stop letting agencies price your software

There is a near-ubiquitous antipattern that non-technical founders unintentionally fall into.

You know you need software. You have a vision in your head of what you want it to look like and a theory on what it should do for your users.

So you write down your plan and hand it to an agency or three to get quotes.

Without knowing it, you’ve created a swamp of bad incentives that could dictate the success or (more likely) failure of your startup.

An agency doesn’t want you to iterate your startup. They aren’t going to tell you that you can get away with Airtable and Typeform until you find product-market fit. They aren’t going to break your project down into units of value. They’re going to take what you give them and return to you with an estimate - the biggest estimate they think you will entertain. They might include “phases,” but those phases will still align in their interests - it’s a step ladder of contracts and they just want you to climb onto the first rung.

Even if you don’t decide to work with the agency, this will inform your thinking. Their estimate will influence how you think about your roadmap - in effect, it will become your roadmap.

You need a roadmap, but you need a roadmap from someone who has no intention of building your software. You need a technical advisor.

Ask around. Ping your network. It will cost you money - but it will save you many times over.