My friend, $5000 is cheap for a good developer. It's practically bottom of the barrel if you're talking about an app that has very much customization in it at

My friend, $5000 is cheap for a good developer. It's practically bottom of the barrel if you're talking about an app that has very much customization in it at all. Pretty much the same goes for a good designer. A highly custom app, done right, could actually cost quite a bit more than that. I think your biggest problem here is your expectation of how much good skilled work is going to cost you. If all you need is to find people, then try local meetups: Android or iOS meetups are going to be happening in almost any major metro area. Look for non-technical meetups, too. In Dallas there's at least one startup happy hour each month, and I'd be shocked if LA didn't have something like that. One good source for this is meetup.com, but also...Google. Once you find people, though, you need to be prepared to offer appropriate compensation. If you don't have cash, then you might need to offer equity (or a slice of whatever revenues you make) along with some cash. Almost nobody is going to do anything for you without at least some cash, though.