Ask HN: Recommendation for outsourcing of a small SaaS MVP | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Recommendation for outsourcing of a small SaaS MVP

4 pointsvlindos4 comments

Hello, I am from Bulgaria and after organizing ofa startup around SaaS based product. It will be SPA web app MVP, with on .net core backend and angular 6 for the frontend. I need to focus on the bussiness endeavours while the base for the product is being built rather developing it by myself. On the other side the developer costs locally grew to absolute heights and I am unable to afford doing it locally. This was came to the idea of splittting the non tricky web implementation that is requiring more work and outsource it to cheaper locations, while me and other founders around doing ML work on the backend and securing the clients.

Do you think it is a good idea?

What regions and websites you would advice on for getting a freelance team to do it?

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As a freelancer from China who is starting my own agency, I've developed many outsourced projects for my clients, or my clients' clients. Here's my advice.

0. Sometimes it takes MORE time and effort if you outsource it. It might take as long to find candidates and describe your requirements as if you build it yourself. And you might choose an incompetent freelancer/company and have to restart the search again. I feel it's only worth the effort to find a good developer if you plan to work with him for more than just several months.

1. Try to get a referral. It's way easier to find a reliable developer this way.

2. Avoid popular freelance marketplaces like Upwork. The competition tends to drive away non-desperate developers (like me).

3. Be as specific as possible in describing what you want to build, provide a mockup if possible. Especially if you won't meet the developer IRL.

4. Find someone who speaks English and communicates proactively, who reports progresses and delays without you asking. It'll drive you nuts if you don't know if a deadline will be met and your developer won't reply to your email.

Finally, you can send me an email if you're interested in having my company build your MVP for you.

0. I was thinking to do very detailed specifications and have trial for a week. I believe there is no other way. Also during this week I could see how the base tasks will be performed and if it fails could cancel the relationship.

2. That is indeed very useful advice, if I could get referral. Unfortunately I could get those from the websites I could find the agencies or people. Do you think I could rely on these?

3. Useful advice, but what other places you would suggest. Here is good resource I found but any of these look main stream: https://www.forbes.com/sites/abdullahimuhammed/2017/06/16/79...

4. Ideally I am looking for 2-4 people for 2-4 months. Then it makes perfect sense for someone on the team to be used for the communication.

I would definitely check with you once I prepare the specifications (in next month or so).

Thank you very much for the input!

you might want to check out bubble.is

you might be able to build a basic MVP quickly. It seemed as easy to build as you would need to put into a spec for outsourcing.

I want the state of the code to be in managable state after the MVP delivery, as me and the team will need to enhance it in future.

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