looking for some project advice for a startup

[David Schwartz]

I have some general questions relating to a programming project for a startup, and someone suggested this might be a good place to post them.  

A guy I know is involved with a start-up and they need to have a commercial router reprogrammed for their specific needs. (I can’t address the why’s or wherefore’s about this. That’s all they’ve told me thus far.)

Since this list probably has a fairly wide range of people on it, I figured a few of you might know something about taking on projects for startups, and also maybe even programming routers.

I found the product page for the router they’re interested in using, and it has a link to download the GNU-licensed source code that they’re obligated to distribute. It’s a tarball that contains a customized version of OpenWrt, an embedded Linux distro designed mainly for use inside of routers and similar equipment.

(see http://openwrt.org for more info)

I’ve looked over the OpenWrt site, and it uses Packages to allow you to add your apps into a virtual file system. Since the router’s logic, as a Package, wouldn’t be part of the distro, it’s probably not included in the tarball.  But the configuration screens may be.

Anyway, this guy wants me to talk with their tech dude about implementing custom firmware for these devices.  

I’ve never programmed routers before, but it seems like little more than taking data packets from one port, filtering them, maybe translating and/or transforming them, and sending them out of another port. I don’t know exactly what they want done yet, so I don’t know why they need customized firmware.

Ignoring all of the specific, and keeping in mind that they’re a start-up and are probably under-capitalized, I have the following

QUESTIONS

1) Generally speaking, how easy is it to find someone who has experience doing this kind of work? (embedded Linux for equipment, including routers)

2) What would they normally charge?  (ie., is it a super-specialty kind of thing that would command a really high rate? Or would $50/hr be considered reasonable?)

3) If they want to pay mostly or entirely in equity, how would you arrive at a fair compensation rate? How much harder would that make it to find someone to do the work?

4) I could probably learn what’s needed and do this for them, but it wouldn’t be as fast as someone who’s programmed routers before. I’m trying to decide if I’d be better off saying I’ll do the programming and everything myself, or take this on as a kind of Project Manager and do what I can while finding someone else to do the coding. They’d still be paid in stock, I’d imagine.

5) Assuming they have some kind of a spec, how much work would be involved before you’d start coding? IOW, how much prep work would be needed before you’re ready to code this?  What I’m getting at here is this: is there a good chance there’s 40-50 hours (eg., a full week) of prep work, like rebuilding and tweaking the OS, verifying it can be loaded onto the device, figuring out how to debug it live, and so forth? Or is this something that would take a day or so? 

6) How could I split this into some smaller deliverables for project management purposes? (I’m just not familiar enough with embedded projects like this to guess what kinds of milestones someone might set.)

Keep in mind this is a commercial product that they want to reprogram. The vendor is going to be of little or no use in helping with anything. So we’d be hacking this thing all the way.

I’m curious what your opinions are. Please refrain from things like, “turn and run away as fast as you can!”  I get that some folks won’t go near startups. That’s fine. It doesn’t alter the fact that these guys are looking for someone, and they’ll find them sooner or later. I’m just trying to get a sense of how to negotiate with them and if it’s worth my while to consider taking it on it myself.

Thanks!

-David