Working in Tank Stream Labs (a great new co-working space here in Sydney) I come into contact with plenty of entrepreneurs looking to start their own Next Big Thing. Sometimes they have plenty of technology experience in the founding team, but often it's "business" people looking to start a great new technology-based startup. They're eager to learn anything about creating an online business. So rather than explaining everything to them in person, my hope is that I can direct them to here and give everyone a nice easy list of tech things you should have covered in your new startup.
These tips fall into a few key areas but here goes!
Owning your stuff
- Your code - A business is worth as much as the assets it possesses. One of the biggest assets will be the code used to power the product. If you're going to get a contractor/consultancy to build your product for you make sure you still own the code. The best way of doing this is to make sure your developers put it into a Github account that you own. It's really cheap and extremely easy to setup.
Ask your contractor what version control system they use. Full marks if they use git. If they don't use version control the chances of your code being lost increase dramatically. All good developers use some sort of version control. Also if they don't use version control it's much harder for a different contractor to fix any issues with your system.
- Your online properties - One of the next largest assets will be your domain and web hosting. While you'll probably be guided by your developer on what the best option here is, it's vitally important you understand exactly what you're paying for. It's also important you understand how to move to a different hosting solution should the need arise. If they say they host with AWS, Heroku, or a reputable hosting company like Anchor you're in safe hands.
If you're able, create all accounts yourself and create secure passwords with a tool like 1Password. You can then easily create accounts for your developers or share passwords with them if required.
- Backup your data (and code). It's imperative you backup your data and your code. Imagine if your website gets hacked and all the data is wiped. What is your disaster recovery plan? At minimum get your developer to setup an automated backup script. It's pretty easy to backup to Amazon S3 or Glacier. If you store your code on Github it's pretty safe.
Choosing your Developer
- Testing - How does the developer know the site works if it isn't tested? Ask any prospective contractor what sort of testing they recommend for your system. Make sure they have automated tests that get run every time before code is deployed to your website. If they don't do this it's an indicator of bad quality.
Ideally your developer will mention the words "Continuous Integration" and possibly talk about "Continuous Deployment". If they do it's a great thing, it means your dev can push to production multiple times a day.
- Community - What sort of community does the developer belong to? Believe it or not, tech people network to. There are plenty of tech meetups in any large city covering all types of technology from Ruby on Rails, to PHP and MongoDB. If your developer is part of that community it's an indicator that they are passionate about development because they spend their own time pursuing it.
Both these are positive indicators, although many would consider no testing a very big negative. It's completely possible to find a fantastic solitary developer who doesn't attend community events and don't test.
Do you have any other concerns that you think I could answer? Get it contact with me, either by commenting below or tweeting me @lgarvey.