(Note: This article is written for the non-technical founder of a potential startup. Nevertheless, the questions listed below can be useful for even the most experienced IT executive who is in search of a new remote development shop. In addition, the article assumes that the founder is based in the USA.)

So, you have decided to break free of corporate life and pursue that dream of turning your big idea into a startup company.

Congratulations !!!!!

In all likelihood, you are not a technical founder. You may have taken a few programming classes in college, or maybe you even spent a few thousand dollars and went to one of those Coding Bootcamps that teach you how to code in 8 weeks. But, in reality, you probably don’t trust yourself to sit there and write an app that will be the lifeblood of your startup.

You have probably squirreled away a bit of money from each paycheck in order to live your dream one day. You may have even gotten some friends and family to chip in a few dollars. You might quit your day job to devote full time to your new startup, or perhaps you will still work that job while waiting for the app to be developed.

So, what are your next steps?

Hopefully, you will have “rented” a CTO for a while … someone like me … to guide you through your next steps. After all, you will need someone very technical who represents your interests so that you will not end up with nasty smells in your shiny new app.

(Read this article about code smells and remote development teams.)

Building Your MVP

Even if you don’t have an interim CTO, you still need someone to develop your app. Most startup founders will develop an MVP, which is short for Minimum Viable Product. This is a lightweight version of your full app which is designed to provide the necessary functionality while whetting the appetite of potential investors.

You hopefully have at least $50,000 in funds which will be used to develop the MVP. That amount is the finger-in-the-air estimate that I always give to my clients. You probably want a web-based version of your app, as well as a mobile version (iOS and, possibly, Android).

The more that you can do yourself, the more you will be able to devote to the development costs. For example, you might try to write up the business and functional requirements yourself. Instead of sketching out your wireframes using pencil and paper, you might want to use an online design tool like Sketch, Figma or Balsamiq to draw out the entire user experience.

You have your idea for an app, you have some idea of how the app might look, you have your business and functional requirements written down, you might have a technical architecture, and you have some money. The next step is to get some people to actually code up the app and set up the infrastructure that the app will run on.

What Kind Of Developers Do You Need?

The most important developer that you need is the backend or server-side developer. This is the developer who will be interacting with the cloud infrastructure (assuming that you are not going to buy your own servers and that you will use a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure). This developer will develop the data models, the corresponding database schema, and will interact with a database platform like Postgres, MySql, SQL Server, or MongoDB. The backend developer will write all of the business logic of the application, will develop REST-based APIs (so that other developers can interact with your application), will handle authorization, authentication, logging, and monitoring.

https://www.aog.jobs/blog/frontend-vs-backend-web-development-whom-do-you-need-for-your-project/

As you can tell, the backend developer is the real workhorse. Their knowledge has to span multiple technologies and different layers. They will hopefully have direction from your interim CTO, who is hopefully a very technical CTO that has architected your system. The backend developer may present some key person risk, because if that developer leaves your project, then it may take several weeks to train a new backend developer on the codebase.

If you have enough funding, it is desirable to have two backend developers who can divide the sever-side tasks equally among themselves. This also will alleviate some of the key person risks, but only if the two developers do not work in complete isolation.

The other half of the equation is filled by the frontend or User Interface developer. This is the developer who writes the visual interface of your app. They have to know technologies such as HTML, stylesheets, and they may develop with technologies like AngularJS and React. They have to write REST API calls to fetch information from the app’s backend and present the data to the user in a pleasing way. The frontend developer might be called on to develop the User Experience (often called the UX), which is the overall flow of how a user interacts with your application.

Ideally, the frontend developer can write code for both a browser-based user interface and a mobile interface. You want to find a frontend developer who has the cross-platform experience, and who knows the ins and outs of iOS and Android. They might know technologies like Xamarin and React Native.

There are other players in the development process that you might end up needing.

First, there is the QA Lead. You want someone really going through your entire app, workflow by workflow, before you release the code to the user community. Developers can try to write automated tests, but these tests will only provide a little bit of coverage. You, as the founder, can do the testing yourself, but an experienced QA Lead will know all of the hotspots to explore in an app.

Second, you may need a graphics designer. You cannot expect your frontend developer to be a graphic artist as well. Who is going to design all of those icons, who is going to come up with a good color scheme, who is going to draw all of those custom images? A good development shop might provide you with a graphics designer that will be on call.

Third, you may need a local project manager. You hope that the two developers (and maybe the QA Lead) can manage themselves. You might even want to manage the project yourself at the beginning. And your rented CTO might do the same, although he might be overpaid for that job. As the founder of a startup, your main job is to build your company and raise additional funds, so project management might not be worth your time.

Fourth, if your application is going to be doing any kind of recommendations, or you are thinking about Machine Learning in order to improve those recommendations, you may want to hire a data scientist.

Lastly, a development company might try to upsell you the services of their own CTO, CIO, or Chief Architect to do code reviews of their own developers. This might be good, but you should always have someone on your side to do this, someone who is vested in the success of your startup.

