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Find Trustworthy Developers to Build Your MVP Without Risking Money $$

PatrickWho

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Do you have an idea for an application?

Problem: you don't know how to code, and neither do you have thousands of dollars to hire a developer.

Even if you DID have the money to hire a developer, you don't know how to find one that is trustworthy.

The risk of losing all your money is real.

Here's my solution:

I am a developer myself, and I socialize online with many talented developers that are hungry for experience.

I would like to have these aspiring debs build your application (a generic version of it) as part of a course I'm running.

They wouldn't build your exact idea, so you don't have to reveal your big idea, but it would be close enough that you could get a good feel for what the developers can create.

Afterward, you can review the completed assignments and decide to hire one of the developers to customize the already-completed application for your specific needs.
  • You have confidence the developer can do the work because they've already done it!
  • You know the developer can customize the project to your needs because they are already intimately familiar with all the code.
  • You don't pay a thing unless you want to move forward and hire one of the developers, and that's between you and the developer. I stay out of it.

Here's what you need to know about the developers:

  • They're hard workers and are eager to learn.
  • They'll do a good job building your MVP so if you create the next big thing, more experienced developers will have no trouble working with the code.
  • They're eager to build experience and a portfolio of real applications so they can get a job working as a software developer. Heck, you may even want to hire them yourself!

Who can this help?

I'm trying to help those entrepreneurs that meet the following criteria:
  • Have an idea for an application
  • Don't have a lot of money to hire a developer
  • Don't mind putting in some real effort to plan the MVP with me
  • Are patient enough to let me develop the course and have the students actually build the project
If you want your idea live within 2 months, this probably isn't a good fit. I hope to get faster at this in the future, but for now, this may take some time.

If your idea wouldn't get done at all, otherwise, then maybe this could be a good arrangement.

How to proceed:

  1. Reply to this thread with the best way to contact you.
  2. I'll give you some info to help you make your idea generic enough that you don't have to reveal any details to me or the developers.
  3. I'll help you decide what is really MVP and what can be done later or manually for now.
  4. I'll develop a course around it and provide that course to developers.

Reality Check:
  • Developing software can take a long time.
  • The smaller your MVP the quicker it will be done, but don't expect this to be done within a couple of weeks.
  • We'll need time to plan the MVP and then I'll need time to create the course and get students to sign up.
  • Students will need time to complete the project.
======================================= FAQ ========================

What if I abandon my idea?

No worries!
  • You still went through the valuable exercise of planning an MVP.
  • I still got great material for an online course.
  • Students still got to build something interesting.
Everyone wins regardless of the outcome!


What if no one completes the app?

  • I'll just give you the code I wrote when I created the course. You can then do what you want with it.
  • You can then hire anyone you want to work with it. It will be an enormous headstart and will undoubtedly save you lots of time and money.

Can I have an Android / iOS app created?

No, sorry. I will be teaching web applications only.

If you want to put the application on the Apple / Google Play stores, there are simple ways to do that, though. I'll even help you find someone that can do it for you, but you'll have to hire them yourself.


How complicated can my application be?

The aim here is to test your idea quickly.

Part of planning the MVP will be to identify a really really small feature set to see if there's a market for your idea.

If we cannot arrive at a small enough feature set, then this won't be a good fit.

How much will this cost me?

You won't pay me a thing, and you won't pay the developers anything unless you decide to hire one to customize the application for your specific idea.

In the beginning it will cost you some time, though.

You'll need to be dedicated enough to plan out your MVP and submit requirements / napkin sketches to me so I can put together the lesson plan.

The whole process will be a great learning experience for you.


How do I hire one of the developers to complete my idea?

I'll ask all developers that complete the course to provide a link to their completed app. With their permission, I'll share this with you and you can review them.

Just pick one you like and ask to be connected with the developer.

From there, you two can work out details. I won't get involved.


Can't I just use some tool for building my own MVP?

