The current system for developing conceptual applications is broken. Many early stage entrepreneurs clamor to find developers that can build their product on a tight budget so they can get it in front of venture of angel funds for further development and proof of concept. These entrepreneurs consistently seek out a pool of developers that are few and far between: those that are willing to work exclusively for equity. This search typically results in two unsuccessful outcomes. The entrepreneur encounters an incompetent team that fails to develop a quality product, or the entrepreneur becomes frustrated and abandons the project entirely.

Why Does This Suck?

As a developer, I love new and innovative concepts. As an entrepreneur, I love disruptive ideas that can change the landscape of business as we know it. How many of these ideas meet with either of the two fates above? In today’s world of abundant talent and money, why do good ideas die without a fair chance to prove themselves?

I meet early stage entrepreneurs with cool ideas all the time. I want to help them, but they very often can’t allocate the budget to turn their ideas into reality. What results is a chicken or egg problem: the entrepreneur needs a product to pitch for funding, and the product developer needs funds to develop the product. What ultimately results is a dead idea that was never given the chance to get off the ground.

And Now…For Something Completely Different

What if a term sheet wasn’t in dollars and cents, but in developer time? What if VC’s wrote two checks – one to the entrepreneur and one to a recommended product development firm?

There are many intelligent individuals that are emphasizing the importance of building great products. In my opinion, the best people to build products are those that have done it before. If that’s the case, then, how many first-time entrepreneurs know how to build a product? It’s my claim that it is an investor’s fiscal responsibility to ensure the entrepreneur is connected with the right resources to develop their product.

Ideas like TechStars, YCombinator, and small, localized incubators and organizations have done a ton for the online startup community. Good luck getting into an esteemed mentorship program like TechStars without a developer on your team, though. All of the people around these ideas recognize the need for sound, technical talent, but rely on the entrepreneur to supply it! It is my belief that the investors can provide entrepreneurs with this talent as part of their investment. Whether they staff engineers permanently or furnish a recommended list of vendors, I believe the investors are more qualified to discern between developers that can deliver results and the unfortunate bozos that pervade our industry.

Why This Works for Investors

I consider the investors I know to be wonderfully connected and resourceful. They usually have a demonstrated track record of building successful products and companies. If I’m a first time entrepreneur, why not rely on my investors to connect me with a team of capable and efficient developers? As an investor, wouldn’t I want to be connected to developers that can make my portfolio truly shine?

If you’re connected to the best and battle-hardened developers, that creates a lot of value for your firm. Having engineers at your disposal to assess the complexity and costs of doing business during due diligence would allow for investigators to help discern between the money pits and the lean, money-making machines. Additionally, having an elite team that can get the job done right and fiscally efficient would allow you to cheaply evaluate business concepts.

Why This Works for the Entrepreneur

To say it matter of factly, entrepreneurs without software development backgrounds simply do not know how to hire solid, technical talent. If investors are helping to recruit and screen candidates, that really can increase the efficacy of such crucial hires. Not to mention, investors can train and mentor entrepreneurs on what to look for in a sound, technical hire to sustain future growth.

When entrepreneurs get funding and can make hires, do they really know how to evaluate a potential engineering employee or contractor? Potentially, a seasoned entrepreneur with a product development background may have a list of contacts to reach out to when they become flush with cash. How many first-time entrepreneurs, however, waste valuable time and money on incompetent people that don’t bear any fruit for their clients?

In early stages, most business-oriented founders want to focus on strategic partnerships and sales, anyhow. While there’s an increasing and encouraging awareness of how important your first technical hire is, it’s not something a first-time founder is really equipped to do.

Why This Works for the Development Community

There are a lot of bad developers out there that sustain themselves on unsuspecting, first time ventures. In a world where investors help to build a sound framework for screening candidates, these bad apples fall out of our industry. This effectively would raise the bar for everyone in the field, which would make the most meritorious developers more valuable and respected. Good developers would no longer have to tolerate those that didn’t carry their weight because they simply wouldn’t be found on the same team together. This would result in higher job satisfaction and retention, in addition to better output and creativity.

