Turning An Idea Into Reality When I Can't Build It Myself

May 28, 2009 6:58 PM

I want to create the next big thing. I'm full of bright ideas, but it's software, and I don't code. What the hell do I do?

I have a pretty firm handle on how this thing should behave, what it should be able to do, and the hundreds of ways it would improve the current state of the industry segment it's aimed at. But bright ideas are one thing: being able to build the goddamned thing is another.

I can't be the first person who's had a bright idea and/or vision and not been able to implement it themselves: what do I do next? How do I even begin to approach this?

Obviously, I could teach myself to code. There are plenty of reasons for and against this, but let's assume that me learning to code is, for the purposes of this question, not an option.

I've got about twelve years of industry work under my belt, and I've been an early employee as companies go from 10 employees to hundreds a bunch of times, but I've never been a founder and I've never been in a position where I can't make what I'm envisioning.

How do I get this out of my head and into the real world, when I can't create it myself?

posted by anonymous to work & money (15 comments total)

Start your own company and hire people to do what needs to be done?
posted by bardic at 7:07 PM on May 28

You pay someone to implement it for you.
posted by rhizome at 7:12 PM on May 28

Yeah, reckon that's pretty much it. If you can't do the software work, then do the work of acquiring funding.
posted by equalpants at 7:16 PM on May 28

You're going to need venture capital to be able to hire developers to build this thing for you. And in this economy, you're going to need a really good story to tell the VCs to convince them to invest in your idea. Does your city have a local tech council or business incubator? Something like this? They'd might be able to hook you up with investors or at least point you in the right direction. But again, make sure that you have a really well thought out and researched business plan before you go asking for money.
posted by octothorpe at 7:28 PM on May 28

Depending on how elaborate what you want will be, you might be able to hire someone, or a team of someones, to do it for an amount between $50 and $5000.

I'd suggest checking out www.getafreelancer.com .

It just might be much less expensive than one would think.
posted by darth_tedious at 7:29 PM on May 28

Learn to code and learn it now.

Sure, 'now' is too late for your current idea if you want to launch it soon... but what about next time?
posted by 2oh1 at 8:03 PM on May 28

The world is full of young, enthusiastic coders-in-training who are learning new skills every day, but don't have any good ideas to apply their skillset to. Find some of those.
posted by davejay at 8:06 PM on May 28

I don't see why this is anonymous...it would help to have more detail.

It depends on the size of what you want to do, you may want to just hire one person or go bigger by hiring multiple people or a company.

You can also build it in stages to see how it is adopted. Start small, see if things are being received well by users, or maybe your idea isn't what people want. If you see success, you continue to build on the idea until you have something really great.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 8:13 PM on May 28

I'd suggest checking out www.getafreelancer.com.
It just might be much less expensive than one would think.

Also keep in mind that code-by-the-pound web freelancing sites tend to err on the side of "Here, it works, bye" and that's potentially bad if you're hoping to start a real business based on what you build.

if you pay $50 to have your idea implemented, realize that you will be getting $50 worth of work.
posted by verb at 8:17 PM on May 28

As an "idea guy" with no technology experience, you are at a tremendous disadvantage. First, you need to learn as much as you can yourself about coding, web/interface design, and product management, in order to be educated about the business and craft of software. Once you know enough to be knowledgeable, use your knowledge to find a solid CTO/co-founder to work with. Convincing someone to join up as a partner or founder will be difficult because anyone talented will be working on their own ideas or already part of another venture. But given your industry experience, you probably have a good deal of credibility and a sizable network which you can use to find this person and convince them of your vision. I think this is your best bet.

Alternately, you can hire a freelancer to develop for you. That costs big money if you hire anyone good, local, and with a brain capable of independent thought, and these people tend to have their own ideas they want to work on, and get bored of other people's projects before long. If you go cheap and outsource overseas on a place like e-lance or getafreelancer, 99% of the time you are working with people who say "yes" to everything no matter what, evidence no independent thought, and deliver crap. As a non-programmer you are not equipped to tell the difference between unmaintainable, bug-ridden, convoluted garbage and quality work. You may get software back that looks good on the surface, but adding anything or fixing the innumerable bugs will be nightmare because of how it's built under the hood.

You can also hire an IT firm or web agency. If you go with a company it will likely be on a fixed-cost project basis, and you won't have the flexibility necessary for a fast-changing, agile startup project. Every new idea or change you want to make results in a change order that costs you more money, and you'll spend your time negotiating with their project manager as to what's in scope or out of scope. An agency is almost always inappropriate for a startup.

Assume you won't get venture capital, unless you're already well-connected into that world -- even if you were, only a small percentage get VC.
posted by lsemel at 8:28 PM on May 28

Find someone local who's an experienced programmer for this sort of thing. Buy him a coffee and have a good discussion with him about the idea, and be prepared for him to say why your idea isn't so hot.

