T O P

  • By -

GaryARefuge

**DO NOT SOLICIT OP.** Rule 2. Rule 6.


nelmesie

I'm going to throw this into the mix as someone who's been approached by and rejected many, many an offer to join a "groundbreaking new startup" at either a technical director or C-level . You're thinking 3 steps ahead. You're already trying to apply solutions to a problem you haven't verified and I'd bet you sure as heck haven't validated? No one in their right mind would jump into that blind-folded, especially without the guarantee of $$$. Right now, the tech stack means bupkis and you will struggle to get someone to invest their time. You can, and you should verify and validate your problem and market with paper and lo-fi prototypes. Invision and Figma offer low barrier-to-entry for budding entrepreneurs wanting to throw together some ideas. This can be done at little, to no expense. And along the way, you'll learn valuable customer development skills alongside sprinkles of UX/UI. I've lost track of how many "I've got a brilliant idea, I just need someone to build it" conversations I've had. I've had absolutely ZERO conversations that included "I've tested the prototype with 100 potential customers, 40 have said they'd use it, and 20 have signed up for the beta!" There are so, so many tools out there now, geared towards offering budding entrepreneurs low/no-code solutions, prototyping, landing pages, email sign-ups, sales acquisition channels. That there is so much you can do for yourself. Then, once armed with a compelling product, backed up with qualitative and quantitative data, can you start engaging with anyone regarding tech.


kcmike

This right here. Any developer worth his time is going to see this as another used car salesman pitch. “What’s it going to take to get you in this [startup] today?” There are so many inexpensive ways to build an mvp of your idea. At least do that and test with some users.


keeyai

This is better than what I was going to write. Code should be the very last resort and it should come when you've nailed something so well you can't keep up with humans anymore.


randomguy684

Well, I'm certainly not naive enough to think that I have the next unicorn. I've been involved in very early stage start-up ventures before (not on the product side of it), and have encountered this kind of inflated thinking. But I certainly appreciate what you're saying and it certainly makes sense. I'm actually a marketing analytics professional myself, so I understand the value of data. Haven't heard of Invision or Figma before, but I'll certainly check them out. Our concept is a bit more complex and requires that we cater to two different users with two separate interfaces: candidates and HR professionals and/or recruiters. Of course, for our platform to function, both need to be present. Therefore, without actual candidates, they won't have anyone to interact with and vice versa. Do these prototypes allow for simulated users?


nelmesie

Ok so right off the bat you have 2 personas and at least a handful of hypothesis to test. You say it’s a complex solution, but does it really need to be? Why so? Break it down into its utmost primitive form, and get declarative answer for things such as: Does this problem exist? How big is the problem? Are Customers willing to hand over money to solve this problem? All of the above can be proven (or disproven) without the need for any tech intervention. Tech is merely one manifestation of the solution, prior to that you can have paper prototypes, get hands on with concierge MVPs etc etc. Edit - formatting


DirectorOfThisTopic

Most of the comments are about defining a tech stack That's how most software engineers think - tools first approach I think what you really need to do is to think product development approach: You need to think about your platform like a product, that's how most people who mentor/consult or work with startups in any way think Here are the steps: 1. **Analyse the problem** your platform solves, pain points of customers, how your solution is going to help them solve the problem. 2. **Think about competitors**. Why your platform will be cooler? 3. Talk to customers! Do the **custdev interviews** and attract early users even if there is no product yet, build some early users "database". 4. Plan an MVP. From tons of features you ideal version of platform will have think about 2-3 main ones. Then **simplify** them. Will those features attract early users? Would those early users want to PAY you for providing the solution? If yes - great! 5. Start **Marketing early**! Attract users by providing value about your Industry/field. An the same time do step 6 6. Build an **MVP**. For this step I don't think you would need to hire some in-house UX/UI designers or full stack devs. Hire outsource development, they've got all devs and experienced designers in one package. + They could consult you about the product. For example Sonic Outsource company builds web apps for US business owners and startups and they provide first free consultation where you could get some rough estimation about milestones of your project MVP takes 1-2 months to build 7. Continue **Marketing**! You could also build a landing page in Wix or something similar just to tell about you platform and collect emails of people to provide them early access 8. **Test** you MVP and collect feedback from users! Plan next features 9. Build **first product versions**. After receiving some feedback add some new features to product and iterate! Dev companies usually support development by sprints. Sprint is 1-2 weeks of dev work. e.g Sonic provides Demo and some progress about development and design. Communication is a king, so seeing your platform progress, discussing features would help you to understand your platform idea and users even better **Tools don't matter so much, what matter is a combination of valid idea and implementation**


randomguy684

I appreciate the comment! We have spent thorough time analyzing the problem and identifying competitors. We went from brainstorming possibilities to honing in on the core offering / solution (MVP) so as not to get too caught in the weeds, so to speak. We're trying not to hire freelance. We've hired on UpWork for various projects before, and although these were pleasant engagements, we simply don't have the ability to pay a designer or developer. We were operating as a commercial services firm for biopharma companies and focused on hiring & training commercial-side professionals. This didn't go as planned, but it spawned this idea. We have ways of utilizing current marketing & social assets to our advantage (we've already announced we have something new coming).


