How to find a development team? To prototype or not to prototype?
by Scott Peal · 11/21/2006 (7:57 am) · 24 comments
As we move forward on our business plan for our new metaverse. There is a constant desire to get things moving forward by building a prototype. From a business perspective it makes no sense to do this, yet it makes every sense. What do I mean?
At the age of 26 I moved to Brazil and started a company which brought the internet backbone to the country, created a large ISP, and voice over IP network. I started the company with a business plan and found my first $5 million to get started. Later, additional investors joined with an additional $10 million to get the company rolling.
Now you might be saying wow, that is great! But in the end it really wasn't. You see as each investor joined my shares in the company became deluded smaller and smaller. Yah sure, I was the CEO of about 1000 employees, but as new investors joined they called for a known telco CEO and asked me to step down to CIO.
As I stepped down, my vision for the company started to become less and less until the frustration of the company heading in a direction I did not desire lead me to leave the company I started. So in the end, after all the 80 hour work weeks and frustrations I ended up with very little and a company that I had not envisioned. If I could do it again, I most likely would do exactly the same thing because failure in business is a good thing if you can learn from it.
So what are the benefits of building a prototype? Well, by building a prototype it allows for you to show investors that you are past the idea stage and they are investing into a company which has more to offer. It also shows that you have more at stake in the venture because you spent money and/or time to get the prototype built. Because of this the investors will offer a larger percentage of the company to you verses if you just gave them a business plan.
If you can get a prototype up and running, you also have the potential to put the prototype up for real users to beta. In the game of buying and selling internet companies it is all about the eye balls. What this means is that the more users you can show an investor, the larger your company is worth as it could be potentially sold to a larger company. Of course, if you could get many users which like the prototype, you may or may not need investors at all??
So what are our steps to getting a prototype up and running?
- How do we find a development team at a very low cost for a startup indie?
- Create a business plan to drive what the team develops. (in progress)
- Create a project plan (in progress)
- Create Business Requirements document (in progress)
- Create Software Requirements document (in progress)
- Create Architectural Solution document
- Create High Level Design document
- Create Low Level Design documents
- Give Low Level Design documents to development team
- Wait for GG's Constructor to be released
- Wait for GG's TorqueX to be released
- Development team creates software
- QA team tests software
- Create a website to allow users to download the software, marketing material, forumns, etc.
- Create installation program/scripts
So as you can see there is a lot to do. There are many other steps in the project plan. I will post it in a later blog. BTW, by development team, we mean art pipeline team, network/server team, as well as developers.
Now let's take a look at the first step. How do I find a development team? Boy, I could really use some help from you folks on this one. By day I am the project manager and lead enterprise architect for a $200 million project with about 150 members on the team for a business application. So I know how to hire great talent and have the funds to get them for that project. But by night, weekends, and on the plane I am an indie with little cash and no clue on how to get help to start the prototype.
I tried the RentACoder.com and GG's job site several times with no success. Every time I hired some developer, they seemed to disappear or their mommy's would not let them work on the project. So I am pleading to the community for advise on how to find a development team which will deliver and at a price an indie can afford.
Thanks in advanced for your advise.
At the age of 26 I moved to Brazil and started a company which brought the internet backbone to the country, created a large ISP, and voice over IP network. I started the company with a business plan and found my first $5 million to get started. Later, additional investors joined with an additional $10 million to get the company rolling.
Now you might be saying wow, that is great! But in the end it really wasn't. You see as each investor joined my shares in the company became deluded smaller and smaller. Yah sure, I was the CEO of about 1000 employees, but as new investors joined they called for a known telco CEO and asked me to step down to CIO.
As I stepped down, my vision for the company started to become less and less until the frustration of the company heading in a direction I did not desire lead me to leave the company I started. So in the end, after all the 80 hour work weeks and frustrations I ended up with very little and a company that I had not envisioned. If I could do it again, I most likely would do exactly the same thing because failure in business is a good thing if you can learn from it.
