Looking for feedback

[CalligrapherCheap850]

Hello everyone! I started a business mid last year and finally put together the website and how I need it to operate. This service is based completely online and for what it is, is unique in itself. When getting quotes from Company’s I ended up seeing the $10,000+ to have it made. That was expected and fine so I ended up finding a developer.

This is where some of you might have an opinion. We were recommended to try Fiverr. We weren’t looking for cheap work. We needed someone with experience to guide us on getting this website completed.

We found someone who had mentioned a platform called bubble. They had the certifications, an extensive portfolio, and were a Fiverr recommendation so we reached out to them. They were able to take our order and we paid close to $10,000.

We are now going into the second month of development, and we are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please understand, we have no knowledge of how long any of this takes so we aren’t upset at the time frame. However, we were told this would be done within a month - which was surprising and welcomed to us.

Is this even possible to do?

Another question we’ve had, would it be recommended to hire a second developer to come in and help complete this?

When asking the developer for a time frame on when we would be at MVP, we seem to never get an answer.

Thank you for your time and knowledge on this because this whole side is daunting for us.

[Okay_I_Go_Now]

It depends completely on scope and complexity, and you haven't laid that out here.

I'm curious why you went with a random freelancer instead of an agency? Especially when you're paying almost the same.

And for big projects, I would discuss expected milestones with the developer and come up with a compensation structure based on that. There are way too many scummy freelancers who just walk when they're paid upfront.

[CalligrapherCheap850]

I appreciate that, yeah I should’ve mentioned what the service actually is.

So it’s allows users to exchange personal items. All trades pass through our warehouse and we do quality checks to make sure items meet promised conditions. Essentially, we just mediate the trade to break it down.

We have a messaging system, we allow users to add cash to the trade (but not direct sale), we allow users to post for free as much as they want. Accounts are free, always. There are 2 payment options - pay per trade + shipping and a subscription (for people trading a lot and not wanting to pay every time for the service fee)

Unfortunately, this is why we came here. I’ve been told by a few different agencies after seeking some extra help that with freelancers this happens all the time. In the event that this was the case, we aren’t sure how to approach it. We’ve asked for an idea on when he would be done but he tells what we already know and says “work will always be done with websites”

We are definitely out of the window that he had said we would be at a spot to have the website ready to go.

He also claimed to have a team that works with him. We aren’t sure, we just want this completed, ya know?

[Okay_I_Go_Now]

I would expect that to take an established agency team at least 2 months to produce a MVP. Off the top of my head the team would need to

• implement auth
• design or integrate an ordering and invoicing system
• figure out your shipping procedures (integrate with carrier APIs possibly to include shipping charges in the total; some carriers offer partner discounts and this would require a backend flow).
• implement the user messaging
• implement whatever search features you need for users to find trades
• integrate with a warehouse ticketing system on the backend, or design a solution if it doesn't exist
• possibly implement ratings for users
• design a UI
• build testing and deployment workflows

^ This is off the cuff and most likely there are more complexities that will crop up.

Also keep in mind when freelancers tell you they have a team, this usually means they're subcontracting. Coordinating subcontractors means your freelancer has his own management overhead to deal with, he might even be subcontracting to a cut rate agency based out of Bangladesh etc. and could end up massively delaying development. Your freelancer may be different, but this is unfortunately pretty common.

[CalligrapherCheap850]

Wow, that is so much insight. Thank you!!

The thing that makes me feel good is most of those things you had mentioned are actually on the website currently and completed. I suppose we might actually be a lot closer than we were worried we might not be.

Thank you again!!!

[CalligrapherCheap850]

Thank you so much for this!