Ask YC: have you ever hired hacker freelancer from elance.com or rentacoder.com?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=147402

by ideas101 • 18 years ago

3 6 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've couple of ideas and i may not be able to concentrate on all, so i was looking for hacker co-founder but then one of my friend suggested to find a freelancer from elance.com / rentacoder.com and get my stuff done quickly and cheaply... just wondering whether this is the most efficient way to get the work done than finding a GOOD hacker co-founder?

rms• 18 years ago

If you do it, make sure to write very, very thorough design spec with mockups. Don't leave any room for decision to the freelance coder, unless you're paying them to make decisions.

ideas1012• 18 years ago

thanks - that's good suggestion - have u ever hired one or do u know someone who had used these services?

generalk• 18 years ago

If you want a co-founder -- someone to take half of the equity in a startup and take the plunge with you -- hiring a freelancer is a terrible idea. They're not going to invest themselves in the idea the way you would.

If you just want someone to take some of the coding pressure off of you, sure, but I'd still advise against it. Better to hang out here or on IRC and find someone who actually likes the ideas and would be interested in working on them. Saves you money, and you'll get better output in the end anyway.

ideas1012• 18 years ago

thanks - what's IRC?

mooneater• 18 years ago

Its polite to quickly google a term you're not familiar with, in case the answer can be easily had without asking.

NewWorldOrder• 18 years ago

Waiting for a "GOOD" hacker co-founder may have you waiting forever. If your ideas are good, somebody else is already working on it. So every day you wait, you're losing time.

As long as your idea isn't very complicated to implement, and you know what you want; by all means, use an elance or a rentacoder or a craigslist.

Ask YC: have you ever hired hacker freelancer from elance.com or rentacoder.com?

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