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NFT: App/Web developers

Csonka : 4/14/2017 2:48 pm
I think I've come up with a pretty big idea and need developers. Believe it's something too big for some guy in his basement to do. Anyone here know who the best groups in the NY/NJ area who do both computer and mobile app coding to take from start to finish? Plan on getting quotes and then taking to investors.

Sorry so vague. Can't get into details. But thanks in advance.
Okay - I worked on a similar project/idea...  
Dan in the Springs : 4/14/2017 3:51 pm : link
the trick is that if you bring in the best people for a valuable idea, they aren't going to work for regular pay. You have to give them an equity position to work on it. And as developers they will want a major equity position, so you're giving up most of the value of the idea right off the bat.

Here's what you can do. Find a single person who is a project manager to partner with. This is someone who knows how to design the app and bring it to market. Should be a talented software engineer who is too busy to want to put time into the project, but willing to be a consultant to you for a small piece of the equity. They will help you decide how to break the project into pieces which you will then farm out to coders.

You can easily get estimates of the bids/work involved in farming out the pieces to coders overseas. None of these coders should get enough information to complete the project individually, or even steal your idea. Then you bring in the third partner, a talented developer who will take a much smaller equity position to tie the pieces together as much of the work is already done. While your original partner may be willing to do some heavy lifting here be careful not to put too much burden on them or they may have an argument for a much, much larger equity position.

You can get quotes for the amount of coding needed and if you can't finance it yourself, you will need to seek investors, who will want a significant equity position or return on their investment.

The key here if your project is really golden is to avoid putting too much of the creation of the project in anyone's hands so that you can maintain a significant portion of the equity for yourself.

To give you an idea of the costs involved, my project had estimated quotes of $100-150k, and turned out to cost less than that.
Another way to do it is to take a much, much smaller and less...  
Dan in the Springs : 4/14/2017 3:52 pm : link
valuable idea and partner with a software engineer to bring it to market. Learn from them about how to design the project, farm out the work, assemble and bring to market. With that experience you may be ready to work on something much bigger/more valuable.
Agree with much of what Dan said. My advice-  
Giantology : 4/14/2017 3:58 pm : link
Work with a freelancer to prototype it, first.

If you're starting off by looking for an agency or shop to work with, you're not going to get it cheap - either the initial costs will be high or as Dan said, they'll be looking for a big stake in the project.

Having a working prototype is going to be more important to your investors than having something that's ready to go to market right away. Investors may want you to make changes and bring in new ideas as well, which will increase your costs.

Also, make sure you do your research on your idea, and thoroughly. Somebody may very well have already built your idea.
what i would do  
giantfan2000 : 4/14/2017 5:09 pm : link
any good developers are not going to do anything for free
why should they ?
everyone hs an amazing idea . and some people will pay developers lot s of money and equity to develop their idea.
also if a developer is going to work for free -- he probably wants to develop his OWN IDEA>

i would suggest using elance.com or something like that and get a decent developer from eastern europe or india to make a MVP as soon as you can and see if your idea works .
I do this  
GerryL : 4/14/2017 9:10 pm : link
I'm part owner in a consulting firm located in Morris County NJ. This is exactly the kind of stuff we do. I don't want to use BBI to advertise, but if you are serious, drop me an email through my old Yahoo email, and I'll contact you back via my work. Use lachacg AT yahoo dot com.
Thanks, guys.  
Csonka : 4/17/2017 2:09 pm : link
I already had a guy I know who's an App developer design a demo for me after signing an NDA. I currently have a lawyer doing a patent search. if cleared, we'll apply for a provisional patent.
Gerry, I'll reach out to you if it gets to that point.

Great advice, though I fear losing control with so many separate developers, and I'm old school so I'd like to be able to meet regularly face to face as opposed to dealing overseas.
Thanks.
Consider having  
mrvax : 4/17/2017 2:35 pm : link
your team members sign a confidentially agreement. It's pretty standard practice.
I'd say keep the team small and grow incrementally, too  
Heisenberg : 4/17/2017 3:01 pm : link
The easiest route to failure is to scale out horizontally too quickly with too many developers and team members.

Also realize that Face to face these days mostly means skype,etc at least with the developers you will probably work with.

Otherwise, lots of good advice here.
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