Of course.

Here are some tools I've heard about:

You don't need to be a coder
-- Code-Free Startup
My Marketplace Builder

But if you prefer to have full control over the code and plan on building your own dev team, going this route is an option.

The fact is, I'm going to be creating these courses anyway, and your ideas are not needed; however, this is an opportunity for me to help entrepreneurs that want to build something from scratch with code they have full control over.


How many apps can you handle / how many courses will you create?

Good question.

For now, I'm the only one creating these courses. I will create as many as possible, and I will create them as quickly as possible.

This will be an ongoing venture, as there will always be new app ideas to build, and there will always be aspiring developers available to do the work.

======================================== end FAQ =======================


NOTE:

If this needs to be a paid marketplace ad, please let me know.

I am not accepting any money from anyone that participates in this, so I thought a basic thread would be okay.
 
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Last edited:

Scot

Salad Dressing Empire
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Jul 10, 2016
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I think this is a really interesting approach to connecting developers with people needed development.

I'm curious to see how this goes! Very similar to what freecodecamp.com does where they have students build pages or apps for charities.

Rep+ for a cool unique idea.
 

Ayanle Farah

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
Dec 13, 2016
394
509
29
Do you have an idea for an application?

Problem: you don't know how to code, and neither do you have thousands of dollars to hire a developer.

Even if you DID have the money to hire a developer, you don't know how to find one that is trustworthy.

The risk of losing all your money is real.

Here's my solution:

I am a developer myself, and I socialize online with many talented developers that are hungry for experience.

I would like to have these aspiring debs build your application (a generic version of it) as part of a course I'm running.

They wouldn't build your exact idea, so you don't have to reveal your big idea, but it would be close enough that you could get a good feel for what the developers can create.

Afterward, you can review the completed assignments and decide to hire one of the developers to customize the already-completed application for your specific needs.
  • You have confidence the developer can do the work because they've already done it!
  • You know the developer can customize the project to your needs because they are already intimately familiar with all the code.
  • You don't pay a thing unless you want to move forward and hire one of the developers, and that's between you and the developer. I stay out of it.

Here's what you need to know about the developers:

  • They're hard workers and are eager to learn.
  • They'll do a good job building your MVP so if you create the next big thing, more experienced developers will have no trouble working with the code.
  • They're eager to build experience and a portfolio of real applications so they can get a job working as a software developer. Heck, you may even want to hire them yourself!

Who can this help?

I'm trying to help those entrepreneurs that meet the following criteria:
  • Have an idea for an application
  • Don't have a lot of money to hire a developer
  • Don't mind putting in some real effort to plan the MVP with me
  • Are patient enough to let me develop the course and have the students actually build the project
If you want your idea live within 2 months, this probably isn't a good fit. I hope to get faster at this in the future, but for now, this may take some time.

If your idea wouldn't get done at all, otherwise, then maybe this could be a good arrangement.

How to proceed:

  1. Reply to this thread with the best way to contact you.
  2. I'll give you some info to help you make your idea generic enough that you don't have to reveal any details to me or the developers.
  3. I'll help you decide what is really MVP and what can be done later or manually for now.
  4. I'll develop a course around it and provide that course to developers.

Reality Check:
  • Developing software can take a long time.
  • The smaller your MVP the quicker it will be done, but don't expect this to be done within a couple of weeks.
  • We'll need time to plan the MVP and then I'll need time to create the course and get students to sign up.
  • Students will need time to complete the project.
======================================= FAQ ========================

What if I abandon my idea?

No worries!
  • You still went through the valuable exercise of planning an MVP.
  • I still got great material for an online course.
  • Students still got to build something interesting.
Everyone wins regardless of the outcome!


What if no one completes the app?

  • I'll just give you the code I wrote when I created the course. You can then do what you want with it.
  • You can then hire anyone you want to work with it. It will be an enormous headstart and will undoubtedly save you lots of time and money.