So what are the benefits of building a prototype? Well, by building a prototype it allows for you to show investors that you are past the idea stage and they are investing into a company which has more to offer. It also shows that you have more at stake in the venture because you spent money and/or time to get the prototype built. Because of this the investors will offer a larger percentage of the company to you verses if you just gave them a business plan.
If you can get a prototype up and running, you also have the potential to put the prototype up for real users to beta. In the game of buying and selling internet companies it is all about the eye balls. What this means is that the more users you can show an investor, the larger your company is worth as it could be potentially sold to a larger company. Of course, if you could get many users which like the prototype, you may or may not need investors at all??
So what are our steps to getting a prototype up and running?
- How do we find a development team at a very low cost for a startup indie?
- Create a business plan to drive what the team develops. (in progress)
- Create a project plan (in progress)
- Create Business Requirements document (in progress)
- Create Software Requirements document (in progress)
- Create Architectural Solution document
- Create High Level Design document
- Create Low Level Design documents
- Give Low Level Design documents to development team
- Wait for GG's Constructor to be released
- Wait for GG's TorqueX to be released
- Development team creates software
- QA team tests software
- Create a website to allow users to download the software, marketing material, forumns, etc.
- Create installation program/scripts
So as you can see there is a lot to do. There are many other steps in the project plan. I will post it in a later blog. BTW, by development team, we mean art pipeline team, network/server team, as well as developers.
Now let's take a look at the first step. How do I find a development team? Boy, I could really use some help from you folks on this one. By day I am the project manager and lead enterprise architect for a $200 million project with about 150 members on the team for a business application. So I know how to hire great talent and have the funds to get them for that project. But by night, weekends, and on the plane I am an indie with little cash and no clue on how to get help to start the prototype.
I tried the RentACoder.com and GG's job site several times with no success. Every time I hired some developer, they seemed to disappear or their mommy's would not let them work on the project. So I am pleading to the community for advise on how to find a development team which will deliver and at a price an indie can afford.
Thanks in advanced for your advise.
About the author
Step 1) be the indie, step 2) make enough to buy a commercial license :)
#22
11/22/2006 (1:07 pm)
@Brian - I was just asking the question about licensing. I wasn't implying that I know anything more than the general community.
#23
@David - Yes, we pay higher than indie rates and compensation as required on a per person basis. We just posted some job postings on GG today. More are to follow.
@All the negative helpers - The focus of this blog was to seek assitance from the community and it seems that was a very, very wrong way to look for help. We will now turn to recruiters as there is way to much negativity in this community! That's the way to spread the good word about indies. For those who are so negative, please do not apply as you already display a defeatist view. BTW, if you are all so against a commercial based licensing of Torque, maybe GG should remove the Commercial licensing?
11/22/2006 (2:56 pm)
@Alan - darn, we were hoping you knew when it would be released :-)@David - Yes, we pay higher than indie rates and compensation as required on a per person basis. We just posted some job postings on GG today. More are to follow.
@All the negative helpers - The focus of this blog was to seek assitance from the community and it seems that was a very, very wrong way to look for help. We will now turn to recruiters as there is way to much negativity in this community! That's the way to spread the good word about indies. For those who are so negative, please do not apply as you already display a defeatist view. BTW, if you are all so against a commercial based licensing of Torque, maybe GG should remove the Commercial licensing?
#24
11/23/2006 (7:13 pm)
To all: Appears that GG announced the release date for TorqueX as Dec 11, 2006. 
Torque Owner David .NfoCipher. Bunt
Default Studio Name
>Several companies such as Sony, Microsoft, EA and others are most likely running an software development life cycle (SDLC) approach to development of their products.
So here is where I get confused. You're asking indies to follow the same model as the big guys. Question is - are you offering big guy salaries? In the same story about having investors, you seem to want labor at indie rates.
Like I said, the people that could pull off a project of this scale are here my choice. If they wanted to work in the business ran game development environment, they'd already be there or came from there.
What exactly are you offering here? What are you planning to offer as the project grows? What sort of package do you have together that will attract the sort of developers you need for this project? This is one of those situations where you get what you pay for.