Software Company Bailed Out.... Need Suggestions!

Hello,


My name is Stephan Fant. Me and my partner got an idea to create a niche social network. A web site and an iOS application.

In the past few months we managed to prepare a functional specification of the project. The budget plan is drawn. The initial funding is secured.

Although we don't have much experience. We hired a software consultant to help us with all technical specifics.

Unfortunately the software company we initially we agreed to work it, bailed out. We're now looking for a company to build it.

Yet few questions emerged:

• Where to look for software companies. Outsourcing is Ok.
• What to look for? How to distinguish a quality company from an average one?

So far, we found no success on Freelancer.com and the likes. They're probably more suited for smaller-scale projects. We need a proper team, with proper work-flow. Source control, testing, QA, etc.

Is there any network or directory dedicated for such purposes? Can you please give me your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

kurtlakov said:

Unfortunately the software company we initially we agreed to work it, bailed out.

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Why?

• What to look for? How to distinguish a quality company from an average one?

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Well, that's the hard one. If you are not technical, you only have 3 main checkpoints
a) Reputation
b) Past work
c) Your ability to wade through the sales-speak and find out the answers to the questions you have

So far, we found no success on Freelancer.com and the likes. They're probably more suited for smaller-scale projects.

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That's true.

We need a proper team, with proper work-flow. Source control, testing, QA, etc.

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That's what the vendor needs to be able to meet requirements. What you need is the final product delivered as expected when expected on the expected cost.

I personally don't use freelancer. oDesk is decent but you will have to filter through quite a lot of agencies. Elance though, have a lot more agencies with way better portfolios. You can try searching for 'website app' or any other tag you can think of and use these filters:
- only companies (elance has both individuals and companies)
- with only 5-star ratings
- at least 10 or 15 reviews
- sort by highest earnings (found top right - in my opinion this is a good way to see whether a company is the real deal)

This is only for initial shortlisting though. As jazzc said, it would be up to your skills to see through the sales speak.

You should check out a company called Developer Discovery. They will assign a dedicated project manager to you and assign your project to one of their international development partners. Their partners are major international development firms that specialize in more than just one type of task (which is the case when hiring a freelancer). Check them out

Freelance2014 said:

You should check out a company called Developer Discovery. They will assign a dedicated project manager to you and assign your project to one of their international development partners. Their partners are major international development firms that specialize in more than just one type of task (which is the case when hiring a freelancer). Check them out

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Can you please give me a link as I am not finding it in google.

Yeah, it looks like Google is not indexing the url correctly. It's a small firm that is likely not trying to garner too much attention. I suggest going directly to the 'DeveloperDiscovery' url. Hope this helps