When you start a company, there are a million things to do. When your company grows, there are a million things to do.

For the graphically inspired, the “shit to do” graph looks something like this, as a company grows:

The main takeaway here, relatively speaking, is that there’s a lot to do right when you start.

Why is that important?

It’s because you’re dividing a really big number by 1, then by 2, then by 3 as you hire up — but that numerator will be a really big number from the start.

Find individuals who can effectively help you slice away at that really big numerator, and things will probably have a better shot at falling into place down the line.

No one said it was going to be easy…

You have an awesome idea, and now you “just need someone to build it.”

You’ve spent weeks prototyping what this product could be on paper, on keynote/powerpoint, or a wire-framing tool. You’ve thought through every little detail, and this idea is rock solid. You’re ready to hear a price and invest in this.

Your idea is a social network for pets… (example purposes only, bear with me on this one)

You’ve set aside 10K to build the product.

You’re in a major metropolitan area (in the U.S.) and you go to 3 dev shops for quotes.

Shop 1:
Your friend’s mom knows this programmer kid…, I’ll do it in 3 months for 15K, with no specifics on hours.

Shop 2:
500 hours at 100$/hr, 4 months timeline, $50,000 in total

Shop 3:
1200 hours at 150$/hr, 6 months timeline, with a 3 month guarantee for bugs found in the system, $180,000 in total

So the decision here is easy, right? You go and pressure...