Hey there Reddit!
I going through the process of launching my startup, and I must say it truly is stressful!
I have a few web dev questions
I plan on Launching a company dedicated to combating inequality through affordable personal web expression. We plan to get parents and prep school admins onboard to spend around $150-300, per 3 page personal website, on contracts for 8-12 graders (think around $120k – $240k for a school with 800 8-12 graders) that they can then access by creating an account with us and see on their dashboards (avoiding domain and hosting on the student’s behalf) My questions are:
**Technology:**
How much would it cost (assuming I hired a Nigerian web dev firm, tight budget) to add a simple portal system that works in the following order: Login/Create account -> access dashboard -> press on “file upload button” -> upload website file (don’t know what type of file yet: it may be Htaccess file, .wpress, or a ftp file) -> website uploads -> press button to take your custom link, with its path-page, that can be used to see in view mode (like Linkedin share link button https://www.linkedin.com/in/NAME/)? I want the website, when seen in view mode, to look like any other website (no redirect back to my company page, other than through the link, ex: the “LINKEDIN” in https://www.linkedin.com/in/NAME/)
How long would it take?
Would this require a separate site/subdomain or can I have a “login button” on my main site (designed with word press’s elementor)?
2)
I plan to later update/upgrade the portal (I want to use the simple, cheaper portal only for demo purposes) to be: Login/Create account -> access dashboard -> press on button on dashboard that redirects to order form -> After filling order form and communications take place between person ordering and web devs, the web devs would convert the WordPress file into a file type that can be added to the customers dashboard via a simple file upload -> Customer then can: press a button to see website visit info (number of visitors, ip address, how long they spent, what pages they pressed, etc) and use our basic editing tools to make simple edits (text editing and simple image editing).
Would this be possible (converting WordPress website files in to our own files and then we add to our site to be used with our own CMS)? If not, can I include the free version of WordPress on the client dashboard so they can make simple edits, and then charge them $20 a month for support + live chat with website editors to preform more advanced edits (as opposed to them paying to subscribe to WordPress for more advanced edits)?
Also, how much would this cost, If I hired a Nigerian Web development firm? Would you recommend this (I am an American, but, I ask because I was looking for a professional service by a firm in Nigeria to do what us Americans can do at a more affordable price ie: not 10-30k)
**Outsourcing:**
I plan to hire Nigerian web developers to preform the work. I figured out it would only cost about $575 – $675 ($475 salary + coworking space + Hr services) per month for a web dev with 2-3 yrs of experience via a recruiting firm, and that they can produce around 2 3 page websites a day. I heard someone mention to “not trust the Nigerians,” and later claimed that, in Nigeria, alot of people fabricate credentials and cheat in interviews, and represent a lower talent pool. The man in question works for a “global recruitment firm,” that seems to be centered in India. Personally, I doubt his claims, as they represent his interests, but, generally speaking, do you feel as though work quality falls as you hire outsourced labor? Are there preferred countries, should I steer away from Nigeria? What types of problems, in general, should I anticipate with hiring outsourced labor?
2) At the present moment, I have 4 “employees” on LinkedIn. They are Pakistani web developers I met on Fivver. I went ahead and “assigned roles,” for auditing purposes (senior web dev, principal web dev, web dev, web dev) and gave them job descs. Currently, they are “stand by” employees (they agreed to list their selves as employees at my startup, but, won’t begin to actually work until a contract is agreed upon.
How would I present my company’s image during meetings with Prep school officials (would I say that I have 5 Pakistani web developers, that I met on Fivver, who will preform the contract work)? Should I state that I have connections with remote web developers who are willing to quit their jobs and work full time when a contract is agreed upon (should I omit the fact that I use outsourced labor from Pakistan and that these individuals work on Fivver)? Personally, I don’t like their work and may need to fire them soon after anyways!
**General**
By the description of my company, would we call it Social media? Can I call it a hosting platform? How about a “web design & Hosting platform”
This project is going to fail. Everything you said is like the top 10 things of “what not to do when starting a tech company”.
>add a simple portal system that works in the following order: Login/Create account -> access dashboard -> press on “file upload button” -> upload website file (don’t know what type of file yet: it may be Htaccess file, .wpress, or a ftp file) -> website uploads -> press button to take your custom link
This is where I stopped. I mean, you want a file upload feature but you do not know what file type it will accept or most importantly, what file type does what.
You plan for schools which never have enough money, to pay $250,000 to provide pages for students who already subscribe to several social media sites?
No. This is absurd. Unless your mom is the school administrator you will not make a sale. Which is probably best, because your chance of actually producing this product, given your profound lack of domain knowledge, is nil.