Seeking advice on the order in which to do things
So we have our idea, the site map pretty much laid out and designed, and now we are ready to start looking for a development team. Right now we have three founders and we are looking for one more...our head hacker. My question is this; should we have our business and corporation set up before we find our developer, or should we wait until we find the right person and then set up our business? Also, Im assuming that we should be incorporated before looking for an Angel investor, but are there any reasons to wait and seek funding first?
Thank you very much for your help!
Co-Founder Incorporation Business
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You already have 3 co-founders and none of them is technical? Are you building a web app? – Salmon 12 years ago
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Yes. I do realize that this may not be the best set up, but it is what it is. We are all very good friends. We have built the occasional Joomla and WordPress sites, but thats it. We need someone to head up our development team. – Derek 12 years ago
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Hi Derek, I want to discuss more about the development work with you. Since I can not get much contact info from this site, would you be willing to contact me @ pradeep1011 on skype? – Pradeep 12 years ago
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Why can't one of you learn how to code? – Salmon 12 years ago
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@Pradeep...I can Skype you tomorrow, is there a good time? Im in California (Pacific Time). I guess I better get a Skype account! Just a note, I dont think that we would be interested in outsourcing work overseas. – Derek 12 years ago
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@Salmon...Is it really that easy? lol The website we need to build is going to be rather large, and somewhat complicated. – Derek 12 years ago
1 Answer
Forget about the order.
As a startup work on all of them at once. Especially if you have 3 people available.
If you have to pick I would:
1) Get the business set up. There are no big challenges here. You get a lawyer, consulting help as needed and file the papers.
2) Seek funding. It you can get funding based on your idea now then do it, you'll want to have that in place (ideally) before you...
3) Hire developers to implement your idea. Forget about sites like Wordpress and the like as a model. Professional Web Development take a lot of time, people and money for very good reasons as I've learned over decades. There's at least 10 core skills needed and it usually takes 2-3 people to cover them. 10 areas I can name immediately would be: web servers, application servers, database(s), program code, browsers, design, testing, backups, security, data exchange.
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Thanks Michael! So you think think we should hire developers rather then bring one on as a founder? My main concern is how this will impact our chances of getting funded. For the most part, everything that I have read says that you should probably have some kind of prototype in place before approaching an investor, and that ideas alone are very hard to get funded. Although...I may be biased, but I think our idea could and should get funded on idea alone. lol – Derek 12 years ago