Additionally, developers love new projects and business problems to solve. If the investment community could provide a capable and elite team with a continuous supply of cool concepts, I bet you’d have a happy team of developers.

The Grass is Always Greener

I’m not necessarily knocking the present state of affairs. I can certainly understand why investors don’t want to manage the hiring process to this extent, and why certain entrepreneurs would view this type of involvement as intrusive. My intent here, is to raise the point that investors usually have the know-how to assist entrepreneurs with their product development efforts, and that they should use that know-how to the benefit the value of their portfolio and benefactors.

That being said, there’s also the issue of observing how a team stands on its own, which is probably the strongest case against this model. The development team sponsored by the investor won’t always be there, so it would be important to recruit and phase in a technical cofounder at some point in the product’s development. An investor might not want to finance this endeavor, and they generally want to invest in a full-strength team from the onset.

In the end, we’re in unfamiliar territory. Perhaps all we need is a better way to match good developers with promising teams and ideas. Brain power and attention are becoming the scarcest of resources, and my desire is to create the most efficient economy to maximize the outlay of these resources. The idea, the founder’s passion, the developer’s capability, and the investor’s money are all necessary to create successful products, so let’s all work together to optimize what results.

Update: Nick Plante tipped me off to a company trying something like this named SproutBox.

I recently attended an excellent event put on by a few people from BetaHouse and TechStars. The premise was to meet and network with other entrepreneurs in the Boston area to potentially find cofounders for your next venture. I’m primarily a technical guy, and I’m not married to any particular idea. Finding and enticing great technical talent to join your startup is hard, which is a big reason why I started the consultancy. We help startups get the technology they need, but sometimes founders desire a technical partner in crime. So, if you’re looking to attract solid developers or designers in your venture, here’s some perspective from a technical person who’s on the venture “dating” scene.

What’s your name?

At the beginning of the event, everyone had an opportunity to introduce themselves, their business, and state who or what they were looking for. I was surprised at how many people with ventures did not introduce themselves. They jumped right to the idea. The idea is important, but free agents want to know just as much about you as your business. Briefly state your name and a little of your background – it won’t take away from the presentation of your idea, and it will definitely help people to get to know you better.

What’s your idea, again?

This goes beyond finding team members. If you cannot clearly articulate what your business is all about in one minute, you need to practice your pitch. After many pitches, I had to ask myself what problems the team members were trying to solve. Technical people are naturally problem solvers, so they want to know about what pains you’re setting out to remedy.

Great idea. Tell me more about your team

Any idea can sink or swim based on the team’s capability. I want to hear about your executive team and their background. I want to hear about your board of advisors or your board of directors. Who inspires you? Who keeps you accountable? If I’m going to jump in the water with you, I want to know that you’ll help keep us afloat by surrounding yourself with great people.

I lost you at “Revolutionary” or “Web 2.0″

You’re in a room with about fifty other entrepreneurs that are just beginning to conceptualize their idea. Is your idea really that revolutionary? These terms really don’t mean anything to me right now. What market are you going after, and why do you feel your company can be disruptive in that space? What’s the market cap, and how much market share do you project over a 1, 2, and 5 year period? How much revenue are you expecting in these years? At what point do you anticipate becoming profitable? Isn’t the social media hype all about Web 3.0 now?

Technical people like substance, and some like hard numbers. Throwing around hand waving terminology doesn’t instill confidence in your idea or you as a potential cofounder.

It’s a Slow Romance

Perhaps it was because the TechStars application deadline is fast approaching, but founders were a bit eager to get your commitment. So let me get this straight, I just met you and learned about your idea, but you want me to come on board next week?

