I've referred to this post before, but it still seems kind of strange to me.

Beisel's entrepreneurial friend Pelle Braendgaard (check her blog on her bootstrapped business venture here) was working a consulting job in 2005 to generate the funds needed to pay contract programmers for the technical side of her new business launch.

In a comment after the post she explained that she has years of experience in Internet sales, marketing and business development, but lacks the skills to build the product herself though she is a programmer.

However, Pat Mathews, CEO of Webmail.us, Inc., and a few other commenters seemed to think an enterprise can't be built with contract workers who don't share your vision.

The argument would seem to leave bootstrappers with little choice but to hand away pieces of their company to partners who have the skills but not the vision that made the business possible in the first place.

Thankfully, for non-Code Monkeys like me there's this post by Scott Burkett provided by Randall, a reader and commenter to this site.

For those not born "hands-on technologists" (Burkett's term), here are some of his suggestions with my comments:

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Find a technical friend who can help you pro-bono

(however, Burkett also recommends granting them "a piece of the action", if necessary)

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Use online service-bid portals, such as eLance. You would be surprised at how cheaply many staple technology services can be purchased.

(Blogger Dan marques also recommends Design Outpost.)

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Call down to the computer science department of your local college... allow the professor to steer you to one of his/her students.

(Just realize what you may be letting yourself in for. I'm not sure I would hire some of the guys I went to college with)

•

Pool resources with a fellow entrepreneur to use their staff for certain things.

(For really small bootstrappers this could be skills not staff. "I'll write you some press releases/take some photos for your blog, if you'll help me get my website up and running." Burkett also calls this reciprocating services)