Trust a team or create a team?

Question

Project management

Good afternoon, we need theses for reflection on such a trembling topic for me.
So there is a business idea, supported by many years of experience in the subject area. The idea is to create a narrow-profile industry site. There is no doubt about the prospects and commercial attractiveness of the project, the more I find more and more evidence of this.
Actually, I decided to take up this topic as the only occupation, and for this, I’m leaving my job with a clear future prospect and a stable income in the present, and most importantly, I’m selling the only real estate available.
I say this to make it clear why the desired answer to my question is so important to me.
Actually the question is this:
what is better (more efficient, more promising, with the best efficiency, safer) for me as a project customer - to conclude an agreement with a third-party studio (a freelancer or a manager who will bring everyone together himself) or to find all the participants in the process and implement my plan myself?
There are arguments for and against, in summary:
1. I have no direct experience in "website building", but I understand the technology and the essence very well - more than 8 years freelancing as a customer, more than 100 projects with varying degrees of participation.
2. In the status of a customer, I could work for some time where I work, and I could leave for the project at the time of the commercial launch. I understand that the argument is dubious, it seems like sitting on two chairs, but the process of developing and releasing the beta is not two days of business, but you need to eat and live today. In this sense, going into the project as both a customer and a leader is a total risk.
3. Manage yourself - among other things, there is also a certain savings. This is also a controversial point, but it seems to me that due to the management "from the Customer without intermediaries" about 30% of the budget can be saved.
In general, my dears, I am seriously worried and in this post I am not only looking for an answer to my question, but rather support in my difficult and not simple decision.
Well, in general, maybe someone's rake will lead me to my own thoughts and reasoning.

Answer 1

Don't reinvent the wheel. You have a classic startup. The technology of their correct and incorrect development has long been known.
Very briefly:
1. Find partners, like-minded people or freelancers and make a prototype.
Use the money you can earn + FFF (friends, family and fools)
2. Test your hypotheses about market size, competition, target audience, value of your offer, etc. with a prototype.
3. If you are not disappointed, then after adjusting the course, saw MVP.
At this stage, if necessary, you can look for business angels. But this will require additional effort and time.
4. Roll out MVP, try to sell.
5. Iteratively redesign, adapt to the market, putting forward new hypotheses and testing them.
6. If there are sales and they are growing, then only at this stage you begin to gradually invest on a large scale and / or attract investors.
Attempting to jump straight to step 6, skipping the previous ones, is almost guaranteed to fail.

Answer 2

1) to assemble it yourself, consider a year of work, if you are not ready to throw a salary twice as high as the market, since there are almost no free specialists on the market.
2) it is easier with the studio, but due to the lack of experience in both directions, both here and there you get suspense at the output.
in general, you can make the first prototype and show it to the world with the help of one programmer without leaving work and without selling housing)

Answer 3

1. To begin with, I would try to answer the question for myself: "Do I even pull it all?". It’s your money, it’s not worth it to lie to yourself ... A lot depends on this, in fact. What I'm saying is, "quit your job and sell your property" might not be enough. This largely follows from the following paragraph:
2. My opinion is this: if a person who wants to saw a web project asks "what is Git", he has nothing to even think about assembling a gang on his own. This is not a reproach, to each his own, maybe you are a talented marketer or a cat driver. But you need a technician .
3. If a similar question arose for me personally, I would try to estimate the term "before the first money." It still needs to be done, right? And already on the basis of this, I assessed whether I could hold out due to subcutaneous fat. In general, the "studio vs own gang" options differ so much in price that the solution can be obtained from a primitive feasibility study / business plan. Which is still needed.
And for dessert... Even among people who are definitely ready and able to do everything right, and with good projects, and so on and so forth, the percentage of success is not amazing, let's say so. Banal luck, the right moment to launch, the general economic situation, white / black swans - a lot of reasons both to win and to fail. Only the market will answer your question. And most likely, the answer will be negative - these are simple statistics. Therefore, you don’t have to bet on this (as I understand it, the first) attempt all your life ... Even real estate is better to try to pass 8-)

