

Advice on seeking a CTO/Co-Founder/Tech Lead for a new fashion/style Q&A site - EmekaPatrick

Hi, I’m a non-tech founder in New York City who needs help figuring out which route to take in my search for a CTO/Co-Founder or lead developer with a strong Ruby on Rails background, and to some degree my product launch.<p>Late last year I spent a lot of time trying to find someone to work with me on my idea and after coming up with few results I went the route of raising friends and family money to outsource development in order to build a prototype which could attract users, financing, and a technical lead/team. While the launch has been severely delayed due to a number of reasons, it’s slated to launch in stealth soon while we work out a couple kinks and then soon after we plan on doing a private beta and then finally a full fledged launch early next year after we’ve refined the product somewhat and built a bit of a user base.<p>I know I already have several things which need to be remedied with the site as soon as we get it out there, but many of the people from my original outsourced team are moving on to work on their own projects and I need to find someone as into the ideas I am, and if not, at least someone competent to work on helping me make changes to the site while I go through the search process for a tech lead.<p>Any ideas, suggestions, recommendations for how to go about a search given my situation? I’ve already tapped into my network and can’t find anyone that can help.<p>Also, please feel free to reach out for more details.<p>Thanks a bunch and looking forward to hearing your advice!
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kevingao1
Having done just this in the last few months, just a few (short) words of
advice:

#1. Network like crazy. Some people think networking is a bad word. Who cares
about them. What you're really trying to do is build real relationships and a
name for yourself amongst people that you care about - in this case, the
startup community. NYC is not as great as Silicon Valley for recruiting
technical people. Not saying the community isn't strong, it's just not as
deep. Consider moving here to SV. If you decide to stay in NYC, go to all the
events you can find like Meetups, visit coworking/hacker spaces, etc. You say
that your own personal network is tapped out - but have you asked everyone
know to plug you into THEIR network? If you have 100 friends, and they have
100 friends...you get the point

#2. Demonstrate real commitment. Ideally, you'll already have a track record
of building successful products. If not, at least you'll have a working
prototype. If not, at least you'll have some thorough mocks and a clearly
thought through biz plan. Doesn't matter if all that changes in 3 months, but
the very fact that you have one demonstrates commitment and tenacity. Everyone
appreciates that - particularly people you're trying to convince to join your
team. Get started today

#3. If the above 2 fail, consider joining an existing startup or company in
your vertical to build domain expertise and a broad set of contacts
(basically, #1 and #2). If you really believe in your idea, you can still work
on it on nights/weekends (never a great idea but if all else fails...) Many
successful entrepreneurs got their first start at an existing startup that way
(think ex-PayPal, ex-Google)

I don't know enough about your situation but those are my initial thoughts.

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EmekaPatrick
Hi, thanks for the advice

Going to get back into the networking full swing again. Was doing it regularly
for a while, but just hated doing it after a while when the prototype just
kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed. Think I'm going to pick it back
up when I finally get this prototype done, which I think should demonstrate
commitment, drive, etc.

To that point though, any thoughts on the issue of what to do between this
current iteration I'm developing and getting someone to work with me on the
next version which should be closer to what I want to put out there. Do you
think I will be to show a working, yet not "correct" product to someone to
incite their involvement and show my commitment or does it show misdirection
and disorganization, etc?

Thanks again for the advice!

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haploid
Huh? Why specifically ruby on rails? If you're the non-tech founder, why are
you already making decisions regarding the technology stack of your future
business?

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EmekaPatrick
Hey, didn't make the tech call on that one. It just that that's the tech my
tech consultant recommended after we looked at and discussed options and it's
also the tech the team that I outsourced the first iteration of the project,
which is virtually 95% complete, built on.

