The archive · Business Models · Product decision · 2015
Assembly's Save Your Side Project turns stalled apps into community revenue-share products
Assembly let owners of stalled side projects hand them to a contributor community earning credits toward future revenue; January 2015's Show HN drew 175 points.
Assembly
What it had to solve
In January 2015, Assembly — a platform where software products are built by open communities of contributors — launched "Save your side project" at sideprojects.assembly.com. The pitch targeted the most common way side projects die: one owner who runs out of time, money or motivation, with no one else to carry the work. Commenters read it as deconstructing the startup: the founder becomes the idea person, contributors the team, and Assembly the backer taking a revenue share instead of equity.
How it works
On 8 January 2015, Assembly submitted "Show HN: Save your side project" with a link to sideprojects.assembly.com. Assembly was a platform on which software products were built openly by communities of contributors, and this launch was aimed squarely at the most common way side projects die: a solo owner runs out of time, money or motivation, and the app languishes because nobody else can carry it.
The mechanism was ownership, not charity. An owner could bring a stalled project to the community, where contributors took tasks posted as bounties and earned credits — the platform's internal points — that entitled them to a share of any revenue the product later earned. Assembly handled the accounting, finances, legal and hosting costs before a product became profitable, taking its own cut in return; one commenter read the fee as around 10%, and the founders answered by comparing themselves with marketplaces that charge 30% or more.
The thread's most-quoted framing came from a commenter who deconstructed the model: the founder becomes a person with an idea, the initial development team becomes contributors, and Assembly plays the role of the VC — but with revenue share instead of equity. Another called it "an imperfect glimpse into what will someday be a really valuable model," praising the low barrier to contributing and the automatic stake in success; skeptics worried about the size of the cut, legal unknowns across countries, and whether contributors would feel like cogs rather than founders.
The launch was not just a pitch: Assembly staff pointed to products already on the platform, among them Formspree, whose creator reported it gaining momentum where the alternative would have been shutting it down. The owner of Think200, an app-monitoring tool that was roughly 85% built and already had users, said the timing was perfect and began exploring Assembly as an alternative to open-sourcing or abandonment, with a follow-up email promised from the Assembly team.
Why it lands
- It attacked the actual cause of death — not a bad idea but a solo owner running out of time — by replacing one owner with a whole community.
- Contributors were paid in credits tied to future revenue, so work could happen before any money existed and everyone carried a stake in success.
- Assembly absorbed the overhead that kills hobby projects — accounting, finance, legal, hosting — removing the unglamorous reasons owners give up.
- Launching as a Show HN put the model in front of its exact audience, and the founders answered critics in the thread, sharpening the pitch in public.
- Real products already living on the platform, Formspree among them, gave the idea evidence rather than just promise.
What it did
The Show HN drew 175 points and 34 comments in a day, and the debate stayed on the model's mechanics: one commenter mapped founder to idea person, contributors to team, and Assembly to a venture backer taking revenue share rather than equity; others questioned whether a ~10% cut for hosting plus coordination was fair. Formspree's creator reported the project gaining momentum on Assembly where the alternative would have been shutting it down, and the owner of a languishing app with live users called the launch "perfect timing" and began investigating it.
What you can take
An abandoned project has value an individual's lost time hides: widen ownership, let contributors earn a stake with work instead of money, and keep the overhead on the platform.
Since then
The record that survives is the discussion itself: sideprojects.assembly.com no longer responds. In the thread the founders said version 2 was on the way, and the owner of Think200 said he would investigate moving his project in instead of letting it die. Formspree, an Assembly project whose creator said the alternative was shutting it down, was gaining momentum despite growing pains. The pattern the material preserves: abandoned software can be saved by widening ownership, with contributors earning a stake in future revenue instead of a wage.
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