Best place for a web programmer?

1) Nearest college / community college. Students work cheap and need stuff to fill their portfolio. You'd be doing both of you a service.
2) Meetups of webheads

If you are looking for pro work: google the following: <your city name> web development.

The hits that show up at the top generally know what they are doing, obviously, you found them. Pay can range from as low as $30US/hour to as high as $150US/hour; it all depends on their skillset.

MacsomJRR said:

Can anyone give me some sage advice on finding a web programmer to help with a start-up idea? I'd really like to bring someone on board (preferably geographically close to me in California) to help me make the site. What is the going hourly rate for something like this? I looked into odesk.com but doing work with someone overseas makes me nervous.

Cheers in advance.

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I would suggest you connect up with a hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) in your area. At the beginning of the weekend you get to pitch your idea to an audience and, if enough people in the audience think its a worthwhile and viable idea, your idea will be selected and you will be assigned a team of designers and developers to prototype it out. It a great way to get your ideas in front of the startup community and see if there is interest in it. If people on your team truly believe in the project, they will often continue to work with you on it.

One advantage to a hackathon is that participants sign a “participant agreement” upon registration that insulate both host and participant from legal disputes surrounding IP rights.

Remember that you patent implementations, not ideas... so without some prior legal protections the person who builds the system will own your idea in the eyes of the U.S. government. Make sure you have a clear contact defining your partnership and its relationship to your intellectual property before you start, or you have very little protection against your developer claiming it as their own or launching a competing startup.

960design said:

1) Nearest college / community college. Students work cheap and need stuff to fill their portfolio. You'd be doing both of you a service.

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That is the worst possible advice to give. Any student that knows what they're doing knows better than to work under those conditions. Even if they are a student, if they can do that type of work they are a professional whose time and expertise is worth money. If you put out an ad saying thats what you're looking for you're going to getting some very bad developers.

MacsomJRR said:

Thank you for the advice guys. I'm worried about IP stealing as well but will look into trying to get the right protection before discussing the business at an event like a hackathon.

Have a great day everyone!

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Developers are usually pretty ethical about that kind of thing. There's not much you can do if you are talking to a large group, but if talking to individuals you can have them sign a NDA.

jsm4182 said:

That is the worst possible advice to give. Any student that knows what they're doing knows better than to work under those conditions. Even if they are a student, if they can do that type of work they are a professional whose time and expertise is worth money. If you put out an ad saying thats what you're looking for you're going to getting some very bad developers.

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Wow.. I guess I'm a little shocked at how this affected you. Helping students build a portfolio is "the worst possible advice"? I remember when I was in school, finishing a degree and running through the hoops of getting hired. Everyone wanted to see my portfolio. Luckily I had done free work for a CPA, a church and some others that I cannot remember. Guess who got hired? Yep! Me. Probably not because of my amazing GPA or fancy suit. I'm betting it was actually showing work I had done for clients.

Now that I own a web development company, I ask the same questions. Let me see your portfolio. Free work means dedicated and willing to learn just because learning is there. It also means I'm hiring someone that cares about something more than themselves. It also generally means that they less abrasive and capable of dealing with a multitude of clients.

960design said:

Wow.. I guess I'm a little shocked at how this affected you. Helping students build a portfolio is "the worst possible advice"? I remember when I was in school, finishing a degree and running through the hoops of getting hired. Everyone wanted to see my portfolio. Luckily I had done free work for a CPA, a church and some others that I cannot remember. Guess who got hired? Yep! Me. Probably not because of my amazing GPA or fancy suit. I'm betting it was actually showing work I had done for clients.

Now that I own a web development company, I ask the same questions. Let me see your portfolio. Free work means dedicated and willing to learn just because learning is there. It also means I'm hiring someone that cares about something more than themselves. It also generally means that they less abrasive and capable of dealing with a multitude of clients.

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Students doing free work for businesses is practically extortion. Businesses should be paying for any assets they make money from. When I was a student I built a portfolio by doing paid work for small clients and free work for non-profit organizations. I got hired right out of college too.

Students doing free work for businesses is practically extortion.

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Agreed. Students working together to create a startup... never mind, you are absolutely correct. I'm way outta line. I recant; please do not ask any local college students to work with you on your startup project.

960design said:

Agreed. Students working together to create a startup... never mind, you are absolutely correct. I'm way outta line. I recant; please do not ask any local college students to work with you on your startup project.

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Businesses should work with the right person with the right skills for the job at a fair compensation. The injustice I'm pointing out is the mentality of what seems to be almost half of small businesses now when looking for web or design work, "I'll hire a college student because they'll work for free or cheap". In reality that situation is bad for everybody. Either the college student is working at below minimum wage or is churning out crap sites to make it worth their time, and people like me waste hours explaining to potential clients why the proposal for the high end site they wanted is so high when their friend got a college student to build their site for $100(and that site is a badly implemented free wordpress template).