What would be better for my startup (cofounder or hire dev team)?

My strong advice (and I have advised more than 40 startups to date): you need someone with technical skills as one of the founders. Which means either:

• learn to code (you seem young enough that it would be a very worthwile investment)
• find a technical co-founder

Do not go with outsourcing. You will sink your dad's money. I guess every mistake is a lesson learned, but why make it painful?

Where do you find co-founders? Nearby. Talk to everyone. Go out and meet more people. For instance, I organize a co-founders meetup in Silicon Valley. There are NewTech meetups all over the US. Other countries have their own meetups as well.

There is no meetup where you live? That's a great news! Do you know why? Because you can be the one to start it. That will bump your networking karma tenfold.

Too scared to start your own by fear of failure? Ok, then that's your answer...

So, you are not a developer your self? Sorry, I did click your start-up details, but clicked right back out of it as soon as I saw the text going below my screen fold. I am afraid most would do the same. If you want someone to pause a minute on your post and give you some advise, try to keep it very simple.

Said that, based on a little that I was able to extract from this message:

1. you do not write code
2. Your site/service is complex
3. Your dad may or may not put $2K - $5K

If this is correct, your chances of success are quite low. You will run out of this amount very quickly and if you are not able to clearly communicate to developers what you need from the start, you won't have resources to correct it later.

Assuming you were able to develop your site. Would you have resources to market it or even educate the users on how to use this complex tool?

I suggest: simplify your idea to meet your budget. You can always add additional complexity later if things pick-up.

Your chances of attracting an experience technical co-founder are very slim and you probably don't want to have another 17-year old on your team.

If all you have is an idea, you should know that ideas are cheap. Open any business publication and the chances are that most articles are about great ideas. It's what you can do with it is what has a value.

Good luck.

I remember your post, actually, as I did respond to it. As mentioned by slatecaster, you have an idea which is fairly complex and you have yet to describe it on this site succinctly, which is key if you want to be successful. Few people with bother to read a several page explanation of what your idea is.

So, first step is to try to phrase your idea in one or two sentences. Who is your site for, what does it do?

As you seem to have thought out marketing and the financial approach, explain in another one or two sentences the cash-flow structure - how money comes in and how it goes out.

Finally, dealing with getting this developed. Ideas are cheap, but development is not. A site as described in your earlier post can take anywhere from several hundred hours to several thousand hours. At $20 per hour (and that's about the minimum of what you could be expected to pay), that's looking at $10K in development costs.

I understand you're looking to give equity for the work, but the problem is, developers are often reluctant to do this. First, they'll have to devote themselves to your vision, leaving them unable to earn money from projects that pay cash. They'll have to put in a lot of work, and it's quite possible that it won't be financially viable in the end. Then they'll have to deal with running the company, and the exit strategy for them isn't clear.

With only $5,000 in your budget, this really appears to be a dead-end project, as the money will run out long before your marketing kicks in, the applications are built, and your project is cash-flow positive. I would strongly recommend that find additional financing for a project of this scope, in the area of $25K and up. A line of credit might work, since you can draw on it as needed, rather than all at once.

To find people, you really need to know what it is you're looking for. Clear phrasing of what you're trying to build, what skills it is that you're going to need, and so on, will help. You can post on various websites such as this one, social networks, and so on, indicating exactly what it is you're looking for.

That's not to say the long explanation is useless. But you won't attract someone with a long explanation if you haven't captured their interest with a one or two sentence summary.

You're 17? I would more fully develop this idea in your head and on paper. Next year you're off to college, right. Take some programming courses. Even if you don't find yourself drawn to a career as an engineer, you will meet those who are. College is a massive bubbling pot of ideas and hackers and tools and engineers. There's no better place to meet co-founders, especially if you've put in some hours fully developing the ideas.

The reason I say this is, from experience, there's little middle ground in finding a technical partner. They'll either work for free + and equity, or they want to be paid full price. I've yet to find someone who will work on the cheap + equity.

The best way to do is to learn a language - Python is dead simple to learn!, solve problems from sites like spoj.pl / topcoder to get your programming skills in place. Parallely, follow tech blogs and understand best practices, how to design website, etc. Do it yourself! That's the best way!

I also recommend that you add an e-mail contact so possible developers can contact you.