[prime0196]

Web applications are a lot easier to develop. I think too many people are still applying methodologies that applied to more "traditional" forms of software development. If I have a good JavaScript hacker bail on me a week before launch, I don't think it would be extremely difficult to find another good JavaScript hacker.

[matth]

This is just my perspective, but if you're hiring and treating programmers like temps, don't expect any works of beauty. They're going to push out what they need to push out, probably very hackishly (because what do they care?), and then bail with check in-hand and let the next guy deal with the mess.

That's not such a big deal with JS, but it's a very big deal when your backend is in the toilet. You may as well flush.

[shiro]

You're right about "development" part, especially for the initial feature set. I do consulting, and I estimate efforts for initial development vs maintainance as 5% : 95%. If you aim at millions of users, probably it should be 1% : 99%. It might be easy to find or replace somebody who does that first 5% or 1%. It will be difficult to find somebody who has commitment to hang on for the rest of 95% to 99%.

[sudhirc]

you are talking like a MBA and a manager. As per your learnings people are machine so you can easily replace one malfunctioning part by another.

I am not involved in any startup but like to do my job with creative energy and scripted quite a few time saver solutions for my group. Until now all my manager were thoughtful enough to allow me but this new guy thinks that he can replace any person with any person without looking at the unique attributes of each of the person. He wants me to do the work others can do without looking at what i can do and others cannot... I am sorry but you are sounding like my manager so get a job in big company. Startup make you respect your talent and looks like you do not want to do that... Coders may be dime a dozen but believe me true developers/hackers are not...