Answer 4

The problem of the vast majority of projects, especially at the "start" stage, is a weak economy. If such a weak economy is not offset by rapid growth and rapidly growing incomes, then the project "does not take off", and if it does take off, then it "does not fly far." There is a lot about this in the question and in the comments, but not directly.
I advise you to analyze this issue, because for business it is the main one - an economic model, i.e. how much does it cost, what is the potential market, where to get money for development, who will do it professionally, what is the interaction with regulators (tax, FIU, etc.), what and how to take the right risk, is it worth looking for investors and where to look for them ... There are really a lot of questions and they are extremely relevant in the framework of a "falling" or "stagnating" economy (as you like). It should be taken into account that the consumer markets have now shrunk, and the professional markets are in a severe "shock" and an investment deficit.
But the complexity of the situation is not a reason to do nothing. Perhaps this is even a very good moment to start doing something (I'm talking about business). You just need to clearly understand the situation and respond to it promptly and adequately. And of course, you need to actively manage risks. At the same time, the independent implementation of any project is always a way of better and more efficient control and coordination, and with sufficient professionalism, it is also a cheaper way to achieve something worthwhile with minimal risks.
Good luck!

Answer 5

A third-party team solves THEIR problems, not YOURS.
If the task is not a key one for your business or you can describe the task in a rigid way, you can order it on the side.
The key task is to solve only your own (or almost your own - for example, with permanent freelancers) team.

Answer 6

Own developers will definitely be cheaper if you really manage to make them work, and not just take money and say buzzwords. Therefore, in addition to good developers, you need a powerful Team Lead who understands the entire stack and who can be trusted.
As you understand, creating the above team is very difficult, but if you have a lot of experience in freelancing, maybe there are the right people in mind.
Studios have already created such teams, the output is guaranteed to be a decent result, but it also costs much more.

Answer 7

Both external and internal team, if you "trust" it, it will solve not yours, but your own problems.
Techies are interested in tinkering with new technologies, experimenting at your expense.
You must always be in control.
Well, your own or external team - it's all about the scale of the project. Own is more profitable for large projects.

Answer 8

1. Do not leave work and do not sell anything until the project is launched
2. Do not contact the studios, where bosses and organizational expenses (rent, etc.) will eat up 70% of the money, only 30% will go to the performers. And in general, the project manager will be replaced there, and it may not make much difference to the new one if the motivation system has been changed.
3. Yes, with individual freelancers there is also a risk that he will leave the project, but he is no more and no less than with studios.
I think you need to implement your own ideas. But you will need experts with whom you can consult on the technical side. It is necessary to control the project documentation from the very beginning at each stage. Because they usually remember about it only when a new developer comes. The same goes for the code. It is desirable that all this goes to your GIT

Answer 9

Bad idea to sell the last one. What if something goes wrong? As a last resort, look for partners who will also contribute, this will somehow motivate them not to play the fool.

Answer 10

To have a team, you need to either
1. take a ready-made one (studios, etc.)
2. or assemble your own.
To assemble your team, you need time and a person who knows how to do it. And to do it in this area - IT development. A well-motivated person - money there, or money + shares. It even has to be not just a tech lead, but a tech lead (team lead) + a manager in fact.
That is why studios charge more, because they already have people recruited, processes are somehow built, etc. Moreover, they complained above that in the studios a jun would be sawing for 10 sput. So, nevertheless, if you take 5 such juns, put them together, give a task and say - work! -, then most often the result you get is much worse than even in that studio.
Of course, you don’t need to sell real estate, most of your projects fail, and even more so the first projects.
If you are interested in team building - I was engaged in this and now I am doing it, I can advise in more detail. Well, the development of projects and startups, too.

Answer 11

What does your eight years of experience say? Personally, I'm all for self-management. What's the stupidity of all, to sell the last housing and give all the money to a boy who calls himself a manager? He, even though he is ten times the manager, will have more of your don't care about the result, since he does not invest his own. The size of the project is also unknown. Maybe there is no need for a team, a couple of freelancers with a high level of competence are enough, then the management is all - set tasks and monitor execution.

Answer 12

Whatever the business idea: "sell the only property available" is the most stupid decision, especially if the property is in the city and especially if it is the main residence or can generate passive income. The idea will shoot, it won't shoot, but at least there will be somewhere to sleep.