I have a pretty good idea for a mobile app that I want to develop that is based on musicians and their news feeds, it is not something revolutionary but it is missing in today's world and actually something I would use everyday.<p>I am not a coder but my forte is in digital marketing as I have been doing it for 8 years and pretty damn good at it.<p>Building an app today is something that is all the rage so I know hiring a coder is going to be very costly once programming and design are included.<p>Anyone have advice on how I can go about doing this, should I partner with someone that can code, take the risk and invest the money to have it developed?
<i>hiring a coder is going to be very costly once programming and design are included</i><p>You should start learning about coding now, not with the intention of building the app yourself, but with the intention of becoming more knowledgeable about what the developer's job entails. If you find a developer and say "build me an app" you might get estimates like 12 months and $50k. If you know that you just need a news feed, you can say, "can you take this jQuery mobile template and wrap it in Phonegap, and create a simple database to store a data feed from the following sources, you might be able to get it done in a few weeks for $300 [1].<p><a href="https://medium.com/@morphmail/the-first-300-a-startup-launch-tale-f074d957da4e" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@morphmail/the-first-300-a-startup-launch...</a>
As always: That depends. ;-)<p>The most important question is: Can you make a sustainable business with you app and will you generate money from it?
If this is the case, you could either find an investor (which may be very, very hard at you current stage) or invest some of your savings on your own.<p>Then, how are you used to work currently? Do you prefer working with others or on your own?<p>Finding a co-founder is often a good choice for startups because you find like-minded people which (hopefully) share the motivation for the project with you. However, doing something together requires a lot of trust in each other and empathy. If you find yourself comfortable with another guy at your project, go for it, that's the best solution, in my opinion. If you disclose some more details about your idea, I am sure, HN could be a place to start searching.<p>If you find yourself uncomfortable with that and you're not willing to learn to program, go for oDesk or something similar as some other comments already suggested.
In an ideal world, you could partner with a developer who would built it in exchange for equity. There are ways to make that happen...go to meetups, put an ad on craigslist, etc. Just remember that developers get these sorts of offers ALL THE TIME. Make sure you stand out.<p>Personally, I'd be wary of spending my own money on paying a contractor to build something. It will be expensive and there is no guarantee of a good outcome.<p>Good luck!
I understand you pretty well because I'm in the same situation now. So what I've done? I've created something like a prototype using Prottapp (design was made by my wife in Adobe Illustrator). Another tool for this is Balsamiq. After this I'm going to create a crowdfunding campaign for further developing as I don't have enough money for it. May be you can try to do the same
If you've been doing digital marketing for 8 years and are pretty damn good at it, I'm surprised that you're having trouble paying for a coder. Digital marketing is typically closer to sales and revenues. The effect your work has has (and thus your compensation) can be orders of magnitude higher than programmers.
Sam has a great blog post about this: <a href="http://blog.samaltman.com/non-technical-founder-learn-to-hack" rel="nofollow">http://blog.samaltman.com/non-technical-founder-learn-to-hac...</a><p>The title says it all - learn to hack.
Not a startup guru here, just a coder. Please take into consideration that a good programmer wouldn't put best effort for cheap as well. I think you should search for programmers with enthusiasm + skill combo. Good luck!