Ask HN: Hire freelancer devs, or a dev shop?
I have been a cofounder in the past in a different industry (Business-to-government, EU), with an experienced CTO, we raised 250K but failed to raise more due the nature of our business so we closed shop.
Now, I have been working on this idea for a few months on validation and on technical feasibility and decided to go for it. Its not very complicated to pull off tech-wise, and I found some open source projects that could be of help, but ultimately I would need a team of people to build it.
I obviously need a CTO and I have asked a few friends and acquaintances but at the moment theyre busy doing their own things, and its too early for them because I dont have much to show for at the moment. They have told me to validate the idea first by signing up potential customers and then come back.
So going forward, I can invest around $50K for an MVP, and the initial launch. I can start talking to customers, but I need a team of freelancers to build the MVP.
My question is, how and where do you find effective and affordable freelancers? How do you go about it without getting burned? Do you go to a dev shop, or make a team of individual ones?
The best choice usually comes down to:
1) References: you may want to prioritize working with freelancers or a dev shop you have worked with before, and has resulted in a good experience, or you have recommendation from someone you really trust.
2) Cost: can you afford the option you trust the most? If not, you might need to go with the next one.
3) Commitment: in the case of an extended engagement, will your choice be available, and will the terms remain the same? If not, same as above, go with the next in your list.
Thank you for the advice. However, if I run out of the references, where else would I be able to find talent? Are online freelancing websites like upwork and toptal worth it?
Freelancing websites sometimes have talented folks, but long term projects may be tricky. The nice thing is that usually the funds are held in escrow, so if the work isn't done to your satisfaction you may be able to recover some, or most of your money.
Since we are also in validation phase, you are welcome to send a DM on Mastodon or Twitter with some of the details, and if the idea fits our current effort, given proper evaluation, we might be able to get you a POC at no charge.
At 50k your looking for a friend to do you a favor.
That is not hire a team money. I'd beg a trusted friend to at a minimum scope it out. Knowing nothing about your project, my biggest tip would be to strictly limit your scope.
Software engineering like any type of engineering tends to have unexpected issues pop up. You can always learn a bit of programming yourself...
I am based half the year out of NYC and half the year in Eastern Europe. I know several friends who hired local eastern european dev shops for 10K-20K that delivered promising projects. I don't have reservations that 50K would be more than enough for a decent MVP, if I hire the talent locally.
>I know several friends who hired local eastern european dev shops for 10K-20K that delivered promising projects.
Have one of those teams do it.
I'm not sure what question your asking if you already know teams capable of this
Its because those projects were primarily regionally focused, for the local market, and were modeled after other products that were successful elsewhere. After the projects were done, the dev shops charge annual maintenance fees, but no major changes or iteration can be done. On the other hand, my project’s target market is the US, then Europe. I would need to think long term with constant product iteration and improvement.
Have the team in Eastern Europe create the MVP.
See if you can get see if you can get sign ups with that. Then presumably you'd be able to raise capital to hire a CTO/ dev team.
Good luck
Y Combinator Startup Podcast: How To Build A Tech Startup With No Technical Skills | Dalton & Michael Podcast
Episode webpage: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ycombinator/episodes...
I'm a CTO of one company, own a separate dev shop, and do freelancing on the side, and so not necessarily looking for a project, but I'm always happy to listen and audit and answer questions to help get you pointed in the right trajectory. Feel free to email me.
I can invest around $50K for an MVP
You are almost certainly under-capitalized.
I need a team of freelancers
Five developers at $3000/week/developer is a timeline of 3.5 weeks.
Its not very complicated to pull off tech-wise
Building it yourself is the simplest thing that might work. Nobody knows what you want better than you and nobody cares about the thing you want more than you. As a bonus, building it yourself as a non-technical person is still probably more likely to succeed than paying less than needs to be paid for good developers.
Building it yourself might also be easier than coordinating a teem of developers with other commitments (all moderately good freelancers have other commitments and their regular clients take precedence over one shot clients).
I can start talking to customers
Yes you can and should. You don't need an MVP or a team of subordinates to get to work. If you can sell your idea without a product, you can surely sell it with a product. And by "sell" I mean actually getting money from potential customers without an MVP. Getting money is the only validation of a business idea.
Good luck.
I'd be up to build the MVP if we could discuss the idea and the basic project scope.
Where can I reach you?
Shoot me an email to aa64rr6cr@mozmail.com and we can discuss there. Thanks!
I would love to help as well. My contact is on my profile.
Thank you, I will shoot you an email soon!
Are you still up for a call to discuss your idea? My email is hello@mmdesignsldn.com Happy to showcase some MVP built out and would like to build a high quality MVP that will be mutually beneficial for the both of us.
what country you're at?
The Balkans