The following is a reply to an email from an entrepreneur that is trying to build a team for a company. The individual does not have strong coding skills and isn’t a techie. They were asking for suggestions and help in building out their tech team.

Are you looking for coders?

If you are, I’m sure you’ve already discovered, it’s really hard to find engineers or technically inclined people to help your cause.

The thought most engineers have when being approached for a technical project is “What are you bringing to the table other then the idea?”. And it’s a valid question because having an engineer who does not value your contribution to a project makes the engineer a liability to you. By that I mean that the engineer could essentially oust you from your own company because he understands the technical underpinnings of your business . Any request for change or control ends up going through your engineer.

You as a non-coder can bring value by presenting the following:

1. A large population of users that will follow you to use your product that the engineer can not easily produce.
2. Money - either by connection to funding or supplying your own funding.
3. Ownership of IP by legal means there by forcing your engineering partner to commit to working with you and not being allowed to run off with your IP.
4. Charismatic Leadership (This is that certain special sauce)

The best example of someone who we know that pulls this off is Cort Johnson of DartBoston (twitter @cortlandt). He’s always hustling. Never late. Remembers everyone’s name and inspires a lot of camaraderie among the group of people he works with. I think still though, he even struggles with attaining dedicated coders.

Now usually for entrepreneurs in school. Funding is something that just isn’t feasible. But if you have even as little as $200 capital to start with you have some options of buying your technology. Outsourcing your technology over seas is a great way to get things off the ground but not lose control of your company or idea to an engineer.

Here are some things you’ll want to have:

Have a CLEAR idea of functionality of your site. What does every single button do. Draw out a wireframe of your site screen by screen. Make your wire frames incredibly detailed and overlay them with notes about functionality. Every button, slider, picture must have detailed functionality specs and notes.
This step is so important because the more detailed your wireframe is. The more money you will save over confusion when working with an outsourcing company.

Most out sourcing companies will take the images that you give them and just slice the image up and CSS the design giving you the exact layout you asked for with the functionality built on the back end. It’s best to ask of their process for producing your site/product

Look for companies that will give you a free quote (many will). Call them and ask about their basic pricing. If it seems economical to you; send over your design and have them quote it. Make sure that the quote includes all stipulations of price changes. Some outsourcing companies hold fast to their quote, and others change them on you. Make sure they understand the complexity of the project and don’t be afraid to show your design to get a proper quote. Ideas are a dime a dozen and they have probably seen most of them.

Don’t be scared to make the initial call. They don’t have any money from you. Get as much information as you can before you hand over any information.