How to find a good dev contractor?

Despite knowing all three you can still get shortchanged check here https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot-redesign/ he is a developer from faang knows 1, knows 2 and can do 3.
So how to avoid it? with project management and tracking, syncing every week to assess the progress you can use github issues or some other project management software for tracking.

Regarding your problems my suggestion is
1a. Go for low code platform and build mvp by yourself. If you can't do this do wireframing atleast i.e. on piece of paper draw a signup page, create all the boxes in that page, specify what would be there(email and passwords) what will happen when user logs in which page will displayed? draw that page. Repeat this process until you are clear on what needs to be done. Lot of time gets wasted because people hire developers/designers first without being clear on what needs to be done this leads to lot of back and forth and you end up paying hourly for lot of wasteful work which could have been avoided.

1b. Tech stacks have tradeoff you can move fast with php but it would not scale well or you can go with rust and you will not be able to move fast. So choose a stack that allows you to move fast and get revenue.laravel(php) is a good choice it is reasonably mature platform you will get lot of knowledge material on internet and developers who are already proficient in it and relatively less expensive since supply is large. Other battle tested ones are django(python) and ruby on rails.

2. Price ranges from $50-$250 but since you cannot assess it is meaningless to talk about prices. You can get even lower rate by hiring someone from low cost country in upwork etc. but quality would vary. How long something would take would depend on your requirements. What you can do is ask for quotes from diferent agencies with your requirements , this would give you some rough estimate on how long it would take.

3. Ask for tests and performance data. That way you will know that application is reasonably tested and how many users it can handle at once.

Finally to assess developers you give them simple tasks first(not the whole saas app) and see how responsive they are, are they able to communicate problems clearly to you? were they able to give you a dedline and deliver on time? etc. it would take few tries to get the right one but once you get it just double down on him/her without wasting too much of time in looking for the best.

If you have access to any developer in your network you can lean on them while going through this.

Option 1: try building something yourself with nocode/lowcode tools.

Option 2: (if you don't have the patience) hire a dev.

• Try doing a tiny project with them. See how you like it. If you do, go ahead or find a new dev.

• Go to fiverr, freelancer etc. You'll find devs + hold them accountable.

I am building a fairly large SaaS app for my client. But we started off with building something small in my own lowcode platform. I did this for free, they liked the way I worked (& gave me feedback on what to improve). We only started after we were on the same page about the project.

Oh and don't pay by the hour. Plenty of devs do fixed rate projects based on scope & scale.

First of all, if you are not technical AND you are developing a SaaS web app, you are not looking for a dev contractor, you are looking for a CTO/partner that can go with you. Without it, you will always be stuck in development where you don't have the expertise.

You are heading the right direction in terms of the questions you are asking, but in engineering, the answer is always "it depends". Mainly due to the fact engineering works with trade-offs. If you are looking for a contractor, they will just give you whatever is most suitable for themselves and not necessary the best for you. For example, they might want to use angular when it probably should be built with react. Another reason you would need a technical partner instead of a contractor.

The hour rate depends on what you want to do. Speed, quality, mvp, lots of cr, etc etc. At high level, you probably would think $50-75/hr * 40hrs * at least 3 months as budget for starter. I wouldn't recommend lower price. Again, you probably would want technical partner and share equity so that they also have skin in this as well.

Assess quality... obviously it has to be somewhat functional at MVP. You can learn how to add metrics as you grow.

Be very very careful with agencies. Their incentive is to get as much work as possible, not to be effective & get things done fast.

Consider getting some sort of fractional CTO that takes no equity. The CTO will have the knowledge to cover your gaps and help you make those decisions.

I don't do this usually, but if you want a 30 minute chat, I can hear out your questions more in detail. But have no time for a bigger commitment than that. I've been hired before to fix agency messes, seen $5 million get spent over two years on something that could have been done in a couple months.

I'm replying from the perspective of an independent product designer, engineer, and fractional CTO. I think it's difficult for a non-technical person to answer the questions you asked, but I'll try to shed some light on the problem. My apologies for the lengthy answer, but I wanted to offer some rational for the answers.

I don't know what to ask for (what's the right tech stack?)

