We’ve all thought to ourselves “You know what would be really cool? An app that’s like Uber but instead of taxis its… but I can’t build a website, let along an app! I have no coding or Tech experience at all.” Well, you’re not alone. But out sourcing app or web development can be daunting, and hiring in house developers can be extremely expensive. But this can still be a great way to create a thriving business. Take AirBNB as an example, its founders weren’t tech experts but design people. Now they’re founders of a billion dollar tech company. If you have idea or a dream, don’t think that just because you don’t have tech skills that delivering the product is impossible.
The first step to creating a tech company without tech skills is to hire programmers to create the first version of your product… or is it? It’s much more cost and time efficient to simply hire an outside company to create the first version for you. This can also be done while you still work at your 9 to 5 to find the business. Outsourcing the first version means that you can launch the product without worrying the employee’s contracts and benefits. It is true that using in house developers has its benefits like constant iterations and collaboration but this is where the second wave comes in. After the first version is built and up and running, you hire in house developers to start working on version two. This way the sales of version one pay the developer’s salary and you keep creative control.
It’s also a good idea for you to understand at least the fundamentals of developing your product, with even the most basic knowledge you can at least articulate yourself effectively. This is even more important if you’re outsourcing to some far away land and the only communication is via text it can be difficult to get your point across. Programs like Udemy offer iOS programing courses and there is a variety of web development programs for whatever platform (e.g. WordPress) you would like.
Finding the right company to take on your project is also a difficult undertaking. Many people will turn to Google and go with the first few results but the only thing these companies have over the competition is good SEO (search engine optimisation). The highly skilled and effective companies may be hidden way down the results. The best way to find them is through recommendations. Reach out to your network and see if anyone has commissioned development in the past and see if he or she could recommend anyone. If this proves fruitless, another way to find good collaborators is to look into industry publications, a successful company will want to publicise it!
Image Credit: Artem Sapegin
How to: Build a Tech Company With No Tech Skills