Joining a startup is not something I want to decide on overnight. Finding team members that you jive well with is a time intensive process, and it shouldn’t be rushed for either party. Have coffee regularly, jump on a few calls, then maybe pursue a short or part-time contractual relationship before everyone commits. You’re going to be spending a lot of time together, so chemistry is vital. Enjoy the courting phase, and pop the question when you know it’s the real thing.

TechStars held a very enlightening information session at Andala Cafe this morning. Shawn Broderick did an excellent job conveying what TechStars is all about and what a TechStars startup looks like. Some other people involved with TechStars provided insight as well.

While I didn’t take notes directly (standing room only), here are a few, quick takeaways I gathered. I think these thoughts go beyond TechStars and really speak towards general entrepreneurship.

It’s about the team first, and the product second

Great ideas without a team to execute on it is about as useful as a car without an engine. Find enthusiastic, passionate people you like working with – you’re going to be spending a lot of time together. Refine the idea together. I’ve heard this quite a bit – investors weigh the team’s capability and dynamic heavily, perhaps even more than the product idea.

It’s common for the product’s vision to change

It’s common for the idea of your product to morph into something different. Perhaps the distribution channel won’t work, or the revenue model needs to be tweaked. Embrace these changes as your product matures and you learn more about your audience and yourselves.

Moonlighters need not apply

The expectation is that you’ll be dedicated to the business and present in the program. If you’re thinking you can work on this in your “free time”, you should have a lot of it! Just like split focus hinders daily productivity, split career focus can definitely hinder the progress of your business. In fact, most TechStars companies had prototypes or initial funding prior to entering the program.

Being a solo founder is difficult

It’s hard to do it alone, and TechStars recognizes that. If you’re a solo founder and you want to apply, recognize the problem and identify the resources you need to make your business a success. Seek those resources out actively. Personally, it was a clear message that I need to make connections with more entrepreneurs.

Apply or Start It Up anyway

Shawn said something really great towards the end of it. I’m paraphrasing, but he basically said the only thing definite is that if you don’t apply, you won’t get in. Don’t talk yourself out of applying – take the time to do it and see what happens. Even if you don’t get in, at least it was a good exercise in thinking about your business.

Even if your business fails, you’ll become a stronger and more experienced entrepreneur in result. Personally, I believe the largest asset of being a TechStars company is the access to those that have tried, failed, and succeeded in traveling on the roads you’re approaching.

The 2009 Rails Rumble was a huge event! The results are simply stunning with great apps like Lowdown and hi.im. It really is amazing what can be built in 48 hours. If you get a chance, please head over, register and vote on the Rails Rumble Site

So without further ado, here’s some tools I found immensely useful in the creation of my rumble app. I’d really like to write a full post mortem, but in the spirit of Friday’s short list of links, here goes:

• SearchLogic – excellent derived named scopes and search form capabilities.
• AuthLogic – my favorite authentication system out their for Rails today.
• Formtastic – a great utility for generating forms quickly.
• Inherited_Resources – Jose has done an awesome job with this helper that handles your typical (and not so typical) RESTful controller actions
• Stringex – useful for permalinking
• under_construction – a handy javascript utility I’ve written to quickly note what design elements need to be implemented from a development standpoint.
• serverjuice – Great for getting an Ubuntu VM up and running quickly
• SpreadHead – although it required some adjustments in the way it handles routes, I really think this is a great way to get a quick CMS integrated with your site. It’s definitely useful to have some editable pieces of your application when there’s a code freeze in 48 hours. I currently use it for CMS partials (a way to have editable content inside a page), but I do not for individual pages themselves. There’s an issue in the gem version where the routes are added to the top of priority instead of the bottom. I’m hoping to help with a fix for this
• tab_menu – I always seem to need tabs or a nice menu system, so I use this code pretty frequently
• ThemeRoller – easily roll JQuery UI styling.

The combination of formtastic, searchlogic, and inherited_resources has really changed the way I code. I think a post on the power of these tools in combination with chronic

Some of these tools and more are available in the Enlightened Template I maintain on Github. There were some updates after the rumble. I hope you find it useful!