This question is impossible to answer without technical expertise. There are several things to keep in mind when making choices or comparing suggestions from different developers:

• An engineer who has ever worked in Node.js + Express.js + React is going to recommend that or something close. A decision that takes tradeoffs into account is only possible for someone experienced in a wider set of technologies.
• Engineers have preferences (absolutely nothing wrong with that!) but some don't like to admit that and give objectively-sounding rationale that are really just pretexts.
• There should be a rational for technical choices that can be expressed in non-engineering terms.
• Ecosystems may make you prefer one tech over another. For example, I worked on two math-heavy projects and chose Python due to the existence of SymPy, NumPy, Pandas, Jax, and many other libraries that are absent in the Ruby ecosystem (my preference).
• Product nature can do the same. For instance, Erlang is great at handling massive numbers of connections and messages and that's why WhatsUp chose it.
• Focus on tech choices that impact your clients. Ask "Do they care?" and simplify or eliminate where the answer is "No". Do your users care you use Kubernetes? Microservices? AWS?
• Some red flags: single-page application (my contrarian opinion), Kubernetes, microservices, cloud (Heroku is likely to be good enough), NoSQL.
• Short-term and long-term choices can be wildly different. For example, when building a new product I want to focus on product work so I prefer to use something that I like (many engineers like to hide their preferences behind a veil of seemingly objective factors) and know to maximize the amount of user-facing work.
• Try to understand what alternatives were considered and why a specific choice was made.

I don't know what a reasonable hourly price is and how long something like this should take

Prices are all over the place and so are the actual skills behind those prices. Since (total cost) = (hourly rate) x (number of hours), I assume you're really concerned about cost vs value here. In other words, "Am I making a good investment here?".

You can start with some preliminary work where the engineer will try to understand your product, vision, and goal, help to identify challenges, make early technical recommendations and provide an estimate (ideally a range) for the total cost. A spreadsheet should be enough to produce a sensible estimate but keep in mind there may be scope changes or unexpected difficulties along the way.

What's equally important, though, is the process should instill confidence in you that the project is on the right track. There should be a well-managed backlog of work (small, well-scoped tasks, including clear acceptance criteria), regular communication throughout the project over calls, chat, email, and a continuous stream of product increments awaiting your feedback and acceptance. You should be constantly involved in the project to help the engineer understand what needs to be build and confirm the right thing was built.

An initial estimate should help you decide whether to undertake the project or not. The process will help you stay on course without worrying about losing your money or not knowing what you're actually paying for.

I don't know how to assess the quality of what's built

There are two types of quality: external and internal. External is what the user sees. Internal is how the code is designed and structured.

You can totally assess external quality by being in constant contact with the product being built. The process I mentioned in the previous answer should guarantee that.

Sadly, you can't assess internal quality. The best you can do is to rely on proxy measures:

• Ask an engineer you trust to review the code and the development process (for instance, not using version control is a huge red flag).
• Testimonials, referrals, case studies.
• Open source contributions. If something was accepted by a project you find respectful then it clear that project's quality bar.

I would recommend being careful here: if you come across distrustful it may scare away better engineers, resulting in negative selection.

I know this answer is quite lengthy but I hope you found it at least somewhat helpful. I'm happy to continue the discussion, if there are further questions.

The best thing to do is to find someone that knows all of this and wants to join you.

Another option is to hire a company/freelancer to build the project but you will need very well defined list of requirements.

I can help you with answering this questions but because of the nature of building software you need someone to come on board with you or at least give you advice on regular basis, get in touch if you want some technical advice

Hi Kevin,

A few suggestions:
1/ As a non-developer, focus on what the app must do, and how the user should use it. Leave technical decisions such as picking the right tech stack to the developer. He/she will know what works best (and which is best depends on what the developer is confident in using)
2/ Search the internet for wage, salary & contractor rate comparison sites. That'll give you some idea. If you're looking for a technical co-founder instead of a contractor, then the hourly rate usually goes down, because you both own shares in the company
3/ You could get someone else to audit the code, but then you'll need to be confident that the auditor knows what good code looks like. One thing you can do, is assess the quality of the user experience, and how well it serves customers.

