Should I learn coding or just hire coder? I already have $1million.?

[yohei]

Should I learn coding or just hire coder? I already have $1million.

I've already have a business(not tech), I've got $1m.

Now I want to start tech business like develop iPhone App,
make SNS like Facebook or twitter.

so now I'm studying coding like javascript and PHP,
but sometimes I feel like wasting of time.
Because I already have money to hire coder, so I should focus to manage them?
As an entrepreneur, I have to hire coder instead of studying code?
someone says you have to be manager not coder.your work is to manage them.

but also I think I have to master coding.
because many successful entrepreneur in tech company,
almost all of them are coder, Facebook,Twitter,Google,etc.

so… which is better choice?

[David]

Determine what kind of app you want to develop and how it will work. Not the code part but from wire frames (mock ups) and customer need. Then go to elance.com. Post the project and people will submit bids to you. You can then set up conference calls (either via real phone or skype or other programs. I used to do that and set up calls via skype where it was just like being on the phone because we were through skype). Then you can hear our each contractor and determine which has the best chance to make your project a reality. Then make sure you only make payments in stages. Your the buyer so be picky. You want a roadmap with milestones that generate payouts for that phase of the project. So for example: 1) Vendor develops wire frames and usability, 2) Vendor designs backend (guts) of program and connects to wire frame, 3) Go through Initial Testing to see that it works, 4) Further refine the wire frames and colors and usability, 5) More UAT testing (user acceptance testing) 6) Identify final bugs and features that are not in the tool now but you want to develop. Talk to the contractor about them and next steps. Maybe they will say that those are in scope of the current project (free to you) or that they are not in scope. They will require an additional SOW (statement of work) for a new project to develop those. The thing to remember with software development is that you never start with the perfect product. You will have to make tons of trade offs. Does this feature make it to version 1 launch or is this version 3.

You can pour a million into a project but that is a huge risk for loss of investment. Instead make your budget $8-50K. Then release the app into whatever device stores you want. Remember you want to make money so this app either has to cost money or have ads. Make sure the initial SOW has the ability to do whichever you want. A key in software is recurring revenue. Getting paid multiple times like a cell phone contract. Much easier to get recurring than a large 1 time fee. Maybe inside your app you sell additional things. Maybe it is paid for by ads. Find a model that works for you and develop it. You need to launch though and get feedback from your users. You will, I repeat WILL find many bugs and usability problems. Also, you will see new features or uses that you never even thought of. Thats a great place to be. Take those and prioritize each one. How many people have the same bug. How many have the same usability issue. How many have the same request for extra feature. Write those up and rank them. Then go and create a new project on elance (even invite your original contractor) and list some of those things. Trust me you can't do them all at once. Pick the most important of each of the 3 above types. Get that project going. Then release that version. Again hear feedback from users. You will want to know how people are using your app so you need to think about how you will track user behavior. There are various tools out there for measuring what users do on your app. This is critical to have. It will help you analyze what people do and where they get stuck. Take those learnings and create more projects to move your app forward. You need to make a road map. These features are next release. These features are 4 releases away. That way you can prioritize and fund it. Progressively improve the app. That is what Facebook, Twitter and Google, etc all do. Hope this helps. This is just the high level basics. I agree don't learn code yourself. Learn the basics so that you can communicate with users and developers. But focus on managing and the customer. If you have more questions please feel free to ask.