The Risk in Sending Your Startup’s Technology Offshore • Hacker News Board

Re: The Risk in Sending Your Startup’s Technology Offshore

#51

Post by Metaphysical » Wed, Sep 10, 2014, 9:47 PM UTC

retrogradeMT wrote: post #46

kcmarshall wrote: post #18

I don't think you can over-emphasize the challenges in communication with off-shore teams. I have worked with several in corporate IT and just reaching a minimal baseline of understanding has proven difficult. Some of this is basic talking and listening; phone conferences will suck! Think about your typical (dysfunctional) phone conf and then slash the quality of the phone line/Skype connection. Add in the variable a…

I have used an offshore developer to help with some specific projects on my startup that is entering our friends and family launch this week. My experience has been fantastic. I learned to code last fall and consider myself to be a semi-technical founder (php - laravel, jquery). I live in a small town in Montana and I knew I could not complete my MVP entirely by myself. With nearly no developers in my town I knew I w…

Would you be willing to talk about your experience in finding, vetting, and then doing project management with your freelance developer?

My questions, specifically due to common complaints:

Where did you find the 10 leads? What were your criteria?

How did you, as a semi-technical cofounder, interview/approve him?

How do you guys work together regularly?

Finally, if you're willing to share, what's the rate at which he is employed?

Re: The Risk in Sending Your Startup’s Technology Offshore

#52

Post by retrogradeMT » Thu, Sep 11, 2014, 6:15 PM UTC

Metaphysical wrote: post #51

retrogradeMT wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have used an offshore developer to help with some specific projects on my startup that is entering our friends and family launch this week. My experience has been fantastic. I learned to code last fall and consider myself to be a semi-technical founder (php - laravel, jquery). I live in a small town in Montana and I knew I could not complete my MVP entirely by myself. With nearly no developers in my town I knew I w…

Would you be willing to talk about your experience in finding, vetting, and then doing project management with your freelance developer? My questions, specifically due to common complaints: Where did you find the 10 leads? What were your criteria? How did you, as a semi-technical cofounder, interview/approve him? How do you guys work together regularly? Finally, if you're willing to share, what's the rate at which he…

Sure, no problem. hit me up at dustin @ contractorsherpa . com and we can figure out a time to talk.

Re: The Risk in Sending Your Startup’s Technology Offshore

#53

Post by fat0wl » Fri, Sep 12, 2014, 5:58 PM UTC

Bahamut wrote: post #26

fat0wl wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yea i think this is the point that shadeless's comment misses. it's not like there is no talent in the world at large, but businesses have a hard enough time deciphering talent when they have 2 in-house developers and can read their entire code portfolio... these rubes are doomed as soon as they descend into no-man's-land. Personally I'd much rather have 1 ace developer than 10 of questionable value. at the corp I wo…

Completely agree - I've been at startups with 20-40 people where I was the best developer in the company...with 1 1/2 years of experience. I left those places quickly, it reeks of not knowing what they are doing. These places all had in common heavy interest in outsourcing when timelines were tough. They just wanted stuff done quickly, and didn't put importance on the execution. What that does is frustrates the devel…

yep it is messy like that even at corps, but thankfully once you deliver on a few good projects & show you are reliable they will often let you rip up a codebase & re-format the project as you'd like (perhaps while phasing out the previous iteration) rather than inheriting a codebase that you feel is..... beneath you (for lack of a less pompous phrase) :D

it's cool, it lets you keep to some level of personal standards once you have management's trust (took me about a year & a half i think? to be able to oppose a conservative architectural recommendation & win)