I had an idea for a software application and hired a programmer from one of the freelance programming websites. Towards the end he bailed. I even gave him extra money because the project ran over the time he said it would take. I ended up with useless software. He had excellent reviews, and was established on the freelance website
I know what I want the software to do but it seems I almost need to know programming to convey it or a wireframe or something. I had written down what I wanted it to do. But even the basic function ended up broken
Along the way as problems presented themselves i had to brainstorm solutions for the problems. As an example there could be two things named the same thing, this caused the software to crash. I would have thought the programmer would have already thought of this being a potential problem based on how I explained it would function. He then fixed it but in my mind this should have been a non issue from the get go.
So in essence my question is how do I explain what I want and should a programmer be asking me any questions ? Or do I have to have everything spelled out even if I am not a programmer because its seemed like I need to know programming to explain how I want the software to function. And where / how do I find a good one ?
Freelance sites are often for cheap-skates. The good reviews are often because they solved a lot of really simple problems. Like “I need a powerBI script” or something.
You get what you pay for. You probably do want to pay for it and get an NDA to protect your idea too, at least in the early stages.
It can be hard to find a programmer co-founder as an entrepreneur, because, all us programmers have heard about a billion pitches by non-technical entrepreneurs, and they’re usually a really bad idea or not lucrative enough to bother.
Like no, you’re not going to make a successful, breakthrough social media company anymore. Ship has sailed bro.
Like no, I won’t accept 100 dollars for 40 hours of work that YOU OWN afterwards when I’m making 60+ an hour at my day job.
In any case, I don’t have a lot of advice for you there other than you should try to befriend some programmers. You can keep trying some others on those freelance sites but you might want to contact the higher $ ones with lots of feedback because they’ll take it more seriously.
Thank you for the advice. This isn’t a billion dollar idea more niche specific. I have no dreams of lambos and all that but I am hoping to make 150k or more per year. It really depends on the number of subscribers and the monthly subscription cost the market is willing to pay for the service.