The Money Part

Let’s assume that you have $50,000 that you are devoting to the remote development shop to develop the MVP of your app. How will you spend that money?

Let’s do a bit of math.

My finger-in-the-air estimate is that a proper MVP will take 3 to 4 months to develop. This means that you have around $12,000 to $15,000 to spend each month, which translates to about $3000 per week. If you divide that $3000 into two developers, this means that you are spending around $1500 per week for each developer, or $300 per day. This is about $35 to $45 per hour for a developer.

Where are you going to get a really good developer for $35 an hour?

Most USA-based development shops will charge at least $75 per hour. Many of the really good shops that I have worked with will not take a client unless that client spends at least $30,000 a month with that shop. With your current budget, this means that you will only be able to use that development shop for about a month and a half.

You can go to an online job platform such as Upwork, which is a platform for individual developers to connect with companies that need development services. These developers usually work remotely, and you would have to coordinate all of the various individual developers that you obtain from Upwork. You would also need to be able to properly vet these developers yourself.

You can try to hire someone locally, but in all likelihood, you might be getting a student or someone with a not-so-great track record. Even recent college grads can make way more than $35 per hour. To be honest, I might be a bit suspicious if someone local was to charge $35 per hour.

Your final choice is to use a remote development shop, one that is probably in a country like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Romania, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Vietnam. These development shops will be fully-stocked with the talent that you need, at the price that you need. You can easily find a good senior-level developer for about $5000 per month.

Now that you have decided to explore the possibility of hiring a remote development shop, how will you choose among the thousands of them out there, all with seemingly the same kind of talent? How will you, as a non-technical founder, be able to properly choose among all of the companies who are answering your call for help?

Hopefully, your rented CTO will help a lot and will ask the hard questions to each of the shops. But, if you want to do it yourself, you have to be prepared with a list of questions that you want to ask each of the shops.

Interview Questions for the Remote Dev Shop

And now we come to the gist of this article. Below are the kinds of questions that I will ask the various remote development companies in order to help my client build an app.

Price

What are your costs for staff?
- by skillset (developer, QA, UX/UI, Project Manager)
- by skill level (senior, junior, mid-level)
Will you work on an outcome basis, or are you strictly hourly?

Of course, the price is the main make-or-break decision here. Startups have a limited amount of funds.

We cannot hire a development team that is outside of our budget. No wiggle room here. We need the best talent for the least amount of money.

If the price is right, we can move on to the rest of our questions. If not, then we might come back to you for another project when we have more money.

Location

Where is your company based?
Does a development team use developers that are located in different offices? Or will a development team always be located in the same office?
Will your developers work USA hours? What is the overlap with the East Coast/West Coast of the USA?
Can your developers attend online dev team meetings a few times per week?
How fluent in English are your developers? How do you manage the issue that we get a great developer who is not fluent in English?

The choice of location is important for two main reasons: collaboration and cost.

You need to decide if you are going to want to be in direct contact with the developers of your application, and whether the outsourcing company will even allow that kind of access. If you have a small development team, you (or your CTO) are going to want to have regular development meetings with the team. The team will feel more connected with your product and may do a better job if they were to see and hear the person who is actually the brains behind the product. You can use the development meetings to clear up any issues and to clarify what you expect in case there are any misunderstandings.

If you are located in California, and you hire a team in India, then you will hardly overlap with the working hours of the developers and you may find it difficult to schedule regular team meetings. However, if you are on the West Coast and get a team that is based in Latin America, then it will be much easier.

You might be able to benefit from a country whose currency is weak against your own currency. You want to make sure that you stay around that $35-$45/hour figure, and you might be able to strike a better deal if you can pay a company in their local currency, even after the currency conversion costs. Even if the development shop quotes their prices in US dollars, you might be able to negotiate a better price if the US dollar is strong against the other currency.

Staffing

Are the developers hired as full-time employees of your company, or do you hire on an as-needed basis?
- If you hire on an as-needed basis, do you use local talent, or do you go to platforms such as Upwork?
How many developers do you have, and what is the (technological) composition of your staff?
How much turnover do you have?
- If a developer is in the middle of a project for a client, and that developer leaves, how do you determine how to backfill?
- If we hire a mid-level developer, and they leave, and the only person on your bench is a senior developer, would you backfill with the senior developer and charge the client the rate that they were paying for a mid-level developer?
- If a developer leaves, how much downtime could the project expect?
- What does your bench look like?
How do you hire your developers? What does the screening process look like?
- How do you determine the various levels of developers? (Senior, mid, junior)
Is a developer assigned to multiple clients or to just one?

I want my clients to have the perception that their remote development team is no different than having an onsite team of full-time employees. This means that the team is stable, is stocked with the skill set that we need, experiences very little turnover and that all parts of the team are working as one cohesive unit.

Ideally, I want the same developers to stay with the project during the full lifecycle. I expect a developer to work a full day on my project, and I don’t want that developer to multitask between different clients. I want the developer to be totally dedicated to what I am building.

I like to use remote development companies that have relatively low turnover. In the case of turnover, I want to see the departing developer do knowledge transfer, and for the new developer to take over in a seamless fashion. To get a sense of what it is like to work for the remote development company, I might check websites like Glassdoor in order to see what the developers are saying about their company.

