I just can't imagine any non brochure-ware prototype that can be built for $3500 (let's leave off the problems of the middleman not making much money on this one /and/ promising to do project management).
two problems
1) limited hours - you're talking about somewhere around 20-30 hours of senior dev time or 40-70 hours of a newer devs time. Let's say they can both accomplish the same amount during that timeframe. It's still /not that much/ especially if you are taking any design into consideration beyond popping bootstrap on it.
2) zero iterations. (and this is perhaps a bigger problem, since the first can be solved simply be changing it to a prototype for $10k or whatever) I've never seen even an MVP come out fully baked without a lot of iterations at the beginning. Arguably prototyping is the process of rapid iteration. One and done just doesn't work for what a prototype needs.
Considering that a mid-level to senior South African developer makes around R40'000 per month (which is roughly what $3500 equates to), you would be able to get an entire month's worth of work from a competent developer based here in SA.
Came here to say this. I'd go so far as to say that a two man team from a country like SA or India, with a back-ender + front-ender, working on 2 prototypes a month, can make a healthy living.
I find this kind of funny I've seen this forgetfulness elsewhere in the thread. We all work in the worldwide web here on hns, yet we constantly forget about the rest of the world.
This would still pay a lot more than anyone on oDesk/elance is willing to spend. And I think a lot of prototypes/betas/MVPs can be built in 30-40 hours.
Zero iterations? I think most people would just continue on after the beta, working outside of Betatype.
Someone should point the fact that senior devs are on average making $175/hr to Google's Greatest Asset, who recently wondered where to find contracts that yield $100/hr.
two problems
1) limited hours - you're talking about somewhere around 20-30 hours of senior dev time or 40-70 hours of a newer devs time. Let's say they can both accomplish the same amount during that timeframe. It's still /not that much/ especially if you are taking any design into consideration beyond popping bootstrap on it.
2) zero iterations. (and this is perhaps a bigger problem, since the first can be solved simply be changing it to a prototype for $10k or whatever) I've never seen even an MVP come out fully baked without a lot of iterations at the beginning. Arguably prototyping is the process of rapid iteration. One and done just doesn't work for what a prototype needs.