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Where to look for - and how to approach trustworthy app devs? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by grizzlydynamics@alien.top to c/digitalnomad@expats.zone

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Hi everyone,

a friend and I are currently in the progress of developing an app. We are psychology grads and are currently looking for capable app developers / software engineers to help us in dev. since our competence is very limited in this respective field.

I‘ve got two main questions:

How / where do we best look for help? Since we do not yet have investors on board we are not able to pay a salary. We are therefore looking to onboard app devs on a SitC (shares in the company) type of deal. Where do we best look for people that are wiling to hop onto a start up and work for 0 payment in the beginning.
How do we make sure that the people we approach do not run off with what we pitch them? Are NDAs enough? Couldn‘t they just tell a friend and nobody can track whether they said anything or not? I do not get IP at all and don‘t understand how we can actually protect the idea in the very early stages of recruiting.

Thanks a lot!

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[–] otakudayo@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

This is probably not the right place for such a question.

But I am a developer, and this part here:

How do we make sure that the people we approach do not run off with what we pitch them?

It's not a realistic concern. Or rather, if your idea is so good that this is a realistic concern, you should learn how to develop the app yourself. But I really, really doubt that is the case. Generally, ideas are worthless if you can't execute. Presumably your idea relies at least somewhat on your knowledge about psychology, and probably other knowledge/skills you have that a dev won't have.

[–] Ok-Spell1179@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

That's a real toughie. I'm a digital nomand myself and have struggled with this too. It can be hard to find someone you can trust to help with your business - but I've had some luck asking friends or even joining online communities to see if anyone can recommend a reliable professional.

[–] CasaSatoshi@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

You clearly don't know what you are doing. Stop now, and save yourself a lot of wasted time and money.

[–] GrammarBitchGrammar@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

So to be clear, you have no coding, development management, or business skills. You have no funding, investment, or seed capital. You want to "hire" a developer by paying them nothing.

Additionally, you want to be sure they sign an NDA in exchange for nothing.

The question isn't "how can you prevent them running off with your idea?", it's "why would any developer want to work with you?"

Seriously, bring something to the table. You know how every cab driver in Hollywood has a screenplay? Every would-be Travis Kalanick has "a great idea for an app".

Learn to code, make an MVP, start earning cashflow, produce some projections, find some more money, then worry about hiring someone to do it better.

[–] ttbn1@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

As a dev myself, you'd need to give them a considerable amount of equity for them to take it seriously tbh, to the point they'd be co-founders. If your launching a tech platform and your non-technical, your likely major start-up cost is going to be engineering. Asking a dev to build it for you without paying them is essentially asking them to take on the risk of your project - if it doesn't work, you just lose time, whereas they lose weeks / months of labour hours.

Either pitch your idea to someone technical to get a CTO, or try and raise investment. A good app / platform will likely cost 5-20k to make, if not a lot more - no serious developer would do that unless they felt they were being compensated properly.