Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Proof of concept but not Tech Cofounder to help finish MVP

I have an idea for a nightlife app that I have been working on for 5 years. I’m a longtime service industry veteran and my app is an elegant solution to a number of issues. I have vetted the idea against the 2 industry leaders (who are cash flow positive but have barely 5% of market share) and I’ve solved their most critical problem. I feel like I have the rare idea that is in the right place at the right time and yet I can’t convince a developer to help me add the functionality to the wireframe I built. I have a few seed funders lined up for once I have a MVP. Aside from learning to code further than I already have, which I’m prepared to do to accomplish my dream, I know there must be a quicker way to get where I need to go. Not afraid of the work, but learning Java and becoming proficient at Xcode to do what I need will take precious time I don’t have. Thoughts?

Answer 13071

I am in a surprisingly similar situation - I have a nightlife app planned out, have some wireframes in place, and cannot afford to hire a developer.

My solution is to learn enough coding to program the basic features, and to hire someone to program the more complicated / technical features. That will greatly reduce the amount of money I need to spend on the developer!

In order to learn the basics of app coding, I hired a local tutor. I asked him to do two things:

  1. Program a prototype app that includes several basic features I’ll need (multiple pages you can swipe through, a menu bar, graphics, buttons that perform functions, etc.).
  2. Walk me through the code of the prototype app and explain how each part works.

It has been pretty successful. When I’m done programming what I can, and the remaining features are too complicated for me, I will hire the same tutor to complete those features. You may want to use a similar approach in developing your app.

Good luck to you!

Answer 13194

IMO usually it’s little about the idea but mostly about implementation. You need a working MVP and if you aren’t a programmer you’ll waste too much time before you get anywhere. What you could do instead is hire some developer to do that for you… what an obvious suggestion :) Even when I work on my startup I hire developers for some parts because I pay them 10-20 times less per hour that what I get paid. On UpWork you can find OK developers even for $5/hr, though if you aren’t a developer yourself it will probably be tough to figure out who could be a good fit for your project regardless of their asking pay.

All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.