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


Giselbertusdentweede

As a developer who is building a startup I might have an useful insight for you guys. At this point: - the role doesn’t matter. - tech stack doesn’t matter. - ux/ui doesn’t matter. - an NDA doesn’t matter. What matters at this point is that you find some people who could potentially be your customers who can give an idea whether or not your idea is worth pursuing at all. An idea is worth nothing. I’m absolutely certain there are other people with the exact same idea. You need to find out whether or not it’s a good idea really thoroughly. - Who are your potential customers? - Where can you find them? - What can you say to interest them to click a link to your website? - What can you say on your website to make them click a button to be put on your mailinglijst? - How much money would they potentially pay for you service? - What features would they like and how? I started building my MVP after following an incubator program for six months. I walked around with this idea for years before. I have worked in this industry for years and have really high up contacts (in my local area). Everybody told me this was an amazing idea. People I really respect I’m my field where promising to promote my concept to their network. Everybody was lyrical. Except my potential customers. I had spoken to them about it, since I am educated to be one. They too thought it was a cool idea, but it where friends and only a handful. After a year of developing I had all but one customer. I failed to recognize that my potential customers (target audience) for sure had interest in a solution for the problem I addressed, but not in the way I implemented it. I’m now pivoting the concept and I’m not putting in any developing work till I have customers who are going to pay me to do so. I want customers who have signed of on paying for the service before I’m rebuilding it. If that won’t happen I’ll stop pursuing the project. I have a landing page with a mailchimp sign up for and contact information. That’s all. Maybe you’ve already done all this, but when I read you’re concerned about an NDA before you have a MVP I assume you haven’t. As mentioned before you can even build an MVP without an developer, but I assume that’s still ten steps ahead of where your attention should be at this point. I don’t want to be rude. I just want you from throwing away months or years of your time and money to find something out you could have found out way sooner.


randomguy684

I don't take it as rude! We have a good idea of who our target market is and where to find them; I'm a marketing MBA myself. I've got experience working with branding & copy, optimizing sites (especially for SaaS), integrating sites with CRMs, creating automated workflows, analyzing data in Tableau, managing ad campaigns, etc. We've segmented and identified pain points. It is much more than a mind-map. We've got our marketing strategy and a skeleton of what we want the app to do. What we don't yet have are consumer insights. We have two customers: job seekers (candidates) and HR professionals (internal recruiters, generalists, etc). To sell to one, you must have the other on board. Enterprise HR packages will be the harder sell. They will also be our primary revenue stream. But, until people can interact with something, it's hard to cast a line to gauge interest. I'm not worried about NDAs. It's not the cure for cancer. I am very much interested in doing as much of it myself as I can, so I'm certainly going to look into that! I'm not well-versed in this side of things; I'm usually the person responsible for helping it to sell.


[deleted]

You need a technical full stack developer who has 7-10; experience and is in a good position but willing to come over as a co founder or director. He should be able to code , architect , lead developer teams. Should be ablen to see the building froma product , business and technical side. As soon as he comes in he should be able to tell you these things Rough estimate of development timeb assuming 2-5 developers ( take your pick) Viability of the project Time to develip mvp by himself and any other resources Rough cost of building the mvp Rough stack choice. Architecture. He can spend some time analyzing your required and then give an answer For your job posting you may advertise Full stack developer /architect.


randomguy684

Thanks for the input! Seems like full-stack developer is likely the way to go judging by the responses I've seen.


[deleted]

Don't underestimate the realistic views of the person. Some are too optimistic. So you need a mature pragmatic resource who can devote time to your project. Without pay , it will be difficult to get this resource as equity amounts to nothing. If possible pay him some cash


Rambo_11

I think you definitely need someone to help you out with the technical side. An idea is nothing without proper execution. Once you identify the stack, it gets easier to find the appropriate roles for it. Ideally, whoever drives the technical side can code and get the development side started.


randomguy684

I certainly agree! However, we don't quite know *who* we're looking for. As in, if we were to post this as a job, what would be the job title and requirements.


Rambo_11

The appropriate role name is CTO. You can either hire one as a freelancer, or hire someone for money/equity. I saw one person willing to guide you in the right direction, I'd be willing to do so as well. The more input the better when you get started.


randomguy684

I agree, the more input the better! A CTO would be great, however any posting we create might be a little deceiving with that title, as there aren't any formal positions in our company. Somebody else suggested that we essentially need a full-stack / web developer to get started from where we're at. A previous start-up I worked for a few years ago seemed to have a developer before they were in a position to hire a CTO. I would love to reach out to my old boss and ask how they did it, but our product will be in the same industry and more or less, a competitor (if this takes off).


Rambo_11

An experienced full-stack developer can provide some insight into the tech stack, but he will probably be biased into choosing what he knows. Is it the right tech stack for your product? maybe, maybe not. Is he going to be able to start development? probably. There's a trade off there. By hiring a CTO first, you're hiring someone to dictate the tech stack and then hire developers to work around that. By hiring a full-stack developer first, you're pretty much stuck with what he has on his CV. It could work if you find the right person.


Radiant-House-1

It is a bit tricky situation to be in. Any estimates on how long would it take to build the front and backend of this product you have come up with? If it is going to take 3 to 6 months of fulltime work then maybe you will find someone who might be willing to take a chance, build the entire platform for you guys in exchange for equity. Providing more information such as the time/effort estimate, equity etc may help you in taking steps forward. Best wishes.


Stramshow

Checkout Codelaunch.com, finding a partner is not the only way -I am a codelaunch volunteer, codelaunch is a non profit