Kuppii - Connecting Designers & Developers to work on side projects together.
In the process of building a service called ‘Kuppii’ for Designers or Developers to easily find and make contact with the other Designers or Developers to help them ship a Side Project together.
As a Designer I’ve come across this issue many times where I’ve been full of ideas and more than capable of designing the site or app I’m thinking of but unable to build the thing from a coding standpoint. I’ve had issues where I’ve tried to reach out the devs I know but they’ve been unable to commit. And it’s just been a long-winded process to try and find a suitable partner.
Think of Kuppii as a kind of matchmaking service for Designers and Developers 😀
Still in the planning stages but would love to hear your thoughts?
You can check out the landing page I’ve created https://kuppii.carrd.co/
Thanks
Marc
I am a developer, so super biased!
For an MVP the only time I needed a designer is when there was something very small and specific to design. In this case, freelance designers work great.
This is purely thinking about the very start of a project.
There are design standards like Material Design that have libraries developers can plug and play to use. (Bootstrap was huge for a long time because it was a way for developers to save time on responsive design.)
The first few developers are absolutely vital for building a new application. In most cases designers are brought in after.
MVPs are about speed to validation. A few developers can get a new product out in 3 months without a designer. Think this does not work the other way around.
After MVP is made and company is making some money: I would look for someone with mixed skills: UX expert (code and design types).
Not to be mean, but why designers? An engineer / founder would probably also benefit from teaming up with a proven business mind, or a master marketer, or someone who has an essential foothold in the target market, etc.
It might be fun to make it about pitching (anyones) ideas to developers, only the best get dev attention :)
As a developer, I'll give the opposite feedback. I often find design being the thing that is hardest to tackle because most designers I meet are only interested in working on high paying projects for big brands and not in working on a startup project.
I also think having a great design is critical for an MVP, and I am completely unable to implement a great design on my own, no matter how many design standards libraries their might be out there.
As for teaming up with a business mind or marketer, I don't find those things nearly as difficult to do on my own nor do I find it as hard to find those people in my network.
Finding someone who has a foothold in a target market, well that is the holy grail. But its also really hard to find and deliver those people because they have the ability to mint gold given the right team. And they are just really hard to find.
#jmtcw.
Very interesting but very different mindsets. Almost all non-funded startups I know (and even most funded) have mediocre designs at the start, after the business model is proven they get better design because they have more time and resources to dedicate to it.
It would be interesting to do a poll of devs and see who they are searching for.
Startups have many challenges. Finding product-market fit is one, but getting customers to trust a brand-new startup even when there is product-market fit is another. A good design just reduces the chances of a solid prospect asking themselves the question "Is this a startup I have to worry about failing after I've come to depend on them?"
Given your anecdotes that startups you know have mediocre designs at the start, it would be interesting to see how many have mediocre designs because of priority and how many have them out of lack of ability to find a good designer to collaborate?
Whatever the case, this discussion has proven that some startup founders prioritize good design and others do not. There are at least two of the former and one of the latter.
I am not arguing that having a standard / modern design is important for building trust. I am arguing that many startups have found a way to get around it, in the short term, by using things like Bootsrap, or material design, or Ant design, or buying a template, remember flat design?, or this is trending https://www.humaaans.com/ :) When I look at YC companies for example, they seem to share the same basic design template. Spending the minimal amount of time on it with the best outcome. If not, you may spend 6 months constantly redesigning a landing page, because it could always be better... Design is always changing!
I hypothesize there are way more people looking for devs, then there are devs looking for designers. Just my hypothesis. Of course, we all need the help of designers!
I was not arguing either. Given your initial comment was stated in a relatively definitive manner I was giving @mrcndrw an alternate, positive reaction and then when you replied to my comment I was just pointing out that reasonable people can have differing opinions on the matter. That's all.
Thanks Mike for the feedback. Both yourself and mdo have opened a debate which is great, and I can see points from both sides.
As a Dev what would you like/expect to see on a 'Designers' profile for example?
Details about the kind of projects they want to get involved in and what their motivations/goals/ideal outcomes for a partnership are.
CSS Frameworks they like to work with, if any.
Then all the normal stuff; links to their work, etc.
Thanks Mike. Recently followed you on Twitter (@mrcndrw). Would you be interested in Beta testing Kuppii when I put it onto a Live Server?
Thanks for the offer. I'd be happy to look at it, but at the moment not sure how active I could be.
Thanks mdo. Some great points made there. I’m going to jump to your last point first.
I feels pitching an idea to devs and then only the best give it attention is not too dissimilar to UpWork. I don’t want that for Kuppii. It’s more about making that initial introduction and see if there’s compatibility there.
Agree with your point on just Designers or Developers. I was just going from past experience where I could imagine, design, and market something, but just could not build it. So I was only ever just looking for a Dev. Would it be wise to broaden this some more?
Thanks
People who have the same issue are everywhere. I think people who want devs are greater than the amount of devs able or willing to work at any given time. This is where the suggestion comes in: have the few and scarce devs be able to look at all of the products people are pitching and they decide (the ideas can be from designers, or marketers, or whomever).
This differs in that Upwork is for all freelancers and is for money not equity.
I am now thinking about this possible angle :)
How to make it appeal to both sides though? Should I have different sign up fields/Profiles? ie; for a Dev looking for projects, and for someone looking to pitch a product.
I think there will be a lot of people searching for developers to help create their 'Big Idea'. I would have the sign up be general and allow people to be 'developers' as well. The Product Hunt model would work well. When someone posts the general ideal they want help with, it can be upvoted by 'developers'. Top for the week, day, etc. Anyone can leave additional comments or feedback. DM the author to talk more about the project in detail. My 2 cents. The ideal poster can work out logistics about location, equity and such in DM.
I'm not going to go exactly the way you've mentioned here, but I am definitely keeping it mind for 'Pivot Time' ;)
Like I mentioned above both yourself and Mike have opened a debate which is great, and I can see points from both sides.
As a Dev what would you like/expect to see on a 'Designers' profile for example?
PS: I'm looking at catering to Designers, Devs, and Marketers with this first build and let's see how that goes :)
Also my main issue is eventually trying to monetize (and not via Ads if I can help it). Because once 2 folks have made the initial connection, let's say via Private Message, they can say "Hey lets carry on this convo via Email", cancel their monthly subscription, and that's that! :(
That does seem like a challenge.
On a designers profile: Past companies or products they have designed, how much time they can dedicate to a project, motivation and interests, location (design trends are cultural. Japan design seems to be stuck in the 00s.)
Thanks mdo. Yeah Location is a big thing for the platform. I aim to enable users to find potential co founders close to their actual location. Would you find it more appealing?