I need opinions, from anyone but mostly experienced guys, on this issue. OK, so the issue is this: I have a great idea for a web application. The application itself would be a website, which would also have its own iPhone app, BlackBerry app, Android app, WebOS (Palm) app, WinMo app, and a few other features. I have presented my idea to a venture capital firm. They seemed to like it, and I was given an application, to apply for funding. Once I have funding I would hire people to work for me to create all of this. Everything is already drawn on paper. The problem that I have is I do not know how much would this cost. How long will it take? I do not want to ask for $5 million, and that could be too much. Or ask for only a few hundred thousand dollars and be to little. Nor do I want to say it will take me three months, when it could take me nine months, or it could only take a few weeks. How long do you guys think it would take to code a website, that could be connected to all these different mobile devices via apps, test it a few times and put out there? Again I would not be coding it myself. I have engineered the idea on paper and all of that good stuff, I would just hire people to build this for me. Ofcourse I would need to pay all these people, pay myself if I end up starting it as its own company instead of hiring other companies. I can't give out too much info on the idea since I am not ready for anyone to steal parts of it or copy my idea, if that makes sense. It would sort of like user submitted content, with constant updates, similar to facebook, where people check the site on all these mobile devices, check it on computer, upload pics, videos, post comments, and stuff like that. Except mine is in a different field, different category.
I think until you show any similar site or list the feature complexity then only anyone will be able to tell you about estimates
It sounds to me as though your best bet might be to hire an experienced project manager to look at your project brief and estimate the required resources. Then submit the application for funding. You could hire a freelance software project manager to do the estimates. I wouldn't be overly worried about giving the ideas to the project manager - you'll have to share the ideas with the manager and engineers at some point anyway. Even so, if you know a manager personally you might be able to trust their judgement and integrity more.
This is a good advice. Thanks. I was thinking of hiring someone but did not know who, a freelance software project as you recommend, and then try to figure some things out before I submit the application. Again, thanks for your advice.