Business Start-up needs a developer

Mozart1986

Hows it goin,
I'm starting a web-based business and need to find a decent web developer to build the site. I have the capital for an initial build, which will have to be basic, and depending upon success in the first few months I should be able to procure investment to build it fully. I've discussed the project with a number of developers where I am from over the past few months but they weren't proficient enough because it is somewhat of a custom build. Can anyone give me advice on how to look for a really good developer?

Giblet

Have money.

Mozart1986

Indeed:/

I was hoping to pay with scintillating conversion and a pack B&H, but recently I've found developers to be much less charitable than I'd expected.

In all seriousness I do have the seed capital for the first build. Afterword I am hoping to get an lone from a start-up business programme, but I need to get something up and running with users and growth projections, etc, in order to get that far. So I need a developer/designer that can see the potential of the business and is willing to commit to something that may only fully pay off 9 months down the line.

I am completely confident about the business plan, its been all summer in development, so I just need to get something tangible up now to begin promoting it.

Giblet

The best bet is to draw up your requirements in detail and get a feasibility study done, the more rounded out your documentation is, the more easily someone will get involved once they know what they are doing and what you are hoping to accomplish. Unfortunately, quality usually means payment of some sort unless you get lucky and find someone who is really keen on your idea. Development times tend to be under estimated and requirements expand and scope creep steps in, so the more planning the better, and have a definitive goal. This can also help plan costs as well, a developer might require specific hardware or software, or in the case of a web based project, some sort of decent hosting with shell access, which can cost depending on how complicated your idea is. Then of course there is testing, user testing, going back and forth with changes etc, which may demand more time on the developer and any other outsiders looking to work with the system.

Joneser

Depending on what you want done, you could always send it around to the school of computer science in various universities and they will send an email around to their students. I go to UCD and they are always emailing around work that students may be interested in. You probably won't get a 4th year, but a proficient 3rd year would be able to do a lot, and would love to get the work experience. If you had a spec or something detailing what needs to be done, then I know 1 person that may be interested, but sending it around to universities would probably be your best bet.

Webmonkey

Any hints on exactly what you want to do, the scale of it etc?

Mozart1986

Hi all, thanks for the comments.

Giblet, I have no problem paying for the build, its not a full partner I'm looking for. If I found someone that really understood the project and added value and that complimented my own sales & promotional abilities then excellent, I'd be delighted, but I do expect to pay. If I can throw a small percentage of equity to help retain some cash for operational costs then I'm open to that, but I am not holding my breath.

Joneser, I had considered that before summer, but at that point I wasn't ready with the business plan. Now I'm in the blocks, I feel like I'm just waiting for the firing pistol, but its September and I expected students to be busy again, I had felt like I missed an opportunity on that account. A friend with a CS masters in Trinity had said that the work that students work during term, if they used the site for a project, would belong to the university, and they wouldn't have time to do anything else on the side. I take it from yourself that students do often do projects on the side. Would you know any member of the academic staff that it would be useful to talk to in UCD? I can provide a basic spec also, if you know someone that is looking for a project.

Webmonkey, I don't want to give too much away, but the site is a social networking website for a niche market, with a large amount of people selling their wares but that have very little web-visibility. This site will be a hub so that these businesses won't need to go to the expense of building their own websites, much like what myspace does for musicians. I am projecting growth on the same level as Donedeal, completely free for the first year, I'll begin to charge at the beginning of year two. I expect steady growth of ~25% month-on-month. As I said, I have cash for the initial build and will try to get a loan from a business start-up fund later on. I have been told by people who run this programme that if I get the technology up I am a shoe-in for the second round of applications, and they offer an unsecured loan of €20,000.

Evil Phil

There is one option you could explore: Go to a web development company and get them to develop it for you, you don't necessarily need your own developer.

Mozart1986

No, I don't, but I am exploring all options. I am discussing the project with two web developerment companies this week.

fergalr

Mozart1986 wrote: »

Hi all, thanks for the comments.

Giblet, I have no problem paying for the build, its not a full partner I'm looking for. If I found someone that really understood the project and added value and that complimented my own sales & promotional abilities then excellent, I'd be delighted, but I do expect to pay. If I can throw a small percentage of equity to help retain some cash for operational costs then I'm open to that, but I am not holding my breath.