I agree with other commenters who say that it's very hard for an engagement like this to be successful. It's simply very hard to go from an idea to functioning software, whether you do this by hiring, contracting, or doing it yourself.

I wouldn't worry too much about the tech stack. The things you want to see are:
a. Good explanations of why the tech stack is a reasonable fit for the project itself;
b. Reason to believe that the tech stack can be maintained (the biggest element here is that there is a large community of developers that know the technologies, and it's reasonable to see those technologies used together);
c. Reason to believe the stack can be integrated with any technologies or systems you have in place already.

The price depends a lot on the technology. You can do better on price by not demanding a specific technology. (Here as elsewhere, the more conditions you put on a potential engagement, the more you're going to pay.) It also depends on what you want done. Hourly prices can be very deceptive (and in some cases fictional)--I think it's more constructive to think about an overall budget for the project, and then treat the total time as one more parameter to be discussed.

As for assessing the quality of what's built, they should be able to demonstrate that to you, and you should make that an element of the vetting process. There should be tests of various sorts, and the thing should work! Moreover, they should be willing to have a bare-bones MVP created fairly quickly and then iterate on that, so that you get a steady stream of confirmation that things are actually going as planned. (Or, at least, you can try to find someone who works this way.)

Source: a decade in the industry, and I've seen a lot of successful and unsuccessful projects. (Also I run my own dev shop: https://www.blackhound.io.)

Hey Kevin, I am a developer by myself.
If you need any help with saas you can contact me. Maybe we can work something out together.

I am currently building a Saas with the VILT Stack. (Vue, Inertia, Laravel, Tailwind).
There are many great other alternative stacks.

1. Stick to the most popular as you will find more and cheaper devs there.
   For backend: Laravel (PHP Dev), Django (Python Dev) or Ruby on Rails (Ruby)
   The frontend part: Vue, React or Angular combined with TailwindCSS
   Laravel is a solid option for Saas. There are many integrations like Dashboards, Billing etc. where devs can easily implement. It's also among the most popular frameworks out there.

2. Most devs can estimate the time to build your project. I recommend you to create a plan with what you want how you want and how long it should take. Sent this to the devs and ask for estimates. Hourly price can go from 50 - 200 depending on the devs experience. Avoid the cheaper ones. It will make you trouble in the long run.

If it's really simple saas try your search on Fiverr and just let it build. Maybe try a landing page first to get some beta users, waitlist sign ups etc. Thats cheap to build and gives you much experience. You only learn from failures.

3. Thats something you can only hope. You need to trust the dev. But once you get customers and cash is flowing in you can get an employe who then can review everything.

Best Regards,
Eddy

1/ I don't know what to ask for (what's the right tech stack?)

Every tech has massively profitable companies built on top of it. Having said that, React + Node.js is a very solid choice.
Benefits: modern, popular, it's all one language (JavaScript).
A typical good modern stack is React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind, Postgres that you'll see a lot of projects using but there are 100 ways to skin a cat.

If someone wants to build with Angular, PHP, Java, ... they're probably not a good choice. React + Node.js is a very, very solid option. Vue + Node.js is an alternative, and anything else might be asking for trouble.

If you can build with no code tools could take you a long way. Can always move to a coded solution afterwards.

2/ I don't know what a reasonable hourly price is and how long something like this should take

Rates range from $50-$150 per hour. Above that you may want to avoid. You may want to consider a fixed rate for the project too. Places like the US and Israel are expensive. Places like India and Ukraine are much cheaper (but have their own challenges).

3/ I don't know how to assess the quality of what's built

If it works how you want. But the real question is how to assess people before they start building and this can be very difficult. Ask to see previous projects they did alone (not where someone else built most of it). Speak to references potentially.

Final notes:

There are 100 ways in which this doesn't work out for you or gets very expensive. I'd be very careful about who you pick and if you can pick a cofounder to work on an equity basis that may be preferable.

My background:
I ran/run a freelance network and freelanced myself for a few years. I've seen and worked on a lot of projects.

I want to take a crack at answering this since I'm a contractor/freelancer.

