Referrals and Advide (Django Contractor and Advice)

June 11th, 2013

I’m creating a new thread, but this is sort of a piggyback off of Agatha’s post for Offshore contractor recommendations. To make a long story short my developer came on board as a contractor/potential co-founder. Unfortunately, he had some personal issues that came up and couldn't continue with the project. So at this point, I have a partial Beta site built in Django that isn't functional. I’m looking at a few different options, but funds are tight ($3-$5K) and I need to get the beta up and running.

1. Referrals to trusted Django Developers (Probably offshore, due to the budget) that could possibly get it done within my budget and preferably within the next 1-1.5 months. I have the wireframes and technical requirements at least from a UX side.

2. Being a non-technical person, I’m looking for advice, based on what’s been completed, my wireframes and requirements list. I’m trying to figure out whether the remaining features and design of the site could be completed within my budget. I understand everyone is incredibly busy and the primary point of this post is the referrals, but if you can help I can send you the documents.

Here is a quick overview of the project:

MyGigline solves the communication problem of available resources for military, veterans and their family members. It’s a social information network that personalizes the military journey by tailoring events, services and special programs according to an individual’s location, needs and interests. While not nearly this complicated right now, one of the easiest ways to describe it is a hybrid of StumbleUpon and Angie’s List for the military.

As for the features, it’s a multi-sided platform where military members can interact around valuable content from government services, nonprofit organizations and military-friendly businesses. For the Beta site we are focused mainly on members and nonprofit organizations and provide a place for them to create profiles, as well as post, find and save specific events, services and special programs (resources). While our main goal is localizing these resources first, we would possibly include some of the personalization in the Beta. Basically, members would discover resources based on their personal interests and the preferences (tags) they select when they create their personal profile.

Obviously I have much more detailed feature lists, but hopefully it gives the general idea. Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help!

jon

June 11th, 2013

I've outsourced some Django projects to a guy in Vietnam and it turned out well. His email is anhtran@moon9.org , and I think he's got a team of other guys there as well if you need them.

When you outsource be as detailed as possible. Don't assume they know what you mean. Sometimes it helps to get them to repeat back to you what they think you've said. Make sure you establish milestones and deliverables, so you're both on the same page for when they get paid and when you get their work. It helps to have several milestones so you can course-correct if they've gone the wrong direction.

Ed Pierce Program Manager at Apple, Inc

June 11th, 2013

Hi Mark,

Jonathan Vanasco

June 11th, 2013

Three things pop in my head: 1. Grab a technical cofounder. They should be building & managing the build, and setting up all the servers. Django isn't something you just toss on a server and forget. You'll need weekly maintenance and daily reviews for a whole. 2. Grab a marketing cofounder. There's a great thread going on concerning what to look for. Personally I'd advise on someone with a good ground game. Work with them to figure out what they can sell and promote. Strip every other feature from the launch. Even if its built- a mix of too many options for consumers and too many potential big sources will not be a smooth launch. Bring those elements online as time allows. 3. For django leads, check the local django and python meetup groups. Ask the US devs -- you'll either find a partner or at least find leads on firms they weren't too offended by. ( local devs often get called in to fix offshore work, and they'll know who to stay away from ) ( I wrote this in notepad on my phone, if this comes out in comic-sans , not my fault!)

David Rossellat CTO at MySQUAR

June 11th, 2013

I have used Flask for prototyping several VOIP applications but dont have much experience dealing with Django unfortunately, otherwise I'd offer to help you.

if you're looking for a high quality off-shore freelance agency, I'd recommend TopTal - Only top tier developers. Their contractors are really good.

They might be too expensive for your budget though.

There's a great article on Quora about top freelancer portals http://www.quora.com/Code-Outsourcing/How-do-oDesk-Elance-Freelancer-com-Staff-com-and-TopTal-com-compare

Good Luck!

Mark Morris

June 12th, 2013

Everyone,

Thanks so much for the support and advice. Just to quickly reply:

Jon Chin--Thanks for the referral and I completely understand detailing the project requirements and setting milestones.

Ed Pierce--It seems the message never came through

David Rossellat--Great article on the different type of outsourcing websites and I'll check out Off-Shore

Jonathan Vasco--I can't agree more with all of your advice. However, as you probably very well know developers, especially ones who are willing to work for equity are in very high-demand. That number even dwindles some more, due to the niche market I'm working in at this time. I'm going to the meetups, reaching out to folks on FD, etc, but if your interested, I'd be happy to discuss more:). What I've come to realize is that many developers often like to see a semi-tested business model, something already built (even if it's thrown out later) and proof that there is some traction. At this point I've done much of the face-to-face customer development, I know my market, and hope that the beta helps me get that proof of concept to continue recruiting those valuable team members. Also, thanks for the other advice on talking to local dev companies.

Best,

Mark