Can I have an Android / iOS app created?

No, sorry. I will be teaching web applications only.

If you want to put the application on the Apple / Google Play stores, there are simple ways to do that, though. I'll even help you find someone that can do it for you, but you'll have to hire them yourself.


How complicated can my application be?

The aim here is to test your idea quickly.

Part of planning the MVP will be to identify a really really small feature set to see if there's a market for your idea.

If we cannot arrive at a small enough feature set, then this won't be a good fit.

How much will this cost me?

You won't pay me a thing, and you won't pay the developers anything unless you decide to hire one to customize the application for your specific idea.

In the beginning it will cost you some time, though.

You'll need to be dedicated enough to plan out your MVP and submit requirements / napkin sketches to me so I can put together the lesson plan.

The whole process will be a great learning experience for you.


How do I hire one of the developers to complete my idea?

I'll ask all developers that complete the course to provide a link to their completed app. With their permission, I'll share this with you and you can review them.

Just pick one you like and ask to be connected with the developer.

From there, you two can work out details. I won't get involved.


Can't I just use some tool for building my own MVP?

Of course.

Here are some tools I've heard about:

You don't need to be a coder
-- Code-Free Startup
My Marketplace Builder

But if you prefer to have full control over the code and plan on building your own dev team, going this route is an option.

The fact is, I'm going to be creating these courses anyway, and your ideas are not needed; however, this is an opportunity for me to help entrepreneurs that want to build something from scratch with code they have full control over.


How many apps can you handle / how many courses will you create?

Good question.

For now, I'm the only one creating these courses. I will create as many as possible, and I will create them as quickly as possible.

This will be an ongoing venture, as there will always be new app ideas to build, and there will always be aspiring developers available to do the work.

======================================== end FAQ =======================


NOTE:

If this needs to be a paid marketplace ad, please let me know.

I am not accepting any money from anyone that participates in this, so I thought a basic thread would be okay.
No offense but if it takes two months to build an mvp with a developer I rather spend the time learning to code so I can build one myself.

That way, once I hire a developer, I can express how I want my app to look like and show them at the same time.

Isn't it true you need some coding experience yourself to be able to work with good developers?
 

Aaron T

Silver Contributor
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OK, this is super interesting to me as a fellow Developer. This is very much similar to FreeCodeCamp as pointed out, but with it's own twist. I can back this idea. I might even consider taking this further and adding Mobile Dev to it. That is very much in my purview.

I need to mull this over, but you got me thinking. There are a lot of people on these forums that could use this service, and a lot of Devs that could use additional experience, training, and, well fun work. The rest is putting it together. I will PM you @PatrickWho if I wish to help and/or for more details.
 

ApparentHorizon

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Maybe I'm biased, but this seems really useful for developers too.

You know those nights where you can't fall asleep. Just a bunch of ideas flying back and forth.

You reach under your bed pulling out the shoebox filled with the millions of ideas written down. Most of which never see the light of day...

Until now
- "easy" market validation
- if an idea sticks you can take off running
- and that developer that's learning, he'll need to keep learning, and what better place than from a senior developer leading the project

If you would have posted this 4 months ago I'd be all over it. Good luck and looking forward to your success
 
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PatrickWho

Coffee-fueled Programmer
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
144%
Aug 4, 2017
95
137
44
Canada
@Ayanle Farah -- of course, no offence taken. This obviously won't be for everyone. If you can code an MVP in 2 months, more power to you!

As for your question: I worked very successfully with many types of people that did not have coding experience, so I would not say coding experience is necessary; it's more about having experience working with developers and in the space of web applications in general.

If you have a good grasp of the entire life cycle of software development, from requirements gathering, to testing, to deployment, you could be very successful in your dealings with developers without knowing how to code at all.

@Aaron T -- thanks for the encouragement. Glad you find it interesting and that you'll be following my progress.

