Hey everyone, I'm a college student in CS and aspiring startup founder. I've stumbled upon a problem I want to solve, and I believe that the best way to test this idea's feasibility is to get a v1 launched and exposed to users ASAP (most likely my college campus to get started). However, I've been focusing on coursework and ML stuff over the last few years, so the last time I did web application development, it was in raw LAMP, and I know the technology du jour has changed. Since I know Python, I've been looking a bit into using Django or Google App Engine to get a first version running (since I know Python already but not Ruby), but I'd apprecate any advice on what would be the most frictionless way to get something, anything, running. Also, does anyone have any tips on where to find/buy templates/design packages so the site looks decent without having to actually hire a designer? Thanks - any input from those more experienced is much appreciated.
In what "domain" is your product idea? (without revealing too much, obviously). For example: a collaboration tool. Or an e-commerce subscription site. Etc...<p>I would go for Python + Django. Avoid Google App Engine. There are big gotchas with using Django and GAE. You essentially have to throw out the Django ORM because Google places restrictions on what SQL queries you can use (for scalability reasons, none of which are your concern for an MVP or even a moderately sized startup). You can avoid this using Google Cloud SQL, but then you have to use MySQL. PostgreSQL is recommended by most of the Django community. You are better off using something like Heroku (which has great documentation). You can either use Twitter Bootstrap (maybe tweak the defaults with something like Jetstrap), or use a template off themeforest or woothemes. If you use a theme, you'll have to tweak the HTML to make them work with Django's templating.<p>The problem with Wordpress is that unless you're doing a plain vanilla ecommerce site or some other limited choices, there are many kinds of MVPs you would not be able to build with it. Not to mention that you would be rewriting everything eventually if you use Wordpress.<p>Using meteor and node.js cover different product use cases (real-time apps or apps with a lot of connections). So it depends on your product. Keep in mind that meteor is not mature yet.
I may get down-voted for this, but how about WordPress? Not for a long-term product that needs to scale and support tons of customers, but as an MVP. There are some really slick plugins that can help you create some pretty advanced functionality. Here's a 2 part podcast on that very topic:<p><a href="http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/05/episode-3-building-mvp-apps-with-wordpress-part-1/" rel="nofollow">http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/05/episode-3-building-mvp-ap...</a>
<a href="http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/12/mvp-wordpress-part2/" rel="nofollow">http://productpeople.tv/2012/12/12/mvp-wordpress-part2/</a><p>As for design, WordPress has a rich market for themes:
themeforest.net
woothemes.com
and many more<p>Between plugins and themes and hosting, you can easily accomplish in an afternoon and a couple hundreds bucks (or less, depending on your needs) what would take you weeks to build. Get it out there, validate it, and then build it in your favorite language and framework once you know it's golden.
I think you are on the right track. If you are using python+django already the I would suggest you stick with it. The problem with python+django is that its a bit more complicated to deploy etc. So you probably do not want to mess around with things like vps, wsgi, nginx etc unless your unix skills are decent? I would suggest if you want to basically deploy your app without having to worry about the deployment details - then read the reviews on here: <a href="http://djangofriendly.com/hosts/" rel="nofollow">http://djangofriendly.com/hosts/</a> especially about cloud providers where all you need to maintain is a git repo etc.
For templates and gettings a design up and running there are a number of options - most popular being twitter bootstrap and zurb foundation. If your design is simple then I guess designer is not needed. If you need any help let me know.