Week 21: Getting help
Last week I mentioned I’d clean up the submission process for disposal guidelines. I thought I’d show off some progress, but unfortunately I’m running into some production snafu as I’m testing it out. There’s probably a silly bug preventing some assets from loading in production even though it works fine locally. Since I’m too tired to debug, I’ll just save a demo for a later time.
Here’s the error trace in production.
The topic I want to cover today is about getting help. Since a few of you have asked whether I am getting help on this project, I figured it may be help-ful to articulate a framework around what help I’m seeking. Since I change my mind frequently on the subject, I figured it’d be a beneficial exercise just for myself.
I’ll do this like a FAQ:
Why don’t I just hire software developers to build an MVP?
Great question. If I wanted to prioritize validating the business assumption around this product, I definitely should be hiring developers to do the job instead of doing it myself. I’m painfully inefficient at figuring out how to build the website. I likely could have spent several hundred dollars to get it build at 10x speed.
However, even though I set a goal for this side hustle to be income-generating, it is extremely meaningful to build the product myself. In my full-time job, I specialize on a particular part of a tech stack, and so being able to use this project to build an application ‘end-to-end’ is hugely gratifying. If I hired help I’d be giving that up, and it’s not worth giving that up yet. Moreover, I have not been in the software development profession for that many years. So building this app gives me a way to build confidence and hone my skills. It’s hard to quantify in $$ how much investing in my own skillset is worth; all I know is that it’s still worth it for now to work with the constraint of ‘building it yourself’. Someday that may change, though.
Do you plan to spend any money on this project?
Yes, I already am. And I plan to spend more.
I’m currently spending ~$12/monthly to host the apps. When the app is ready to gain more exposure and use, I’m prepared to spend more (a few hundred dollars to start?) to seed the app with content. Maybe I’ll hire interns or mechanical turks to fill out profiles for common items for cities. The reason I’m willing to pay for content and not for development help is because writing content does not boost my professional worth in the market, but writing code does. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few months I formed a real business entity to more cleanly transact when it comes time to juice up the site.
Are you working on this with anybody?
I’m mostly working on this myself. But I’m starting to more actively solicit help on this front. I’ve chatted with fellow developer friends to work on this together. While this move feels like it contradicts the ‘build it yourself’ mantra, the rationale is that I’m open to an arrangement where I also get to be leading/participating in the development process. I’ve had some discussions with people but nobody has devoted significant time to helping yet. Part of that may be because I have not articulated a clear and acceptable framework for compensation, which could be a future topic. It’d be nice to form a team but it’s not a requirement. The beauty about this being a side project is that I’m under no business deadline or pressure to do so.
— — —
That’s a lot of rambling, but it felt good to write it out. Hopefully next time I’ll have something more concrete to demo. See you soon.
I’d love to hear from you
I’d love to hear your reactions to this hustle. If you have a critique on my business idea, a motivational phrase, content or user experience suggestion, or anything in between, shoot it my way! Feel free to also share this letter or the archive of posts with others you think would be interested.