Mobile dev is definitely on my radar, but I'm most intrigued by PWAs. The only issue is that PWA scope creeps a bit beyond MVP :)
 

PatrickWho

Coffee-fueled Programmer
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
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Aug 4, 2017
95
137
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Canada
Thank you, @ApparentHorizon -- this is exactly how I hope other developers will react. I'm working on an article that really highlights my driving motive for this, from a devs perspective. I'll be sure to share it in my progress thread. I'd be interested to know if it rings familiar with you, too.
 

Ayanle Farah

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
Dec 13, 2016
394
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@Ayanle Farah -- of course, no offence taken. This obviously won't be for everyone. If you can code an MVP in 2 months, more power to you!

As for your question: I worked very successfully with many types of people that did not have coding experience, so I would not say coding experience is necessary; it's more about having experience working with developers and in the space of web applications in general.

If you have a good grasp of the entire life cycle of software development, from requirements gathering, to testing, to deployment, you could be very successful in your dealings with developers without knowing how to code at all.

@Aaron T -- thanks for the encouragement. Glad you find it interesting and that you'll be following my progress.

Mobile dev is definitely on my radar, but I'm most intrigued by PWAs. The only issue is that PWA scope creeps a bit beyond MVP :)
The only way I'd get to know the life cycle of software development is by going through the process, which would lead to miscommunications between us at first no?

Are you saying coding experience doesn't make it more likely to get the end result you want when telling them about your prefered features for the app?
 
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PatrickWho

Coffee-fueled Programmer
Speedway Pass
User Power
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Aug 4, 2017
95
137
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Canada
The only way I'd get to know the life cycle of software development is by going through the process, which would lead to miscommunications between us at first no?

Correct. The only way to really learn is to go through the process. But you don't have to go through it as a developer. Successful projects include people of many diverse backgrounds.

As for miscommunications... experienced professionals suffer miscommunications all the time; it's how we all learn and get better. Just learning to code isn't going to prevent that.

Are you saying coding experience doesn't make it more likely to get the end result you want when telling them about your prefered features for the app?

No, I'm not saying that at all. Saying that something isn't necessary isn't the same as saying it wouldn't help.

Numerous factors come into play in a successful project. Knowledge of code isn't the only one, and certainly not the most important one.

If learning a bit of programming helps you communicate desired features of an app to a professional developer, I would argue it's because the act of programming has taught you to think more clearly about the problem you're trying to address; your improved thinking is a byproduct of learning to code a bit. Your knowledge of code will not be of much use to a professional developer, but your improved clarity of thought will be, and you don't need to know code to improve your problem solving skills.

But I'll leave it there. This is an interesting discussion, for sure, but we're getting a bit derailed from my original post.
 

Ayanle Farah

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
Dec 13, 2016
394
509
29
Correct. The only way to really learn is to go through the process. But you don't have to go through it as a developer. Successful projects include people of many diverse backgrounds.

As for miscommunications... experienced professionals suffer miscommunications all the time; it's how we all learn and get better. Just learning to code isn't going to prevent that.



No, I'm not saying that at all. Saying that something isn't necessary isn't the same as saying it wouldn't help.

Numerous factors come into play in a successful project. Knowledge of code isn't the only one, and certainly not the most important one.

If learning a bit of programming helps you communicate desired features of an app to a professional developer, I would argue it's because the act of programming has taught you to think more clearly about the problem you're trying to address; your improved thinking is a byproduct of learning to code a bit. Your knowledge of code will not be of much use to a professional developer, but your improved clarity of thought will be, and you don't need to know code to improve your problem solving skills.

But I'll leave it there. This is an interesting discussion, for sure, but we're getting a bit derailed from my original post.
I know an experienced developer won't have much use for my knowledge of coding. For me it'd be an attempt to understand what they're doing on a basic level so I can be more involved in the project to reach a desired outcome.

However I understand what you're saying, miscommunications can be addressed depending on the severity though it'd be a waste.
 

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