

Ask HN: What have been your experiences with .NET? - anulman

A bit of background: I'm taking part in a Canadian incubator program. My co-founders and I have been given the option of using half of our money to pay for development from the program's development partners at a good rate, or to take the money in cash and source our own development.<p>The development partners only have a background in .NET programming. We're worried about this because we may not still have access to this team after August, and the two members of our founding team with development experience don't know .NET. How common are strong .NET developers who thrive in small startup environments?<p>That said, there are some benefits: the developers we have access to have a ton of experience, we won't have to spend time sourcing external development, and they're charging us roughly at cost for their hours.<p>Our timeline is pretty strict: we need to have our product ready by August. But we also don't want to compromise our potential for future growth.<p>Any advice or experiences you can share would be incredibly helpful, as we need to make our decision in the next week.
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troymc
Scenario 1:

The developers on your founding team could learn .NET over the summer (in your
spare time), pay the licensing fees starting in September, and take over
development then. Surely the licensing fees aren't that big, compared to
developer salaries (are they)?

But you wrote "we likely would not be able to handle _everything_
[development-wise] between just the founders." So you'd have to hire some more
.NET developers. I'm sure there are lots of .NET developers out there, but
they'll probably charge enterprise rates. Maybe you'll get lucky.

I also worry about the founders not being able to fully understand what the
.NET programmers are doing. That could cause problems. For example, the
founders, being unfamiliar with .NET, might not know how hard it _really_ is
to constitute the splitzerblivits with the kazmeltrix. Schedules could slip.

Scenario 2:

Start now with a framework your two developer co-founders know. Take the cash
to get some more developers right away (who know that framework). It sounds
like there are no licensing fees, so that's good. Also there would be no need
for the founders to spend time learning a new framework. Too bad for the
experienced .NET developers, but then it was only ever going to be a short-
term gig for them anyhow.

Maybe make a list of the pros and cons for each scenario. I've probably missed
some, because I don't know all the details. Then you can make a clear-eyed
decision.

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anulman
Thanks for the advice, Troy!

As for learning .NET over the summer, there definitely isn't enough free time
in the incubator/program – it's half-education, half-building-companies.

Re: .NET developers charging enterprise rates, that's something I've heard
anecdotally. Do you (or anyone else on HN) know if it's actually true?
Payscale says that a "software engineer" with 2 years experience with .NET
costs about the same as 2 years of experience with Rails...

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steve1010
The chasm between quality .Net developers and bad ones is a steep curve, but
good .Net developers certainly do exist. I do not think you need worry, .net
is a well supported platform thet attracts talented folks.

