate the product correctly. This is a special case in which we would build a version of it specifically for Jim, and then use the same code to create a repeatable version.
The reason for me is twofold: The asterisk, and the lack of product.
The Asterisk: You make it very hard to understand what "Free*" actually means. When you later say "we'll need to take a small portion of revenue..." a lot of red flags go up in mind. What if I want to deploy the product on my own server, where I will take care of the bandwidth and other costs? Will you still give me your product for free, since the only money you asked for was to cover bandwidth?
The Lack of Product: I don't see a demo (tell me if I'm wrong) showing how you have this turnkey "Louie CK model" solution up and running. If you don't have that, that means I'll be your guinea pig as your first customer. If I'm putting a product out there, I'm not willing to chance being a guinea pig because if problems occur (data stolen, server outtages, etc) it's my reputation that will suffer as a result.