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Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

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Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#11

Post by vaksel »

vaksel wrote: post #10

I think the #1 rule for outsourcing is making sure that you can sue the pants off the person if they screw you. This means you need to stick to programmers in U.S. And yes you will pay more, but you'll be surprised how much less it is compared to what you expected. And yes rentacoder is a good site, because you can set where to get bids from. Other sites you can list in the description that you will only work with U.…

and like everyone else said, make sure that the person has a good reputation on the site, that they did projects that were similar to yours in the past, and that they have a flawless reputation

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#12

Post by ericb »

vaksel wrote: post #10

I think the #1 rule for outsourcing is making sure that you can sue the pants off the person if they screw you. This means you need to stick to programmers in U.S. And yes you will pay more, but you'll be surprised how much less it is compared to what you expected. And yes rentacoder is a good site, because you can set where to get bids from. Other sites you can list in the description that you will only work with U.…

Do you find it profitable to sue people over projects?

If a lawsuit over a project would be substantial enough to be a credible threat and justify the legal expense, I would argue you shouldn't be outsourcing whatever it is at all--it's too critical if you're in the smaller end of the business world. If you use rentacoder, I think the risk is on your head, and the agreement is clear--they don't get paid if they fail--I don't think you can sue the coder successfully, but maybe I'm wrong.

If you're saying you will get better results with a US coder, that may be true for other reasons (greater loyalty, common culture and language, fear you'll drive across country and find them).

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#14

Post by waldrews »

vaksel wrote: post #10

I think the #1 rule for outsourcing is making sure that you can sue the pants off the person if they screw you. This means you need to stick to programmers in U.S. And yes you will pay more, but you'll be surprised how much less it is compared to what you expected. And yes rentacoder is a good site, because you can set where to get bids from. Other sites you can list in the description that you will only work with U.…

The threat of lawsuit is more relevant if they were to violate copyright and take work done for hire and resell it, or set up their own site to compete with you on your own codebase; this is especially true if you give them access to your systems as part of the process, rather than bring in an isolated component. I agree that failure to deliver is rarely worth the squabble; but for these more extreme cases, knowing that there's legal recourse can prevent problems from occuring in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#15

Post by DanielBMarkham »

jeffrese wrote: post #13

oDesk works well for this and they have great PM tools baked in. Stay away from firms, only hire freelancers, be quick to fire and quick to giving raises to good developers.

Never heard of it.

Anybody else try oDesk?

I wonder how it compares to rent-a-coder?

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#16

Post by ericb »

ericb wrote: post #5

I'm doing it now. It's a little like arbitrage. I hired someone on Rent a Coder to keep my project moving while I finish a consulting contract. The key is finding someone who's good. I have some tricks for that on Rent a Coder: 1 - Spend some time building a private invite list of coders who have something similar in their work history. Pick only people with a 9-10 rating, and 10+ projects. Make sure at least couple…

One question, has anyone used the "expert guarantee" feature there where they have to pay up if they miss the deadline?

Seems like a jerky thing that I would never agree to, but on the other hand, it would certainly be motivational.

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#17

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Thanks for the advice guys. I've put the job up on both oDesk and RentACoder. Perhaps it will be useful to report back and tell everybody how it went? I'm really wary about trusting anybody else with "my" baby, but at some point I think it makes sense to offload non-value-added things. I really appreciate the feedback.

Re: Ask HN: Anybody outsource their startup?

#18

Post by lsc »

vaksel wrote: post #10

I think the #1 rule for outsourcing is making sure that you can sue the pants off the person if they screw you. This means you need to stick to programmers in U.S. And yes you will pay more, but you'll be surprised how much less it is compared to what you expected. And yes rentacoder is a good site, because you can set where to get bids from. Other sites you can list in the description that you will only work with U.…

the problem with civil action

is that you can't get blood from a stone. If you sue someone without assets or insurance, you probably won't be able to even recover enough to pay the lawyer.

I would argue that it is better to find someone with a good reputation, someone who is careful to preserve that reputation.

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