It is hard to say without knowing more about your web app, but my first instinct was that 6 months of full time development seems like a really long time for a

It is hard to say without knowing more about your web app, but my first instinct was that 6 months of full time development seems like a really long time for a prototype, especially for a start-up. As one data point, clutterme.com took me about one week to prototype, and about 4 months to a public beta (and I did not consider myself an experienced developer at the time). Unfortunately, it is more difficult for a developer to step into a project this late and be up to speed right away. For example, if your original developer had 1 month of work left to completion, it might take a new developer 2 months to learn the system and complete the remaining work. (this depends greatly on the complexity of the system and on the quality and clarity of the code you have at this point). My advice would be to find a good developer you trust (not always easy, I know) and get them to look at what you have so far. Get them to look at your specs and requirements and design docs. Get them to look at your source code so far. Talk about what is left to do. This will take a few days, maybe a week. Pay them for their time. The goal is to get a professional opinion on the state of the current codebase (at this point I imagine there is little trust left in the original developer, so I would also treat any claims of progress they made as suspect), an estimate of how much work is left, and their opinion on how best to proceed (outsource, hire another developer, try it yourself). It's hard to give more specific advice without diving into the details of your project, and you will be proceeding blindly otherwise. It sounds like you can't afford to make any more mistakes.