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Take the lead. A team must be flexible enough to compensate when sh*t hits the fan and a founder still has priorities to hit the road and continue to build cor

by bigohms 16y ago

Take the lead. A team must be flexible enough to compensate when sh*t hits the fan and a founder still has priorities to hit the road and continue to build corporate infrastructure, secure investments and make sales. There is no choice--giving your "baby" to unknown parties at a critical stage is introducing too much risk into the equation with no known potential for success. Before departing, have a strategy session to collaborate and prioritize issues with the technology. If possible, call in as many favors as possible to bring spot expert assistance on core issues (i.e. a database guru for multi tenant join optimization) to give your existing team a boost.

throwawayhacker 16y ago
If possible, call in as many favors as possible to bring spot expert assistance on core issues This is what I thought would be the help of individual expert contractors. They could put in a trivial period of their time in taking a glance at code finding issues. I thought each one would risk a small amount of their time adding up to a few bug fixes on our end. Also we would build relationships and both sides consider possibility for them to blend in to the company if it works out well.
- bigohms 16y ago
  The issue is I don't know what the capabilities of your current team are and what specifically the consultants would be fixing. I've generally found that outside programmers take a bit of time getting acclimated with the code and functionality. I was more referring to major structural changes/issues/optimization recommendations by an outside engineer. These are generally issues that have long throw implications for the product that may be worth an cash/equity compensation arrangement. As long as: 1) the quality of work of the consultant/s is known, 2) you have a good bug tracking process in place then and 3) they're familiar and okay with your repo/commit policy then it won't hurt for finding/troubleshooting small bug related issues--but it is not generally worth it for them nor you as an equity arrangement. On the upside, having the resources acclimated will also create a backup on hand for the future and a natural talent pool to recruit from.

by bigohms 16y ago

throwawayhacker 16y ago

If possible, call in as many favors as possible to bring spot expert assistance on core issues This is what I thought would be the help of individual expert contractors. They could put in a trivial period of their time in taking a glance at code finding issues. I thought each one would risk a small amount of their time adding up to a few bug fixes on our end. Also we would build relationships and both sides consider possibility for them to blend in to the company if it works out well.

bigohms 16y ago
The issue is I don't know what the capabilities of your current team are and what specifically the consultants would be fixing. I've generally found that outside programmers take a bit of time getting acclimated with the code and functionality. I was more referring to major structural changes/issues/optimization recommendations by an outside engineer. These are generally issues that have long throw implications for the product that may be worth an cash/equity compensation arrangement. As long as: 1) the quality of work of the consultant/s is known, 2) you have a good bug tracking process in place then and 3) they're familiar and okay with your repo/commit policy then it won't hurt for finding/troubleshooting small bug related issues--but it is not generally worth it for them nor you as an equity arrangement. On the upside, having the resources acclimated will also create a backup on hand for the future and a natural talent pool to recruit from.