finding developers to work for equity!

It won't be easy to find, a lot of these guys will need cash in the now to feed their families, pay their bills etc.

You could possibly find more luck with a cash+equity deal, though I'm certainly not saying you won't find any talented developers who would work for sweat equity as opposed to an immediate payout.

In terms of where you could find developers, I'd suggest not going down the route that I'm positive you'll have parroted to you in a number of replies 'go to a freelance site blah blah blah...'. :rolleyes:

I think if you're serious about creating a high quality startup business that can be resold for $10m (although why stop there? ), you need to be more creative in finding your guy.

Try and hit up college campuses where they have strong computer science/programming courses, either through college email if you can access it or by distributing flyers. Other suggestions I can think of are any place that developers are likely to hang out- clubs, discussion forums etc, all will be filled with the kind of talent that you're looking for.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best of luck in finding some awesome developers, and success in your business endeavour!

I agree with Midlands- if you are not in the industry already head to nearby college campuses and talk with the Professors there - get recommendations and proceed. equity partners are like spouses - make sure you can work together and definitely get a lawyer to draw up the required documents. If there are any networking groups for entrepreneurs in your area attend a few and network - not only looking for programmers - but you're going to need an entire team at some point so start looking now.

I've hired a lot of college folks for programming work and find them up to speed on the newer technologies, willing to work long hours, and enthusiastic. They typically don't need to feed a family yet - just themselves. So if they do need some $$$ up front its not to the same level as someone already out in the industry - and typically if you hit it off they will work for equity.

You can also look to Craig's list - but you're going to get flooded by people in graduate school and foreign countries looking for work to get into or stay in the US. You will get responses - but the signal to noise ratio will be a lot lower than if you go directly to the sources (campuses and networking events).

Good luck,
--Jack

Wow guys, thanks for the replies! I don't know how I missed thinking of going to college campuses to find people. This coming from a guy who just graduated in 2011. I'm sure I could work something out with a professor and student where the student could get credit for the class and equity!

Midlands- you're deff right, i don't want to go the freelancer route and get bombarded with request for upfront cash. And yeah, i don't believe in setting any limits, $10m has always seemed like the life changing number to me.

Jack- thanks for the CList tip, I'll prolly throw and ad out there to see how it responds.

Why not raise capital and hire people?

There's an old saying in the start up world - if you're not embarrassed by the code you wrote for the first few versions - then you were taking too much time to write it.

Worry about getting something to market that works - getting it to confirm to best practices can wait for when you have more time/money/resources (which for a start up are the same thing and usually in scarce supply).

best,
--Jack