Just as a jeweller gives a wild stone a noble look, the talented and experienced team can help your project to play with all its facets. After all, you won’t argue that diamonds look completely different when a professional has a hand in them. If you dream to see your digital business sparkling with popularity and profitability, invest your time and effort in order to find a software developer who knows how to polish your idea and drive it home in the blazing form. The ability to juggle specific tools, visual taste, marketing talent, a sense of humour and a solid technical background are just a few features that differentiate a promising contractor.
The Purrweb specialists accumulated their experience in an easy-to-use format, sharing the secrets of how to find software developer for startup. Read and take into service their hints and hacks, and you will be able to achieve the results you thought of.
Why it’s hard to find a software developer who perfectly matches startup needs
When the guys are good at something, they are never wasting time without work. Take into account this fact when you’ll be searching for a partner in the IT industry. Being an obstacle on the way to finding a software developer relevant to your project, involvement in diverse businesses is also a sign of professional competence and clients’ trust, regardless of who we’re talking about: freelancers, in-house employees or IT agencies.
Let’s articulate the most common difficulties which you can expect in the entrepreneurial journey.
Lack of free staff with relevant competencies
Though the IT industry seems overcrowded, it’s often a real headache to find a software developer whose level of competencies matches your requirements.
In the case of hiring an in-house team, you’re likely to face a lack of sufficiently qualified applicants in the labour market, and it can entail the necessity to entice experts from other businesses.
Exact assessment of knowledge and skills
Being a newbie in digital entrepreneurship, you can feel puzzled by the necessity to make an adequate assessment of the technical and other skills of the employees or freelancers. In case you find a software developer in outsourcing, you are free from this obligation as you get an entire team who can demonstrate to you the results of their collaboration.
Ineffective communication and other soft skills
Creativity, discipline, motivation and talent to understand what you’re waiting for a contractor to be are the features that matter no less than an impressive knowledge of technologies. Organizing people in a group with synergistic productivity takes time and overcoming mistakes. If you aren’t ready to be a psychologist, sociologist and team builder, it’s better to consider a fully staffed development agency. When you find a software developer this way, there’s a special role of the person who is responsible for adequate interaction between all members of the team and you – the project manager. This specialist provides support during the implementation of your idea into practice, tracking the timeline and your satisfaction with the results of collective work.
Ethics of work and security issues
Sometimes the idea is so fresh and original that you feel fairly anxious about whether your IT partners are able to steal it. Another point is when your project is linked to sensitive data, and you want to be sure there’s no leaking of information that should be protected. All these reasons for anxiety need to be deleted by the conscientious approach to the task to find a software developer who is respectful of the principles of working ethics and is ready to sign up for an NDA.
How to search for a developer: actionable strategies
When you are just starting your business, it doesn’t make sense to take the burden of excessive expenses on the in-house team (regular salary, paid vacation, sick leaves, high taxes) or cooperate with a group of freelancers when there’s a necessity to assess their qualification and coordinate their work without any certainty in the future. When you try to cut corners and find a software developer on the freelancer marketplace, you can’t be sure that the expert will be interested in your project for a long time and has enough motivation to bring your idea to the final form of embodiment.
Though it’s a bit more expensive than hiring freelance experts, at the early and seed stages startup founders can win with a full-cycle software development agency when all the points of cooperation are discussed and confirmed in the agreement.
Targeting to find a software developer whose values are the same as yours, exploit the following approaches:
- Ask for recommendations from your colleagues and friends. Such an approach fits you in case you have a plethora of contacts in the IT sphere. Otherwise, it’s a failing strategy.
- Search on the internet. If the company has a presentable website and regularly posts in professional blogs, demonstrating new cases and expertise in various issues, take a closer look at their potential.
- Search on the specialized platforms (Clutch, GoodFirms). They let you filter companies which align with the specifics of your project and check their ratings based on real reviews.
To find a software developer who’s worth trust and co-creativity, check if your potential contractor can demonstrate: relevant experience (are you inspired by their portfolio?), unrivalled communication skills (do you feel you’re on the same page?), positive feedback from previous clients (check reviews on independent platforms).
Preliminary work: what the team expects from you to start development
Before you decide to find a software developer, do your “homework”. Depict what, why and for whom will your service be offered. Stock up with references of products whose design makes you feel admired: it’ll help the UI/UX team to catch in which direction to create. A good development team will help you to organize features in the best order, but the task to define which functionality is necessary for project life is your zone of responsibility. Conducting marketing research in advance to know whether people are actually interested in your product is also a budget-saving idea. The more you know about your potential customers, the better solution can be performed in cooperation with a qualified IT partner.
Three questions to clear up before signing an agreement
Since you can describe what you want in a pair of sentences, and the data you’ve collected signals the idea is worth implementing, get over to the next step.
Budgeting and timeframe assessment
The team can estimate how much time it will take to perform the set of features your product requires. Based on this estimation, you can see where you can reduce your expenditures: for example, refuse expensive, but unnecessary features at the first step. The final cost depends on hourly rates in the firm. You can avoid overspending if you’ll find a software developer with affordable prices. For example, Purrweb charges about $50 per hour, which is two or three times less than competitors’ pricing.
Of course, you should have something in stock for better flexibility, but the previous assessment allows you to see the preliminary time and financial limits for the app.
As for the timeline, it should be adequate for the work of several experts. For example, at Purrweb an MVP can be delivered in three months.
Easy communication
Take into service the opportunity to get in touch and discuss your project with a potential contractor: you’ll see whether you can understand each other effortlessly and exactly.
Technology stack
Every company is polishing their skills in definite technologies and knows how to get the best from it. When you try to find a software developer, refine the pros and cons of the tool they get used to working with. The Purrweb experts are excited by the convenience of React Native since it gives freedom for customized UI/UX design and fastens the process due to the simultaneous development of products for diverse devices.
If you feel that you are lucky to find a software developer who’s worth being a reliable partner, don’t hesitate to start your adventure: it’s more interesting and easy to look for appropriate solutions together than alone.
