[ElJefe]

So, in an earlier thread, I talked about a wish to become an entrepreneur.

I finally commenced a pilot-project earlier today after weeks of preparation. The goal is to check the proof of concept, but I'm 110% certain it's totally there.

The last 1½ months I've been extremely busy trying to put together some thoughts. I'm still not finished with my post-grad degree, so I've got too many things on the stove at the moment. But with my petty VBA skills in Excel, I've got the beginnings of something workable software wise.

What I really need now is a software engineer and capital. How do I deal with these challenges? Tips?

[the Thing]

I'm a software engineer and I have capital, there you go both problems solved.

Seriously interested what it is though

[AntiTrace]

How experienced are you with technology? Chances are that your idea can be accomplished with some pre developed software framework. At least as far as proof of concept matters.

A few months down the road if you have proof of concept and a small number of customers you can look into a technical co founder or start bringing on full time developers.

Interested though, keep us updated.

[ElJefe]

Not at all.

I'm doing this with VBA in Excel, because I can interface it with Outlook and Word, which is convenient, but she's an ugly bitch.

I have no idea where to start learning about programming, but would appreciate tips/leads. This has got to be the procastination act of the century.

The plan now is to continue to cater to my pilot-project group, and expand it slightly as I get the operational procedures down and the coding in VBA automates most of the steps. I don't want to spend more than 30 hours a week on this as I really should finish my degree

[Laner]

If you need a tester and feedback let me know.

[GeneralMacDaddy]

I would build a working proof of concept anyway you can as step one. Sounds like you are on your way with your VBA scripting. Sure it ain't pretty, but at this stage its whatever works. If you run into something you can't do, or just don't have time to do, its Elance / odesk / fiverr to the rescue.

I have found myself using fiverr more and more for smaller and one-off programming tasks and bug fixes for various projects I'm working on. For instance, I recently launched another iPhone app and decided I wanted to make it universal for iPads too. It had 21 XIB screens that would need to be redesigned / resized / remapped for the higher resolution iPad screens. I got somebody to do them all for $50. Thats a bargain for hours and hours of boring work. Now I have a guy I can trust, who knows my code, and I can toss him other work as necessary. I decided to have him add a feature I have wanted for a while but just didn't have time to do. He earned another $50 and I got a fast turnaround on my project cheap.

Bottom line is, programming something big and complex still costs a lot of money. But if you can pull together everything yourself, you can find people to pick up different pieces pretty cheap. Its like acting as a general contractor when building a house. If you hire out a plumber and electrician as needed, it will be a lot cheaper than hiring somebody to do the whole thing.

As for funding...well, my opinion is your time is better spent getting customers to fund your initial growth while validating your business concept. Nothing is better than paying customers!

[AntiTrace]

Can you give us some insight Into your business and what your software requirements/desired goal for the software?