

Not sure what to do with my startup idea - coingig

I have a pretty good idea for a mobile app that I want to develop that is based on musicians and their news feeds, it is not something revolutionary but it is missing in today&#x27;s world and actually something I would use everyday.<p>I am not a coder but my forte is in digital marketing as I have been doing it for 8 years and pretty damn good at it.<p>Building an app today is something that is all the rage so I know hiring a coder is going to be very costly once programming and design are included.<p>Anyone have advice on how I can go about doing this, should I partner with someone that can code, take the risk and invest the money to have it developed?
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byoung2
_hiring a coder is going to be very costly once programming and design are
included_

You should start learning about coding now, not with the intention of building
the app yourself, but with the intention of becoming more knowledgeable about
what the developer's job entails. If you find a developer and say "build me an
app" you might get estimates like 12 months and $50k. If you know that you
just need a news feed, you can say, "can you take this jQuery mobile template
and wrap it in Phonegap, and create a simple database to store a data feed
from the following sources, you might be able to get it done in a few weeks
for $300 [1].

[https://medium.com/@morphmail/the-first-300-a-startup-
launch...](https://medium.com/@morphmail/the-first-300-a-startup-launch-
tale-f074d957da4e)

~~~
coingig
Good idea, I have some basic programming language but not enough to code
something like this completely on my own. I'll start reading up on Phonegap
and seeing how I can narrow down exactly what I want to get it a cheaper price
as well.

That Medium story is awesome, thanks for that!

~~~
loumf
I made this free tutorial series for PhoneGap/Cordova ([http://app-o-
mat.com](http://app-o-mat.com)) -- it assumes you know HTML/JS (but not too
much)

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sebst
As always: That depends. ;-)

The most important question is: Can you make a sustainable business with you
app and will you generate money from it? If this is the case, you could either
find an investor (which may be very, very hard at you current stage) or invest
some of your savings on your own.

Then, how are you used to work currently? Do you prefer working with others or
on your own?

Finding a co-founder is often a good choice for startups because you find
like-minded people which (hopefully) share the motivation for the project with
you. However, doing something together requires a lot of trust in each other
and empathy. If you find yourself comfortable with another guy at your
project, go for it, that's the best solution, in my opinion. If you disclose
some more details about your idea, I am sure, HN could be a place to start
searching.

If you find yourself uncomfortable with that and you're not willing to learn
to program, go for oDesk or something similar as some other comments already
suggested.

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coingig
I was able to make a mockup app, if anyone is interested in seeing what I'm
doing you can reach out to me by twitter @kmetral

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issa
In an ideal world, you could partner with a developer who would built it in
exchange for equity. There are ways to make that happen...go to meetups, put
an ad on craigslist, etc. Just remember that developers get these sorts of
offers ALL THE TIME. Make sure you stand out.

Personally, I'd be wary of spending my own money on paying a contractor to
build something. It will be expensive and there is no guarantee of a good
outcome.

Good luck!

~~~
coingig
Thanks for the help! Yea this would not be my first startup so I know
developers are approached everyday with tons of ideas to get involved in.

I got accepted into Startup School so I'm looking forward to seeing who I can
meet up with that could help me out.

As for as spending my own money, you are right, I have done this before and
ended up being super expensive and outcome was not that good.

I know there are many of talented coders on here so if there is anyone that is
interested in hearing more I'm more than happy to speak with them.

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revorad
See if there's a way for you to implement a simple version of the idea without
writing any code, and just using a blog or email newsletter.

~~~
coingig
so build a website to create hype and collect emails? I have seen some apps do
that

~~~
revorad
No, I mean a simplified but still useful version of your idea. You haven't
shared what your idea is, so I don't know if this will work for it.

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onechik
I understand you pretty well because I'm in the same situation now. So what
I've done? I've created something like a prototype using Prottapp (design was
made by my wife in Adobe Illustrator). Another tool for this is Balsamiq.
After this I'm going to create a crowdfunding campaign for further developing
as I don't have enough money for it. May be you can try to do the same

~~~
coingig
I just signed up with Prottapp and I'm going to do some designs so I can see
what I want exactly, thanks for that recommendation.

I appreciate your help, this is definitely going to help me a lot.

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jyu
If you've been doing digital marketing for 8 years and are pretty damn good at
it, I'm surprised that you're having trouble paying for a coder. Digital
marketing is typically closer to sales and revenues. The effect your work has
has (and thus your compensation) can be orders of magnitude higher than
programmers.

~~~
Gustomaximus
I think you'll find salaries are about the same. Without going into executive
level management, a senior digital marketer will earn around $70k to $160k in
western markets in my experience.

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ada1981
We could use a good digital marketer to help with Codective.com and we could
also build your app. Anthony@prmatch.com

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pulakm
Sam has a great blog post about this: [http://blog.samaltman.com/non-
technical-founder-learn-to-hac...](http://blog.samaltman.com/non-technical-
founder-learn-to-hack)

The title says it all - learn to hack.

~~~
coingig
That was a great blog post, thank you for sharing that with me. I'm going to
start learning how to build my own prototype.

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Deluxo
Not a startup guru here, just a coder. Please take into consideration that a
good programmer wouldn't put best effort for cheap as well. I think you should
search for programmers with enthusiasm + skill combo. Good luck!

~~~
coingig
I definitely agree with you, to get a very good coder to put their best effort
it will not be cheap so maybe looking for a partner could be my best option.

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cosmosraker
Before you put a lot of money into development, don't forget to validate your
ideas first. I highly recommend the lean startup methodology.

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nyddle
Maybe you can start with a web app that is much cheaper?

~~~
coingig
that was something I thought about as well.

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creativeone
I would go with Odesk.

~~~
coingig
Have you had any luck finding a developer on Odesk that can deliver good work?
I have used Odesk for other sites I had built and it was pretty bad.

