American expat entrepreneur living Tel Aviv. Working on a startup for location independent professionals + encouraging remote work and alternative living models. Experience consulting in organizational development, ideation, startups, and business management, HR, talent management, career development.
Great question - here are a couple of comments to consider:
-Having a cofounder (tech or not) can be extremely useful even if it means losing some equity. When the startup ride gets tough, this will be your person and your main support system. Right now it might seem like you may not need that even in the future, but when you are burnt out, dealing with difficult investors or sluggish growth, you may want someone as "in it" as you are. From my personal experience I know I never thought I would get burnt out or down about my own idea but in the end it happens to everyone and your co-founder will pick you up in these moments. I originally took more equity than my first cofounder and have now adopted a 50/50 model most of the time, primary because of the importance of having someone else as invested in it as me. And also, having 100% of something that doesn't make it is meaningless in the end.
-If you have proved your concept in the local market, it may be a good time to raise a seed round that can help you cover the investment to create the bigger platform.
OPTIONS FOR PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
1. Outsource to a good company that can execute on your vision with limited funds and no equity. Keep in mind you will need upkeep and continued support over time (after the initial development), which means more $/time than the original quote and an continued relationship with the team
2. Build the platform on a sophisticated visual programming software where you can execute it yourself without code. I personally have used www.bubble.is and it is pretty awesome. You need to think like a programmer but you don't need to write code. You can do almost anything and it's easy to use. With this option you can manage changes and iterations yourself or with a freelancer.
3. Bring on a cofounder that you believe in and want to share equity with - someone who brings added value to your team and your product. You should want to share equity with this person bc they do something you cannot do and they are your partner!
Keep in mind that everyone who touches the code will have their own methods, and use their own preferred language etc. and this can make it hard to pass from team to team or person to person.
Happy to discuss further if I can be helpful!