Skillset

Do you have UX experts on your staff?
- Could we see examples of UXs that they have designed?
How do your developers keep up to date with the latest technology?
How do you determine what new skillsets to invest in and support?
How do you build and maintain centers of domain expertise?

At the beginning of this article, I talked about the various roles that I may need for a project. I want to make sure that the remote development shop has a wide variety of skills available on an a la carte basis, even if I don’t need those skills right now.

Most importantly, I want to make sure that the application that I build is not only visually pleasing but has a workflow that makes logical sense So, I might ask to bring on a UX or UI expert for a little while during the project.

Company Reputation

What makes your development company different than the others?
If I were to go to a review site like Clutch, what would I expect people to say about your company?
If you deliver a product which is buggy, what are your policies around make-goods?
How many customers have you had? How many do you currently have?
Can we get references from your past customers?
- Can we talk to former customers?
We would like to retain all IP rights for what you have developed for us. Do you have any issues with that?
We would like total secrecy surrounding our startup. Will you agree to not tell your potential customers about us?

There is nothing like hiring a company that has delivered successful products with a minimum of fuss. To that end, try to find out as much about that company as possible. Look on sites like Clutch and Glassdoor for comments about the company. Try to join some startup-oriented Slack channels and see what others have to say. If the company has a USA-based sales office, try checking with their local Better Business Bureau.

Will the company take pride in their work? If so, they might offer some type of guarantee on the quality of their work. You may want to see if they will fix bugs for no cost for a certain period after the delivery of the MVP.

The Software Development Process

Do your developers have experience in developing an application like the one we are giving you?
Can we interview each developer before they start?
Are there any tools that we need to provide your developers?
- Do you provide your own licenses for your internal development needs?
How much technical input do you need from your client in order to start developing?
Will your client have direct access to the developers?
- If not, then does your client have to pay for a Project Manager?
- What is your preferred method of collaboration?
- Does a client absolutely need a project manager from your company? Can we manage the project by ourselves?
How do you ensure that a developer does not create key-person risk and use a technology that is relatively little-known?
Do you do code and architecture reviews of your developer’s projects to make sure that they are maintaining sufficient quality?
If the client has a CTO or Chief Architect, can they do the code reviews? And what is your policy if they find major problems?
How do your developers document their work?
Do we receive the source code once you are done?
We would like the developers to use our Github repo. Is there any problem with that?
What development practices do your developers like to use?
- What development methodology do your developers prefer? (Scrum, Kanban, etc)
How do your developers fit into the software lifecycle (do they push all the way to live, or does that come back to our company)?
Who is responsible for infrastructure (design, changes, maintenance)?

Now that you have determined that the cost is affordable, the location lines up with your time zone, the development shop is reputable and can supply the necessary skillset that you need to develop your application, you now need to determine how you will be interacting with them on a day to day basis.

It helps to have a development team that is familiar with the domain that your app will cover. For example, if you want a stock-trading application to be written, it would be beneficial to have developers who are familiar with the domain (ie: what is a stock, what is a trade, what is an order, connectivity to an exchange or to a clearinghouse), and with the technologies that will be used to implement the application (ie: MongoDB, real-time messaging, WebSockets, etc). If the remote development shop does not have developers available with the necessary knowledge, how long will it take the development shop to recruit that talent? If training is required, are you responsible for the training, or is that an expense that the development shop will bear.

Will you have the opportunity to interview a pool of developers (or, at least, look at their resumes) for your team? Or will the development shop give you the team? Sometimes it might be best to let the dev shop handle the choosing of the team because there might be existing synergies in place. It might be a group of people who have already worked together to build successful products. At the very least, I would want to look at the resumes of each of the developers.

Software licensing costs can be huge. Because most applications are developed on the cloud using PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service), your licensing costs for commercial software can be part of the cloud vendor’s charge. But what if you had a specialty piece of software that you need to install on your cloud-based server? Do you need to purchase a license for every developer?

You should have direct contact with the developers on your team. Be wary of any development shops that insist that your only interface with the developers is through a paid project manager. You also want to have weekly meetings with the entire development team, using a collaboration method like Skype, Google Hangouts, or Zoom. You may want to invite the developers to a special Slack channel that can be used for real-time collaboration.

The source code should be available at all times through a cloud-hosted source control repository, such as GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket. All code should be well documented in English, and the code should be unit tested.

Some remote development companies will offer the free services of a CIO or senior-level Architect to ensure that the code and architecture are of high quality. Even though some startups consider their MVPs to be throwaway efforts, I like to preserve as much code as possible.

The list of questions that this article contains is only a small portion of the questions that a trained senior technologist will look for when evaluating a remote development company. CTO as a Service has over 30 years of writing systems, leading development teams, and doing architecture reviews. Please consider CTO as a Service to be your senior technical advisor on any projects that you might develop.

Marc Adler

CTO as a Service

September 2019

Thanks to Andrew Cherry for reading an early version of this document.