Joneser, I had considered that before summer, but at that point I wasn't ready with the business plan. Now I'm in the blocks, I feel like I'm just waiting for the firing pistol, but its September and I expected students to be busy again, I had felt like I missed an opportunity on that account. A friend with a CS masters in Trinity had said that the work that students work during term, if they used the site for a project, would belong to the university, and they wouldn't have time to do anything else on the side.

When I was in TCD, as an undergrad, work you did yourself was your own. College took no claim over the IP a student created for themselves. There's a lot of misinformation about on this point, but I'm completely certain of that. (If you were doing a final year project with an academic supervisor who gave you a lot of advice, the waters would get muddy - but thats a different scenario).

That said, social networks are a big project to build from scratch.
Its interesting to look at how the diaspora guys got on over the summer - they got a lot done, but they aren't anywhere near production ready.
Now, they were building a distributed facebook clone - but there were 4 of them, and they have 200k in funding.

Mozart1986 wrote: »

I take it from yourself that students do often do projects on the side. Would you know any member of the academic staff that it would be useful to talk to in UCD? I can provide a basic spec also, if you know someone that is looking for a project.

Webmonkey, I don't want to give too much away, but the site is a social networking website for a niche market, with a large amount of people selling their wares but that have very little web-visibility. This site will be a hub so that these businesses won't need to go to the expense of building their own websites, much like what myspace does for musicians.

There's a lot of movement in the 'niche social network' space at the moment - a lot of people trying this sort of business plan.
Doesn't mean it won't work, but be aware there's a lot of people doing this general thing. You're going to need a very good hook, or way of adding value, to bootstrap.

Mozart1986 wrote: »

I am projecting growth on the same level as Donedeal, completely free for the first year, I'll begin to charge at the beginning of year two. I expect steady growth of ~25% month-on-month.

In my personal opinion, anyone that says they expect steady growth of 25% per month for their business, without giving some indication of why they should believe such an aggressive forecast, has some questions to answer. EDIT: Not trying to say I don't believe you here, but thats a very aggressive forecast, so without indicating you have some sort of secret sauce, or great hook, you should expect some scepticism.

Mozart1986 wrote: »

As I said, I have cash for the initial build and will try to get a loan from a business start-up fund later on. I have been told by people who run this programme that if I get the technology up I am a shoe-in for the second round of applications, and they offer an unsecured loan of €20,000.

Its not easy to get an unsecured loan of 20k these days - nice if you can get it though.

Joneser

Mozart1986 wrote: »

Joneser, I had considered that before summer, but at that point I wasn't ready with the business plan. Now I'm in the blocks, I feel like I'm just waiting for the firing pistol, but its September and I expected students to be busy again, I had felt like I missed an opportunity on that account. A friend with a CS masters in Trinity had said that the work that students work during term, if they used the site for a project, would belong to the university, and they wouldn't have time to do anything else on the side. I take it from yourself that students do often do projects on the side. Would you know any member of the academic staff that it would be useful to talk to in UCD? I can provide a basic spec also, if you know someone that is looking for a project.

Hi again, yes you have missed a bit of a chance over the summer, myself and a number of others got a number of job offers over the summer, so many we even had to turn down some. But during the year a good 3rd year student would be able to do a project on the side. I'm currently a 4th year student so not too sure about how you would go about sending it in, but you could probably send an email to csi.secretary@ucd.ie and she will point you in the right direction.

Also I know a couple of people that may be interested in taking on some extra work, so if you had a spec you could PM to me then I could pass it along

Mozart1986

Thanks for that Joneser, will do.

I appreciate the advice fergalr & totally understand the scepticism. I can only say that I do believe I have a great hook. That said, all of these things are a huge gamble and you just have to go for it at the end of the day. Its about good judgement and intuitions much more than any hard science. The difference between this 'niche social network' is that it will be a real trading website, and thus has much more potential for revenue.

Evil Phil

Slightly off topic but it's worth a read: http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/09/the-case-for-the-single-founde.php