Finding the Right Team For a One Person Startup

I was online this evening when I saw a twitter from Ann Bernard at WhyGoSolo announcing her usual Sunday post titled Finding your Start-up Development Team.  This was a very timely topic for me.  Ann is one of the founders of WhyGoSolo and as the title of her post states, she talks about finding that “right” team.  She does a gerat job of trying to provide a little insight into the efforts to achieve their goals.

Why this is appealing to me is how it directly opposes my personal experiences.  Not in the fact that I don’t agree, rather I am a one person startup if you will.  I have no team so to speak.  So I wanted to take a little time to reflect on my expience in being a one person company looking to build a viable web service with the hopes of competing on a global scale. 

From shortly after I came up with the idea for my web service, I knew my limitations and had made the decision right then and there that I would need help in the development of the service.  Now I wasn’t sure if it would be help in the form of a partner or not I just knew I would need help.  I spent may hours sketching out designs and notes, as detailed as I could be.  I had a distinct vision and knew exactly what I wanted it to be.  At the point I felt like I had a failrly complete design and plan I went looking for my help.

I started on sites like programmermmeetsdesigner and some others as well.  I posted as much as I could and waited for some responses.  To be honest, I got very few.  It was on these sites I think I was looking for an equity type partner, but found none.  At this point I went over and opened a project on Elance.  I got several bids, ranging wildly in pricing.  Anywhere from $30K to $1500 … I reviewed all of the companies and their work and feedback from other projects. 

It took me a while, but I finally made a decision.  I didn’t take the lowest bidder, but it was a lower one.  It had to be, I was in this alone.  I have paid for everything so far out of my own pocket.  To be honest I am happy about this.  I have no one to answer to and I am insuring my vision will be implemented as I see fit. 

It took little while, but I worked closely with the developers and recently got the “alpha” version on my site online.  Is it perfect ?  No.  Am I happy ?  Absolutely.  If nothing else, I have learned a lot.  And most of all, I can say I did it.  I tried.  I took the risk and I put my own money where my ideas were. 

My lessons have been many as well.  There are a lot of similarities between Ann’s story and mine.  We both had to build a team to make our products come to life, we just went about it differently.  Hers is a local, or somewhat local, and I like to call mine “The Flat World Team” in reference to Thomas Friedman’s great book.  My developers reside on the other side of the world, yet by utilizing the technology available to me, I am able to interact with them as if they were in an office down the street.

I have a second phase in development now and am anxious to finally launch a site in the very near future.  I hope you will all stay with me along for the ride. 

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Tags: technolog, startup, WashingtonDC, DC