[dzink]

Also a bootstrapped founder. I couple of years ago I wanted to build an app for my site and posted the job to a freelance marketplace. I got abundant calls and picked a company that seemed to have an eye for design and a lot of good looking examples in their portfolio. They offered to do a redesign and a bunch of other work I refused - I knew what functionality I wanted and needed just a developer for a few weeks. They needed requirements in 24 hrs and were going to be ready in 2 weeks. I worked overnight to get wireframes and every functional requirement ready. I didn’t hear from them at all for weeks. Finally the deadline comes and I ask for an update. “We just assigned you an app developer”. I looked up the persons app store portfolio and he only had a starter calculator app project. I pinged them and asked for a refund, which they tried to negotiate without completing a single deliverable before the deadline. A deeper look into the company showed their address was just a registered agent in Delaware and not a real place. The freelance marketplace continues to sell my contact information to freelancers and I get at least one call a week from someone with a deep accent offering to finish the “Website project” or “Logo redesign project” We “talked about” a while back (we never did, the project was for an ios app). I ended up doing the app myself and learned a lot more and did it faster than the freelancers. With GPT 4 the effort is even smaller now.

[ProllyInfamous]

I often ask non-engineering staff (basically: imposing salesbruhs): "would you want to be treated this way?"

>With GPT 4 the effort is even smaller now.

Thanks to co-pilot, I am building my first website in over two decades. It encourages me in ways that aren't designed to pilfer my heard-earnt dollars with every modification.

[Waterluvian]

I’m reminded of a podcast I recently heard that looked into the whole fraudulent industry in India where they just make up colleges sell people on them.

The front was probably a fraud to begin with and there was never a plan to do anything other than add you to a list of potential marks.

[iJohnDoe]

Does anyone have a solution to this? Is there a way to find someone online that will build what they say? Or is it always trial and error, and lost money?

[aleku]

It’s mostly trial and error. Based on my experience, I created a fictional project to identify reliable professionals. Through this process, I found a skilled developer, a UI/UX designer, and a graphic designer. We’ve recently completed an actual project together.