Ask HN: Startup Quandary - build myself, hire or outsource

On the short: I hired some contractors through elance/odesk - this was NOT the right thing to do. They lack motivation in what you're doing.

My advice: build it yourself, no matter how long it takes.

I know a couple of outsourcing companies so I can give you a few pointers, good companies have NDAs and other contracts in place to protect you and your IP, usually they have US presence and they have workers on aligned timezones. I can say such companies are not rock bottom cheap but the quality and security it comes with them might be worth every penny (while also being cheaper than getting a full US team).

If you like I can pass you a few contacts in case you'll like to go this path.

you have a unique oopportunity to learn. Hire someone on as your lead developer, and act as a developer beneath them. You can grow yourself, by getting assigned tasks and working through their code reviews, you'll have complete scope view of project, and the possibility for a cool prototype.

I would suspect that it'll take less time than you, and more time than just them; but could be an exceptional environment

Put up a landing page now to gauge interest and start the marketing effort by building a list.

in any case, nothing is as important as the founder's investment of time amd focus in any new business. that said, i would also look for enthusiastic volunteers (equity based, deferred comp, experience, former employees hoping to see another success, etc) to help so that it forces you to articulate a plan, organize and prioritize, and most importantly, keeps you from losing motivation since you have people who depend on your feedback and leadership day to day

oh and stop reading HN as it kills productivity ;) time to get back to work!

I'm assuming you have a clear vision for your product/service. You're going to have to take the lead on owning the product, there's no getting around this. There's almost no chance you're going to find a co-founder that's going to handle the product/development, etc while you focus on marketing. I've tried and each time has ended badly. I advise against co-founders unless you know the person well and have worked with them in the past.

Here's the key to getting something developed in as little time and effort as possible. Start with the design. What the user will see when they come to the site. Don't worry about the backend at all.

Search on Dribble for designers - they don't have to be front-end developers. Actually better if they're not (cheaper). For more affordable quality designers, search eastern europe/russia.

Contact a bunch of designers, see if they're available and what their rates are. See how quickly they respond, etc. Select 3 or 4 and give each one the same first task. It should be something that takes 2-3 hours. It could be taking a sketched mockup, polishing it up, etc. After each one has completed this, you pick the one you feel was the best.

A lot of good designers know good front-end developers. You can find one through the designer. If not, you can do the same process on odesk for both front-end and back-end developers.

This is the process I use after a lot of trial and error, and it works the best for me.

For concern about rights / stolen ideas, I don't think it should be a major problem. By and large they are interested in getting paid, if you are a good partner then things should be OK. There are things you can do to mitigate the risk, e.g. if it is an iOS app then you submit the app yourself and get the payments directly, make sure to get the source code, etc.

If you want to know more then let me know.

I am interest in your current role "Marketer". Recently I just launch my startup product(peoplelamp.com). Now I am headache on how to promote it on US market especially I am living in Asia(Taiwan). Take a look at my site and see if my skills fulfill your expectation. I build this site myself. If you are interesting we can discuss further.

Not sure if my response violate the posting rules of HN. If it did, I will remove it immediately.

I've talked to a founder who hired external contractors for their site and they ended up with something pretty unmaintainable for $3.5k. They ended up working with a more technical advisor to vet new people working on tech. I'm not sure if such an arrangement could work for you, but if I was in your shoes I'd find someone who seems upstanding and has had success with contracted teams, and then get them on as a contracting advisor.

I have another suggestion I'd like to share with you privately if you want to put your email in your account.

You get what you pay for however, so while the site works, it's pretty ugly (needs way better design). Also, his main contractors were barely fluent in english - so communication was always bit tricky.

BTW, feel free to email me since I'm in the same town.

Supposing you can't build an mvp, logically, you're best to try the above routes.

To do that, we work with the founders on:

1. Properly determining the scope and technical requirements, so things can be predictable 2. Understanding their needs and creating an ideal team profile. Things get complicated later on, if you don't focus on both hard skills AND the soft side - cultural fit, communicational patterns. Also, by looking for a team that already has experience in your industry focus and project type, you can get more than you bargained for. 3. Selecting the most fitted profile. We do this by further distilling the teams, by interviewing them. 4. Providing support on configuring and helping with the relationship management.

Shamelessly, we do this for free. If you need any help, just give me a shout! :)