We are going to create a biotech spin-off from our University, now we need a website, with professional design and flyers and the like. Right now we are negotiating some contracts but still do not have funds to pay to designers/web creators for a professional website and the flyers. We were considering the option to tell the designers to work for us, and in case we get some contracts, they will get some money, proportional to our income.
I am not sure this is the right way to proceed, so could you recommend?;
Too many other factors affect the success of your venture to expect craftspeople to work for such an uncertain payout.
If you absolutely have no money I definitely endorse trying to get students/teachers involved -- they can work for free, or at least for class credit.
But if you're spending money on anything, that is, if you have any money to spend, then you need to consider marketing as an equal to product development and manufacture and spend accordingly.
Finally, you can get inexpensive web work done through such sites as elance.com, guru.com and the like.