Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How to find work for idle development capacity

I know a team of developers who aren’t happy being employed. They would rather instead try to manage themselves. They have a good-sized capacity and they are flexible with technology (although not extremely proficient in anything in particular). I am interested in learning the sales model - how can someone market their capacity? As there is obviously lots of money in IT right now, judging by the salaries.

I was thinking maybe they should pick a hot technology, produce a high quality product, make it available for free in order to gain reputation and then leverage on this reputation to advertise on google?

I would like to get a cut as a broker and provide consultancy (design, project management) to the development team if they need my experience to explain the requirements to them.

Or maybe there are better ways?

Thanks

Answer 1083

‘Generalists’ are very hard to sell. Don’t try to sell their skills as jack of all trades, or even just Java/C++/Python developers. You’d be forcing yourself to compete against a bigger field, including off-shore development, and small Elance teams.

So first: Pick an industry or specific problem you solve. A bit of market research goes a long way. Then build some reputation in that area. A simple free tool or online service is a great way to do this.

The second: Sell yourself as much as you sell the team! You, DrawDomax. If you’re there to scope projects, manage the team, build the relationship with the customer, you’re adding a lot of value and reassurance that the customer wouldn’t get from an off-shore development team.

Answer 1072

Generally, someone in your position is better off sub-contracting small well defined projects from larger consultants.

As such, best approach would be to contact the sales & project management leads of these consulting companies to see if they outsource work.


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