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10 Comments

Building MVP with 3rd party help ( contractor)

Hi Guys,
I was reading softwareideas.io and picked some ideas for MicroSaas software How possible do you think it will be to bootstrap and successfully launch MVP with contractors' help (developers), after validating the idea? Do you know anyone who did that?
I'm a software engineer in test, don't have experience with building web apps. Is it better in your opinion to learn web development first or learn it in the process? These ideas I think would be not possible to implement with no-code tools (one of them - schedule app).

Thanks in advance for the feedback

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    Personally if your bootstrapping, then I would go down a route of leaving development - If your already a software engineer in test, I doubt it would be that much harder for you.

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      thanks for the feedback

  2. 1

    For sure do what you can to do your own market research and validation of the idea before you start building. That's the same advice I'd give anyone that's thinking about building software regardless of who is going to build it.

    I'm not a software engineer or developer so I've had to pay for that expertise. So far I've worked with three different development companies and two freelancers - all outside of the US.

    My advice: do a lot of research, understand the market, scope your project very well, look for a low cost provider, make sure you don't suffer from scope creep, and build something you can use to continue to validate your idea.

  3. 1

    Hi Artur, here's my anser, I hope it helps:
    https://www.makingmyself.com/audio:5ff044c616e1553f3fa6ec7b

    Keep it up and best wishes with your MVP!

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    learning to build end-to-end is a great skill. so, +1 to that if it's interesting to you...

    ... but most folks can get away with a lot of #nocode stuff too!

    ... contractors can work, but, it's better if you know precisely what you want them to build... ... working with contractors is an art and skill... that takes time to learn.

    good luck!

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      thank you for the feedback

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    Hi Artur,
    My answer is biased because I'm a software engineer so keep that in mind. You are a tester means that you are familiar with at least basic coding. Learning to code is time-consuming because you want to get to the point where your code is production-worthy (sooner or later). So I think in your case this really is a question of whether you have enough time to get to that point (in my opinion it's at least months). However, coding is not everything because you also have the infrastructure and dev-ops to take care of. All while you have to take care of business not coding related activities.
    I like to compare building software to building houses. Sure, you can do it yourself, but would you really ever consider that? There are plethora of things to take care of and all of them can go wrong. Do you think you could build it so well for it to function well for years to come? Would you feel safe living in it yourself? And yes, initially it doesn't have to be amazing. The problem is that if you start with mediocre quality code then you're stuck with it for a while, and believe me that won't save you money in a long run because working with low quality, rushed code takes more time and is really frustrating. I know it first hand after taking over many projects.
    If you decide to go with a dev, give me a shout. I'm currently freelancing for 2 startups and looking for a bit more work. I have a software engineering degree and ~7 years of experience and consider my rates as very reasonable.

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    Hey Artur. Mind sharing your idea? We have built products for others as a contractor and for ourselves as well and launched on ProductHunt. Maybe I can give you some insights on how to go on from Idea to Launched state.

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    Hi! I've gone the contractor route with my current startup and it worked well. The main reason why I had to do it was because I was a solo founder who signed a contract with a big company for my product. My main tip would be to hire a fairly cheap one that you can work with on a part time basis. Even if you think your idea is "validated΅, chances are you won't be completely sure unless people get to try it out.

    If you hire a full contractor (that is expensive) and then you ship your product and no one uses it, then you're kind of screwed. What I would do is to hire someone part time, build features one by one, test those out, and refine it with your contractor as you go along. When you feel like you have enough good feedback, I'd start onboarding a CTO.

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      thanks, for the feedback

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