1. The right tech stack is a bit tricky. People say it should be the same as your last project. Since you're non-technical, that means hiring to build. The obvious business choice is probably something that easy/cheap to hire for (lots of devs), but if you want to attract good talent, you could use a more cutting-edge language. Really it's all about trade-offs. If you're starting out, and are non-technical, it might be worth while to look into no-code options.

2. I want to flip this on it's head, and ask you, how much are you willing to spend on the project? As a freelancer/consultant/contractor, I've realized it's very unlikely clients will be happy paying more than the budget they've allocated, and so you should seek out a contractor such that they will be willing to work within your budget constraints. As an aside, hourly rate incentivizes the contractor to do as much work as possible or working as slow as possible. Consider a fixed rate freelancer in your budget or something similar.

3. This is a tough one. If I was not technical, I would work very hard with the contractor to come up with expectations, functional requirements, designs, and other things defined as acceptance criteria, and put it in writing (like a statement of work). Fulfilling the acceptance criteria is a condition of getting paid. A good contractor should sit down with you through this process as part of their sales discovery process.

I hope this helps a bit.

I think that such programs have already been invented - which help close cooperation with partners, you will have to search on the Internet. I, too, will soon need such a program for my mobile phone, so it's better to find it in advance, so that later I can compare with other programs and choose the best one...

Hey Kevin,

There's been a ton of great replies, but I wanted to throw in one little nugget 🍗
Everyone seems to agree that you need someone who is trustworthy and dependable.

So where would you find that person? 🤔

I recommend attending a few local software Meetups on Meetup.com. I've
been running a Meetup in Reno (techreno.org) and it's been perfect for networking and ideas. ⭐️

If you attend a meeting in person, you can connect with the organizer and they can message their entire group about your paid gig. You'll also meet other members who probably have the exact experience needed and could recommend others. Hearing your ideas, needs, etc. in person is a game changer.

I'll send you an email, but if you're ever in Reno or Tahoe I'd be glad to get coffee and exchange thoughts.

Hi Kevin, im a founder and developer. Incase you are looking for someone to help realize your dream in providing dev services, hit my inbox

For what it's worth I found a great one in Upwork. I don't have any tech expertise either, and it took some time , but am very happy with him.

We have built a SaaS from scratch ourselves, currently in the product market fit stage.
We are looking to provide work to our existing developers who can help.

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/bootstrapping-find-work-as-technology-design-agency-5837a9e971

If it is a basic SaaS can be done within a few months of course based on what one has to build, We can help assess the quality.

I can guide you as well.

1. Unless you are building something very demanding most stacks work. Can be smart to not choose api + separate frontend (because takes longer/cost more) but go for something that does frontend and backend in the same (like ruby on rails, django or my favorite elixir phoenix)

2. totally depends. If you go for eastern europe you can get a senior dev for 35 usd/hour. How long it takes totally depends on how complex the project is but i found a good rule of thumb if 130 hours.

3. Yea, thats difficult. You can of course assess the quality of the output (does the app work, is it fast etc). Code quality you can take in external developer to review the code.

Hire CTO. You don't need to hire for full-time, find someone who works as a freelancer. A few months ago I worked like that.

1/ I don't know what to ask for (what's the right tech stack?)
Javascript is a good option as its modern. Saying tat, The right stack also depends on choosing a cloud player where you can build a partnership for joint GTM.

2/ I don't know what a reasonable hourly price is and how long something like this should take
MVP can be built fairly quickly and you can budget $40/hr to $150 depending upon where you are getting it done from.

3/ I don't know how to assess the quality of what's built
You should may be look at getting a tech advisor if not a tech cofounder

Happy to chat with you more having done this number of time

Great questions and great answers!

To build on this, I wonder what you guys think about the tools out there to check the quality of the code? Would that at least partially resolve one of the points that Kevin raised?

I am in kind of the same spot. I already built something for my own use and trying to make a decision to build on the current code or start from scratch (commercializing it afterwards).

Cheers!

Hey Kevin, we actually have helped founders in the same spot as you who aren't sure how to navigate the technical aspects of getting off the ground with an idea or product. I've helped them understand what is involved in this process of cost/timeline/architecture/scale and also helped build their ideas and products to market. Feel free to drop me a message: [email protected]. Would love to help you out!

We can help