

Ask HN: How does a founder judge quality if they can't code? - jim84

I am the founder of a small Canadian based startup which is currently in development.  My background is business/economics and the project I am developing is a social network.  I’m doing this startup by myself and with my own investment 30K.  I’m not a techie so I shopped around for a company which I could hire to do the development. I eventually settled on an Indian company with a good track record of developing social networks. 
So far I’ve been very pleased with the company’s work and they have done an awesome job in the design phase. But during the design phase I have been managing the Indian team, to ensure quality, that they are meeting the project requirements, and make sure they understand what it is I’m trying to create.  But in about a month, starting in January we are going to be finished with designs and move into programming.  
Here is my problem:
Once we get into programming, I no longer have the ability to judge quality and make sure they are meeting the project requirements. I pretty much know zero about coding so if I looked at some amazing code and some awful code side-by-side, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  This is a really dangerous position for me to be in because I’ll be making decisions that I have no qualification to be making.
I’m not going to sit back let the company do whatever they want and I’m also not going to try and manage the technical side either. I’ve been talking to other startup guys and they all recommend getting either a CTO, consultant or a tech cofounder.  The issue of course is money/equity. I don’t like the idea of giving a huge portion of my company to a cofounder or CTO. Plus I don’t know any. I’m favoring bringing on a consultant who I can pay an hourly or flat fee to do some project management for me.
My project isn’t huge, only 30K fixed price (10k design, 20K coding). And all I really need is a tech guy to come in and look at the code make sure it’s good and make sure the company I hired is doing things properly. 
Everyone I’ve talked to says I need to bring in a tech cofounder who is a rockstar to do the coding for me.  But I just don’t get it. I already have development team, and I shouldn’t assume they write shitty code just because it’s outsourced. But I do need someone to check it for me.  I agree I eventually need a rockstar development team but if I bring in cofounders after beta instead of before they will be taking a much lower equity stake. Right now I don't need a developer capable of programing artificial intelligence. I just need good quality programing so I can launch the beta, test it in market and then develop the amazing technology behind it if its accepted by consumers.Because you can have the most amazing technology in the world but if people don't like the product, then there is no point.<p>Am I wrong? Any suggestions how I can fix this without giving away a huge portion of my company to a stranger, or going broke paying a consultant?
Any advice is welcome. Thanks.
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dcaldwell
I am also a not a techie who is founding a startup. Fortunately, I was in the
position to be able to hire 2 developers locally to bring on my team from the
get-go. I didn't give up any equity but if things go well, they will be
rewarded. If I was not in the financial position to pay them well, I would
have definitely given up equity for the right developers to come in.

If you are starting a web-based company, then code is what makes your tick.
It's not like you're selling widgets in a brick and mortar store and you throw
a website up to sell more widgets. In that case a website is an add-on to your
business. If you are developing a web based application like a social network
then that website IS your business. You need to have that core competency of
the design and development in-house and not outsource it.

If you're having trouble finding the right local developer, try looking for
local freelancers. I would suggest seeing if there is a local coworking office
where freelance designers/developers work. Ask if any of them are willing to
work on a project at a reduced rate with some equity that vests after a
certain amount of time.

~~~
jim84
Thxs for the feedback. It sounds like you were in the same position as me,
your a non-techie and you hired developers. The only difference was geography,
your developers were local whereas mine are overseas. So how did you address
the quality issue? How did you know what the developers were giving you was
actually good stuff? I can't assume that just because I outsourced to India
that the code they write is going to be worse then what a US developer would
do. In fact if I stayed with a US developer I would have the exact same
problem. Whether the developer I hire is in the US, India, Canada etc, problem
is still sorting the good from the bad. I'm just saying local does not equal
good programming. With any developer you aways go through the same stages,
checking experience, references, past projects etc but in the end it comes
down to trust (which I have in my team) and verification (which I don't have).
How should I get the verification? How did you verify your developer's work?

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dcaldwell
True, local doesn't equal quality. I guess the difference was that by going
local, I was able to verify the quality of my developer's work by people I
trusted rather than from people I didn't know. What's more important, the
endorsement of a respected businesses person, designer, or developer that you
personally know and respect their work, or the endorsement of a random person
that someone lists as a reference? The back end developer that I hired was a
speaker at a regional conference, seemed to have the respect of the web
community that I was looking to enter (Rails development and MailChimp-esque
design and UI,) and had glowing references from web designers and developers
that I knew at least as acquaintances. These designers and developers were
actually clamoring to use him for freelance stuff before I hired him. If this
is the route you want to take, I would suggest networking within your local
web design community and go to events.

If you want to go the other route, listen to/watch the podcast on Mixergy.com
from Nov. 24 on Beanstalk. That guy used a distributed team across the world
to do development for his company. The big difference is that he was already a
developer.

~~~
jim84
cool thanks a lot for the info

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contagionhealth
Totally agree with znt after starting a co without learning to code (now
working on Zed Shaw's Python guide, which is awesome).

Learn to code. IF you don't, and even if you successfully find a tech
cofounder/lead engineer, you'll know so little about dev that you'll be
wasting everyone's time during project management meetings and/or have no idea
what's going on at your startup.

I looked for a tech cofounder for 9 mos. I could have/should have been
learning to code at that time. It establishes basic cred you'll need.

And if you're not willing to learn to do that, ask yourself if you're really
ready to do a startup, where you'll have to learn painful new skills on a
near-daily basis.

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znt
You can start learning how to code, not for this startup but the one after
this one. Also having a cofounder helps a lot, it validates your idea first of
all.

Maybe, instead of asking us "How do I keep my company / money to myself", you
should ask yourself "Do I want all of something that is unvaluable or a part
of something invaluable?"

