I still don’t think it is a bad deal to offer a developer: 1) an application idea, 2) a salary, 3) a flexible schedule, and 4) a portion of the returns.  I wasn’t able to find anyone experienced, however, with enough interest and skill to really dive in to the project.  While I am sure this is a symptom of the high demand for iPhone developers and my lack of being able to find / convince anyone locally (I only posted on Craigslist so wasn’t exactly scouring the city), it was still surprising how few serious inquiries I received.  Let me just add, as someone who is learning the iPhone SDK, I was amazed at how little most developers who reached out to me knew about developing with the iPhone SDK.

One thing I knew was that I didn’t want to create an SDK University where I would pay someone to figure out how to develop my game.  So if you are an outsider like I am to programming, just a warning to be careful about who you consider working with.  By no means is someone good because they can throw some jargon your way, and more importantly all programming languages are NOT the same.  True, a talented developer can pick up a language very quickly, but the reality is there are a ton of less talented developers out there so look for proven experience.  For some tips on how to find talented programmers as a non programmer see this post.

When I looked at local companies all of them had quotes that were either too high or too slow.  Again, it felt like most were traditional web developers trying to branch out into iPhone development on my dime.  This was probably because the professional local iPhone outfits were busy charging 25-30k to advertising and other companies to develop their apps so weren’t interested in my less than straightforward app.  I had heard plenty about the quality of outsourcing development to Eastern Europe so I chose to look internationally and post an add on oDesk.  I had found out about oDesk through a friend who was developing an application and when I visited the site I was extremely impressed with the quality of their services.  Clearly quantifying hours worked, developer ratings, even test skills passed as well as displaying links to portfolios made it easy to filter through applicants.

I posted an add and received about 10 responses within the first several days.  Some were developers just spamming me, others had relevant experience but were divided into a range of ratings from 3.5 to 5 out of 5.  I initially contacted the higher rated ones who had positive feedback on past assignments but with one from the Balkans I found that his English proficiency was far below what would be necessary to communicate effectively.  He clearly was very talented but I got the feeling he was using Google translate to answer my e-mails.  Another team from Pakistan spoke great English and they spent quite a bit of time on chat with me getting to understand the project.  I liked them but their estimate came in at 4 man months – roughly 2-3x longer than anybody else!  The process was tedious between getting NDA’s signed and sending out the specs to receive a quote (see Taking Care of the Legal Stuff entry) but I ended up with a few good options that I felt would work.

I decided on a team of developers from the Ukraine whom I had found worked on an application roughly similar to what I wanted to make.  I contacted them and immediately knew they would be easy to work with.  From their English level to experience with similar projects to their extensive list of published apps I knew Injoit could execute on what they promised.  For more about the process of finalizing the specs and signing up with them see the related entry Contract Signed!.  So far working with them has been great, they are timely and easy to communicate with so we will see what happens.

If you are looking for a developer make sure to:

1. Even if you are not a programmer, spend some time reading about what is possible with the SDK – you’d be surprised what developers try to convince you of (for example, Apple makes it very easy to utilize tools like the Accelerometer – matter of hours or a day to set up but I had one guy tell me that it would take a week!)
2. Find someone who has worked on something similar.  If you are developing a game, someone who has no graphics or game engine experience will slow the entire process down
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for a time and cost quote, and once you get the time estimate have them breakdown how long they see each component taking.  When you have a couple of quotes it makes it easier to figure out their skill / bs level.
4. Don’t hesitate to contact previous application users.  In most cases it will be a dude in a basement like you so no harm in dropping him / her an e-mail asking about their experience.  I actually almost signed with one team before I spoke with someone who had worked with them who told me to steer clear!
5. Think carefully about hourly versus by project.  Both have their benefits and it will largely come down to how specific your plans are.
6. Know exactly what you are looking for.  This was hard for me, but sit down and map the whole damn idea out as well as what will be required before contacting people.  Don’t expect anyone you speak to to have really creative solutions to your important application design questions (i.e. application purpose, business model, pricing, etc).  If they did, they wouldn’t need your ass and if they did have your answers they would cost way way more than you can afford.  If you need someone to figure out the other half of the puzzle then look for a partner, not contracted development.
7. Be realistic about the costs, although outsourcing development is cheaper than doing it in the U.S., it is not going to be free to develop something of quality.  If you are developing the next iFart then maybe, but honestly why bother?  Besides, in my opinion the real opportunity in the App store seems to be the tween category of 2$ to 3$ apps, not the $10 Spore’s of the world and not the $0.99 crap gimmicks that are drowning the App store.

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