This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Building my startup’s app using a contractor

Aimee202·Jan 27, 2024

Hi everyone,

I had a startup idea and I was eager to start building, but I'm not technical so I hired a contractor to build it out.

We are now 4 months post agreed date of delivery, but he has only done half of the work. Have you had a similar issue with a contractor?

I would appreciate a response from @melissaperri too on this.

Thank you for reading.

celesmedina·Jan 27

Hi Aimee! Im so sorry this is hapenning to you. As a software engineer and formar entrepreneur I think two things: maybe the mvp is not well defined and the project wasnt estimated as it should. And also that the software engineer is not as senior has he or she thinks is.Its a common mistake working with freelancers.Im open to work with you!Celes

Nickole36·Jan 27

Thank you so much Celes! I just want to focus on getting a co-founder right now. I think some skin in the game might be more motivating. May I ask why you stopped entrepreneurship?

katiegandomi·Jan 28

Hi Aimee, I'm so sorry to hear this, 4months post delivery is quite some time ! How was the original development contract setup and scoped ? It might come down to, if you believe the contractor will complete the MVP with additional time. If you're interested, my co-founder and I have helped dozens of startups in similar situations to get their MVPs developed. I am available to hop on a call to chat.

smichalczuk·Jan 28

The first contract team I ever worked with was like this, but fortunately on a smaller scale. They said something would take a week to build and it ended up taking three weeks. I promptly fired them as soon as they hit a logical stopping point.I’d suggest finding another contract team, preferably doing reference phone calls with 1 or 2 real clients prior to hiring them. And make sure the first task you give them is something easier to do so that you can tell right away if something is going sideways.Part of this is simply the process of learning how to manage software engineers (for perspective, I am NOT a software engineer). You have to break down large tasks into smaller tasks, and you have to have frequent communication or scrum calls to understand when they’ve hit a road block and something was harder than they expected. On the flipside, sometimes an engineer will be pleasantly surprised by how easy and fast something is.If you can commit to spending at least $7k a month on engineering for the next 3 months, I’m happy to refer you to the team I work with (that’s their minimum). Feel free to DM me.

Nickole36·Jan 30

Thank you so much @smichalczuk ❤️ I appreciate the comment. I cannot commit to spending that amount yet

smichalczuk·Jan 30

What is your budget / how much have you already spent on the current contractors? It can be a bit of a “buy cheap, buy twice” problem.I always get tons of sales emails from software contract teams offering to build an MVP for free or do the first 40 hours of work for free. That could be another good thing to try.

Nickole36·Jan 31

I have paid #1,200,000 (One Million, Two Hundred Thousand Naira) apart from subscription costs. This comes to about $1000 currently, but it’s a great budget for Nigeria.

smichalczuk·Feb 02

If you are actually based in Nigeria, then you have a huge advantage! You can interview a variety of local contract firms within your budget and you don't need to worry about time zone differences. I think the biggest hurdle you'll need to get over is "firing" the existing agency.

ariisrael·Jan 29

Hi Aimee! I'd be happy to chat as a software engineer, product manager and now founder that's managed contractors and scoped/built prototypes myself. Feel free to send me a DM!

Nickole36·Jan 30

Thank you so much Ari! ❤️

janetturner·Jan 30

Hi Aimee, I am also in the process of starting a buildup and hired a contractor to help me develop it. If you would like to chat at any point (even just to talk about how hard starting a company is) I'd be happy to chat! :)

Nickole36·Jan 30

I need the company too much Janet, thank you! ❤️❤️

jeaninejue12·Jan 31

Let me know if I can help. - I am an engineer - also building an app The only contractors I've used in the past to help - is from Singapore - Nghia from Antking - I've worked with him on startup contracts for over 10 years! He's amazing!

Maddalena·Feb 07

Hi, I share in your pain. I have also found it very tricky in the past to work with the right technical team until I discovered a great tech team based out of Ottawa. They help startups even from early MVP stage. They are absolutely amazing and support you through every step. Happy to do an intro if you are considering switching developers.