Let's Get Started (Again) — Search for A Full-Stack Developer

Photo by Jordi Moncasi

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my progress in my pursuit of starting a lifestyle SaaS business.

I'm going to give myself a 2 year runway to see IF I can achieve my SaaS business within that time frame. I'm self funding this whole thing so it's gonna hurt financially if I'm unable to generate revenue.

So the title for this first post is "Let's Get Started (Again)" because this isn't my first attempt nor is this a start of a new attempt. It's more of a continuation of an existing attempt, but wanting to put more of a time frame around it.

Not sure if that makes all sense, but that doesn't matter as this blog is mainly for me.

Current status.

• current freelance developer resigned so in the process of finding a replacement
• trying to find replacement on UpWork

Here's what I've learned so far about UpWork

It's very difficult to find a freelancer/contractor when you are unfamiliar with the field you are trying to hire for. Example. I'm trying to find a full-stack developer, but without knowing any coding it's gonna be difficult for me to sus out a good developer vs. a bad developer. It's ideal if you can find a developer friend (or contractor whose given notice) to help you filter through applicants.

Another thing I've noticed. Applicants do not read the job description.

So I placed a job for a test project. On the first line it has the following information.

1. The test project is a paid project
2. Please submit your proposal with an estimate on how many hours you'll need to complete the project
3. If you do not submit an estimate, your proposal will be rejected

Then I added a pre-request question for any applicants.

• Q: Did you read the test project brief?

Most of the applicants answer "Yes" to the pre-request question, and then have either

• Pre-written default proposal (or)
• Just a note saying "I can do the project. Hire me."

Fortunately, I was able to find 6 contractors willing to work on the test project and they've given estimates which was within my budget ($15 an hour). To requirements were to provide a link with a working prototype and a link to the Github repository of the code.

From the 5:

1 applicant - solid work with link to prototype & repository

2 applicants - solid work with link to prototype but no link to repository

2 applicants - still waiting on results

Next Monday I'll provide a more detailed write up about the costs of each and the results.

So far we (the dev who gave notice) and I are thinking of having a second, more complicated test project to narrow the applicants down.