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by fate_carver 5346 days ago
You, and I and most of HN, see this conundrum every time we want to start something. In your case, since you don't have the geek chops, you have the following choices:

1) Get lucky and find a TCF willing to work for equity. 2) 'Hire' a company/freelancer to build your MVP 3) Hire someone to grow with you and build your MVP 4) Do it yourself

My opinion is that if your product is actually worth all of this fuss then you have to put your money where your mouth is. I would keep the job, read more about development, save some money, and figure out how you are going to hire someone on a project basis (1099/freelancer)...there will come a time, MVP or not, that you will have to make that leap. Sure, today is not the day. Let's say you get your MVP created, its a hit, and then what? What about hosting it on EC2 or dedicated servers? What about some marketing? What about some legal reviews? What about incorporating (kinda need that to realistically spread equity to partners and investors)? If you did outsource the MVP how are you going to get your new dev team up to speed when you do hire...and what if it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up because the outsourced dev did not take scaling, security, or authorization into account? What about the other 10,000 things that are going to hit you?

You'll be fine. I see a lot of people that have the best of intentions that are not fiscally capable of starting a business. You at least have a job. Some of these stories of creating the next whiz-bang site with 10 Million users on the first day and only $1.57 in startup capital are definitely the exception and not the rule. If you compare yourself to that success, then you are being unfair on yourself and on your future team. All of this lean startup talk ticks me off because some times you do need some capital to make it happen. That is where outsourcing may help a bit, but what ask yourself if losing the knowledge of the code is worth it? Fate's word of the day: Conundrum.

1 comments

jaypreneur's head must have exploded. : )
Nope. Fortunately, no explosion. :) I actually just had a late day at work so haven't gotten a chance to come back to this.

But in regards to your reply. It really sums everything perfectly and I can't thank you enough for your help. It has given me a lot to think about and figure out... and ultimately start accomplishing. I think the route of hiring someone to freelance and not just have it outsourced and part ways is a far better strategy. If they can guide me through what they are doing, why they are doing it, and even be there after completion as well... it'd be 100 times better than being left with a cheaper site but being a bit more blind to what's going on and when going forward.

Again, I can't thank you enough for your help.