

Ask HN: Hiring a Freelance Hacker/Finding a Co-Founder - stevenjames

Hi there,<p>I'd like to hire a freelance hacker for a project. Even better, I'd like to find a hacker co-founder. Where are some good places to look/recruit?<p>A little about the project: I'd like to create an e-commerce site that's determined to provide customers with severely discounted priced products (without compromising quality).<p>It'd be extremely important to keep physical inventory levels low. To do this we'd keep inventory at maybe 50 items per product cycle.<p>To keep customer's attention we'd "introduce," or post, new and established products frequently. Perhaps multiple times a day.<p>I've think brick-and-mortar companies are unable to sell a lot of their product, especially upscale fashion retailers, because the price is too high. (Many are still considered successful, though.) And I'm confident retailers and suppliers will sell these "neglected" products at a certain price. And I'm determined to negotiate hard (but with integrity) on this.<p>I think this market has not been fully captured. There are some companies that focus on a niche (whiskey militia comes to mind), which has worked well for them. But I think there are many markets that are still untouched. But it'd be important to think and focus locally to build a great brand and company.<p>And given the current economy, people are focused on savings. I think right now, perhaps more than ever, people want to save anywhere they can. And if you combine savings with great taste, style, and reputable brands, I think you provide customers with a lot of value. I think this is what people want.<p>I think I have multiple skills to offer, though none are "technical" in nature, which is why a technical co-founder is instrumental. It'd be important to strike a relationship with vendors to be able to purchase these products. This is where my personality and skills come in. I'm a product/people guy, by passion. I enjoy going out and talking to others. I'm an obsessive doer who pays particular attention to the intricacies of peoples' individual personalities, as well as their common characteristics.<p>At the same time, I have considerable respect for technical people. For hackers. I think a great product guy and a great hacker would be a natural match for something like this. We'd both be dependent upon each other. We'd both drive and motivate each other to do what we loved doing and are best at.<p>Thanks!<p>P.S. If anyone is interested in more info. please shoot me an e-mail: stevenjames134 (gmail)
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pedalpete
You realize you can set-up a store on amazon and they can handle most of the
technical stuff for you? It give you a chance to play with your business model
(as their isn't anything specifically technical about it) and try different
avenues instead of building everything from scratch in the beginning. If you
decide later that it makes more sense to bring all the technical in house,
there is nothing stopping you from doing it at that point.

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mixmax
_I think a great product guy and a great hacker would be a natural match_

This is how legendary companies are founded. Think Steve Job and Steve
Wozniack.

Good luck :-)

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stevenjames
Perhaps you're the Steve Woz I've been looking for then? :)

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mixmax
he he, sorry I'm more of a Jobs kind of guy ;-)

That being said, I've actually had the same problem as you: finding good
hackers is a hard problem, there aren't that many around. My solution was
simply to learn to program, and I haven't regretted it. It's not as hard as
you would think, and it's a lot easier to convince someone else to jump aboard
your boat if you've done some work on a project yourself. It shows serious
commitment.

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stevenjames
What was your process for learning? Where/how did you start? What language?
Did you focus on trying to build a small web-app? Did you seek and have
mentors? Any other helpful advice/insight is much appreciated. Thanks

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mixmax
I did a number of increasingly difficult projects, and learned by doing them.
The first ones didn't make it out to the public, but that wasn't the point.

My first project was simple HTML, just to find out exactly how a webpage
works, how to upload files to a FTP server, etc.

My next project was some simple PHP - reading something from a database,
having a user make changes to it, etc. I used PHP because once you understand
HTML PHP is pretty simple. I installed WAMP (<http://www.wampserver.com/en/>)
which has everything you need to start doing PHP. Also PHP is good for
beginners since there is a huge community - whatever problem you have someone
else will have had it before you.

Next I started doing sessions and more advanced stuff with PHP, javascript and
Mysql (database). I actually made a Danish version of hacker news :-)
(<http://www.deloghersk.dk>)

After 1½ years I'm getting pretty fluent, and would feel confident programming
a lot of stuff you see on the net: blogging software, CMS software, etc.

I didn't have any mentors, Google was my only friend. I used this site a lot:
<http://www.w3schools.com> It has some excellent and very simple tutorials on
HTML, PHP, MYSQL, etc. to get you started.

One thing I have to say here: Do it. It's worth the effort. I regret not
having learnt to program ten years ago, it would have made my life so much
easier when dealing with technology. So even if you don't end up programming a
lot it will help you tremendously in understanding and managing technology.

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noodle
didn't you ask this same question, like, yesterday?

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stevenjames
I did. But I deleted it and re-posted this morning. (I thought it might be
more effective in the morning.)

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rubing
You should just open a McDonalds, they're gonna do great in the coming
depression.

