Ask HN: Why learn to code when you can rent a coder?
If you are contemplating a startup but don't have the technical chops to code or interest in coding, the best way to go is renting a coder to get you to a prototype.
3 comments
I have a few startups brewing right now. For one I'm working with technical co-founders, and another I'm not. Trying to "rent a coder" for the latter has proven to be much more difficult both short term and long term than having partners who code.
First, I had to come up with cash to pay someone. A painful thing to do when you're bootstrapping with no real income.
Second, I had to spend copious amounts of time not only writing a technical spec for someone who didn't grok the app but also carefully crafting a contract that would assure that I kept the IP.
Third, maintenance has been a bitch. Iterations take weeks instead of days, and I'm never a contractor's top priority.
In contrast, my partners are (like me) working for equity, have a deep, intuitive grasp of the product and what it does, and are engaged enough to not only turn around changes quickly, but also suggest improvements themselves.
Obviously, there are situations where renting a coder will be one's only option. My experience has been that it's an awkward, painful process.
In the future, I would choose to cobble together a non-functional prototype (I'm a UX designer who writes display layer markup) to help me attract a technical co-founder or an investor rather than hire another contractor.
First, I had to come up with cash to pay someone. A painful thing to do when you're bootstrapping with no real income.
Second, I had to spend copious amounts of time not only writing a technical spec for someone who didn't grok the app but also carefully crafting a contract that would assure that I kept the IP.
Third, maintenance has been a bitch. Iterations take weeks instead of days, and I'm never a contractor's top priority.
In contrast, my partners are (like me) working for equity, have a deep, intuitive grasp of the product and what it does, and are engaged enough to not only turn around changes quickly, but also suggest improvements themselves.
Obviously, there are situations where renting a coder will be one's only option. My experience has been that it's an awkward, painful process.
In the future, I would choose to cobble together a non-functional prototype (I'm a UX designer who writes display layer markup) to help me attract a technical co-founder or an investor rather than hire another contractor.
It depends on the type of startup. If your startup isn't completely tech-oriented, e.g. soemthing like Airbnb where the value is in the service provided, renting a coder would probably work, since the technology isn't your core competency. If it is something more like Dropbox, where the value is the technology, you will have difficulty outsourcing that.
An analogy is that you don't have to learn everything about cars if you are just driving to your day job. Let a mechanic take care of that, and you can focus on what you do best. If you want to be a NASCAR driver, you should know everything your pit crew knows.
An analogy is that you don't have to learn everything about cars if you are just driving to your day job. Let a mechanic take care of that, and you can focus on what you do best. If you want to be a NASCAR driver, you should know everything your pit crew knows.
Disagree with the nascar bit, you do not need to know how to change a tire in in X sec because when this happens you will always be sitting in the race car. What the driver cares about is that everything that needs to happen does and is done as quickly as possible consistently, in a word metrics. Now the pit crew chief needs to know the pit crews jobs to ensure things get done properly.
Obviously you don't have to be the best pit crew member, but you do have to know how every part of the car works to be an effective driver. Find me a successful NASCAR driver who didn't know his/her car inside out and I'll eat my words. The reason for this is that as you are starting out, you have to do your own mechanic work, because you won't have the budget to hire a crew. And drivers who know their cars drive better, and they can communicate better with the pit crew.
If you are starting a technical company you will need more than a passing familiarity with technology. To be successful as a software company you will need to assess the quality of the code you receive as well as need to know enough to manage a software development project.
To think that you can contract a coder and get a company back is fairly naive.
To think that you can contract a coder and get a company back is fairly naive.