RED66 - Latest Comments in Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Carlos Granier-Phelps — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:46:09 -0000

@Nag.B, that's correct. Trust is an issue when dealing with unknown people half-way around the world, but it's up to us entrepreneurs to figure out how to deal with it.

I've developed software using Romanian programmers I've never met, and was very pleased with the results.

There's definitely a niche to be filled by reputation management services (I believe The Gorb is working on something like this).

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Carlos Granier-Phelps — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:42:35 -0000

@Andrew, I like the concept of AdvisorGarage but still find a bit complicated to use. Most elevator pitches I get are very vague and fail to explain what they expect or need from me.

I've received far more detailed and focused leads through this blog.

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Carlos Granier-Phelps — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:39:26 -0000

@Vishi,

Would love to see that list of previous work (NDA permitting).

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Carlos Granier-Phelps — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:37:43 -0000

@Eduardo, exactly. Execution is king. I've lost counts of the great ideas I've seen fail due to poor execution.

I think services like Start-a-startup and AdvisorGarage can help the less-technical entrepreneurs get a better understanding of whether their idea really has legs, before they spend too much time or money on it.

As Nag.B mentions, there are legal and trust issues that can get in the way. But I think these issues are present in any business relationship and it's up to those involved to fix them.

As a good friend once told me:

"We are entrepreneurs my friend – and as such, we will do whatever is necessary to make the company scream."

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Eduardo Hauser — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:39:16 -0000

I like the fundamental idea.

Almost always, the non-technical entrepreneur will need technical validation of their ideas. Finding the right people to provide a sound technical assesment is a critical step in the process of going from idea to execution.

But as the old expression goes: Give me an idea and I will give you 10 cents. Give me a good execution and I shall give you a dollar.

The idea is valuable. The success lies on the execution.

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Startups.in/India — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:51:56 -0000

The Build-Operate-Tranfer model is easier said than done, from my personal experience. For starters most clients get worried with the legalities and have concerns about the trust factor . Unless proper contracts are in place, most of the clients consider it as a scary proposition, especially when it comes to dealing with the courts/system and other formalities in developing countries.

Nag.B /at/
Startups.in

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

Andrew — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:39:35 -0000

Carlos

Thanks for the Advisor Garage mention. Would very much like to hear if you receive other elevator pitches too and your experiences as you use the site more often.

Any tips, trick or additional 'must haves' would also be great. BTW, have you seen the Advisor Garage blog? (http://AdvisorGarage.wordpress.com)

Thanks

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Re: Start-a-Startup - Interesting Idea

vishi gondi — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:48:34 -0000

Carlos, thanks for the post and the link.

Below are a few answers to your concerns.

Can they really deliver?
A list of proven examples of our previous work might be helpful here. The contract can be made to ensure that complete payment will be upon satisfactory delivery. Something like a staged payment.

How good are their coding skills? How secure is their code?
Ruby on Rails is used as the development framework. It follows strict conventions to make sure that the quality of code produced is of high quality. Its easier to follow the best practice than not to do it. For example its easier to write unit tests than not to. Most reusable code in rails is available as plugins and and security is taken care of by the community. Its always better to use maintained code from the community, than not to. Rails and subversion make this easier by allowing code in a project to be tied to code developed by the community automatically.

Who writes the program documentation?
Well, spec documentation is rarely created. The project starts of by coming up with initial screens iteratively. Only the most necessary features go in there. The application is deployed to a staging server daily. Once the initial application is built, no more screens. Tasks are raised in Basecamp/Trac and are integrated into the application. Development documentation is written inside the code itself and RDoc is used to create the documentation and diagrams from the code automatically. In all, only work that absolutely adds value to the application is performed. Also, its always better to make the application usable than to create user documentation.

Are they fluent in English (or your particular language)?
The part time project manager in the US takes care of the communication and cultural issues between the developers in India and the users in the US.

How scalable is their code?
We are developing a framework that deploys code on amazons EC2 and takes care of the scalability issue. EC2 is a reasonable cost service that amazon provides, which can deploy servers in minutes when the load on the server increases. The share nothing architecture of Rails makes scaling easier.

Feel free to call us at 404-918-1150 if we can be of any more help.
Vishi Gondi