I'm a web applications developer who fields several inquiries a month from people who think they've got the next killer app, and don't know enough about technology or their field to spot the flaws in their idea (or their plan for exploiting it). Having an experienced programmer critique your idea is valuable input, and can be used to refine it.

Not many experienced people will be interested in working for an equity stake, but some might, and that's a good test of your idea--if they guy who has to build it thinks it's worth working for a deferred payoff, when that includes the opportunity cost of not taking other paying work, then it's probably at least technically feasible. If they don't, they're probably happy to offer a referral to someone who might be interested.

How to find someone like that? Google some local programmers, or post an ad on Craigslist. Many people in my position know others doing the same thing, and have an informal referral arrangement within their network if they're not interested in a project for some reason.

You can go in with an NDA for them to sign if you want, but I wouldn't. First, there's very few really good and original ideas out there, and you'll look silly having him sign an NDA only to reveal that your big idea is one that's been tried several times before--it shows cluelessness about your idea and the business environment, and one of the important things to communicate to someone you want to contribute sweat equity is that you're doing the hard business work of figuring out whether it'll be successful. Second, a programmer likely can't steal your idea because making a killer app requires much more work than just building it. It virtually demands a full-time person doing business development--research, marketing, generating sales leads, and talking to investors. Someone making their living as a programmer likely doesn't have the time or inclination to stop programming for six months while they build a startup, or they'd have done it already.

Mainly, the thing is this: hot ideas are a dime a dozen. It's execution that counts. And there's a lot more to execution than just finding a programmer.
posted by fatbird at 8:57 PM on May 28 [9 favorites]

fatbird's advice is good.

I've been in that position a couple of times -- a friend or acquaintance or passer by wants to build something, and they want to know if I'd like to do the building. 99% of the time the answer is no, but I am (and many programmers are) pretty liberal with their friendly advice over coffee or dinner.

"I've got an idea that I'm kicking around and i'd love to get a reality check from you," or "I'd love to see if you have any advice on where to hunt for good people for X," are good ways to approach it. Something short of 'please give me free consulting,' but clearly more businessy than 'I'm going to ask you out for coffee then pick your brain while you're not expecting it.'

What you get from a round of two of those 'feasibility conversations' is really going to be another set of questions to follow up on. Things you'll need to learn about, questions you'll need to answer before anything could really be built, etc.
posted by verb at 9:48 PM on May 28

What everyone said. I've often been in the position that a friend had an incredible idea. Unfortunately in all of these particular cases the idea was old news or not profitable.

I'd say you need to talk through the idea with other people, programmers and non-programmers.
posted by devnull at 4:15 AM on May 29

I'm CS faculty at a college, and I have been approached several times by folks with great ideas who need tech advice. So that's a route to consider. If they can't help you directly, they might know a qualified student hungry for real-world experience.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:35 AM on May 29

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but the first step in getting your idea "out there" is to write a spec. Describe the user experience step-by-step and what exactly it is your product delivers. Give massive amounts of detail, use flow-charts, describe any ancillary features, etc. Open up MS Paint and make some wireframes (i.e., crappy pictures) of what you envision the UI looking like. (This is very helpful in forcing you to think through how the user will actually interact with the product, and goes a long way toward summarizing your idea for anyone looking at the spec.)

Then, write a business plan. Describe the product, the market gap you've found, the target audience, how much you're going to charge, how much of that you get to keep as profits, projected sales numbers, marketing plan, etc. You'll find a zillion tutorials online about how to write one.

Take your business plan and your spec and get them critiqued. A lot of government economic development agencies or other business development groups will go over your business plan for free and correct some common errors. (Note: Some of these people are idiots, so go with your gut if they're telling you something that doesn't seem right. But a lot of them give great advice.) Try to locate a programmer consultant and pay him/her to read over your spec and tell you which aspects are ridiculous, impossible, poorly described, and difficult to implement properly and adjust accordingly.

Now you've documented exactly what you want to make, why you want to make it, and what you're going to do with it when you have it. Scrape together some money (your own, a loan, an investment), and hire a developer to put it together for you. If your business plan rocks, your idea is awesome, and you have something more to contribute than just the idea (e.g., if your product needs maintenance or data that can only come from your professional expertise), you might be able to convince someone to come on as a co-founder. Otherwise, you can hire someone directly from getafreelancer or elance or odesk, or you can post the project for bids on rentacoder.

At this point you've done as much as you can from a non-technical role to get your idea "out there." Give your contractor guidance when requested, and begin work on the other non-technical aspects (accounting, marketing, funding, etc.).
posted by hayvac at 6:57 AM on May 29 [2 favorites]