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I've done some beginning work on an idea for what I describe as a True Education Management System, one that focuses on both the community (and by community I mean all users of this WebApp, not just the school or school-district) and being much more than a very expensive fancy agenda for schools and I want to know how I could find developers for said product. That's an overly brief explanation of the idea because I don't have a patent yet.

I've spoken with one VC and he basically said "Do as much as you can by yourself" but I don't know how much more I could do by myself, I have a very limited knowledge of databases and a much less limited knowledge of Silverlight (It's being done primarily in Silverlight), and I feel like if I had developers who wanted to work with me who had majored in Computer Science or at least has a good overall knowledge of Silverlight would be able to do a considerably better job than I can, and my school work wouldn't be suffering as much as a result.

Any help would be appreciated

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have you got an online demo you can show people of what you have done so far? – Ben Dec 21 '10 at 1:23
Not yet, I've designed some of the Teacher Client and some of the database is done but nothing that I can really present – Display Name Dec 21 '10 at 5:58

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I don't know if a site like http://www.quirky.com/ might be of help to you - the idea is you can share ideas and get people to help in exchange for a % of your product - but it's usually for physical products rather than ideas.

You could also look at either kickstarter.com or indiegogo.com as sources for raising money, and then go on to hire a developer. Maybe you could go to a university in the area you live and try and talk to someone in the computer science departments. It would probably be a useful experience for someone studying those majors, although I'm not really convinced Silverlight is the way forward - it's obviously a big decision you'll have to make.

Anyway, good luck with it - I hope it works out well for you.

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Indiegogo seems to be the solution for me, I appreciate it. – Display Name Dec 20 '10 at 23:54
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edit: I decided that a better approach would be just looking for a developer who would be willing to be hired for shares of the company – Display Name Dec 21 '10 at 5:59
YOu mean someone stupid? Or are you giving away 80% of the company to a developer? Pretty much the only alternatives. – NetTecture Dec 21 '10 at 7:48
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@NetTecture - That is a very cynical way to look at it. I have worked for free on a project before just so I could get experience and a reference. I don't have a degree in Computer Science and I want to get into the industry so that was an option for myself. Granted, not everybody will be as accepting to basically work for free. – Jetti Dec 21 '10 at 13:57
Runing in a statup is not a small project gig. It takes a lot of effort. While a good person could make close to 20k USD per month. Without risk. – NetTecture Dec 21 '10 at 17:28
up vote 1 down vote

You might put something up on http://programmers.stackexchange.com, but that would be off-topic...I might try something at http://careers.stackoverflow.com/, perhaps put it on your Careers resume...

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up vote 0 down vote

Here's how I see it (and I apologize if this is seen as "rude", I'm not trying to be). You are 15 and have a considerable amount of living to do. You don't seem to have any money to pay a developer upfront, which means that they may put in the work to see a % of the profit in return. But, the catch is that since you're 15 people may not think that you'll stick with it for very long and that their work will get them nothing. They may put in 20 to 30 hours of work on this project and then come to find that you have moved on to something else, which means they wasted 20 to 30 hours of their time.

Something that comes to mind is: why Silverlight? There are many other options that would lend itself to finding a developer easier than using Silverlight. When starting a company, the technology is very important because it can impact your costs in the future and I think Silverlight is a risky choice unless you know something I don't (which is quite possible). That being said, I would try Craigslist since you can find people in your area. Post it on the "Computer Gigs" section and you should be able to find somebody.

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up vote 0 down vote
  • Attend local entrepreneur groups in your area. They may be able to hook you up with people and mentor you.
  • Attend local .NET user groups for two reasons: a) get educated on the technologies you want to use and will maybe sell later, and b) get close to developers and network with them to find individuals open to an equity-based opportunity.

BTW, realistically, there are already a lot of competitors in this space, and your idea will have no traction with investors unless you can show them a great team and a real cashflow. Not to say "don't do it", established players are often displaced by more agile newcomers, but don't expect an easy road.

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