gregw100

I've been building my startup for the better part of this year, but have come to a point where I no longer can afford to pay designers or programmers. However, I'm entirely focused on getting the site built, as I feel it is the perfect time for such a product and it will greatly benefit our world, especially in these tough economic times.

I've been considering ways I could finish it while not currently having the funds. One is getting a loan, but I'm quite adverse to the thought of putting myself in such debt, especially with other responsibilities like having a roof over my head coming in first priority.

Another is crowdsourcing, but the problem with that is that I'm worried if enough people hear about my idea, someone with bigger pockets and more connections than me may steal my idea and launch it before me. The third option I've though of is turning my startup into an open-source project, with only qualified people being allowed to work on it.

Has anybody ever thought of this? What are some pros and cons that I may not have thought of? Also, how would I make it open-source without giving up full control of the direction it goes in?

Hi, I am looking to change hosts. I've used services such as Bluehost, HostGator and Network Solutions. I've been thinking about moving to Amazon EC2 or another service, as I plan on launching my site pretty soon. My question is, what would be my best option for hosting my site? Aspects I'm considering are security, speed, price, backend ui and stability.

To put things in context, my site functions similarly to Yahoo Answers and Quora, in that users create simple accounts, post a brief article and comment on other's posts.

I have been using plan.io for my project management, but decided I want to see what else is out there. I recently signed up for Asana, but what I don't like is there is no repository. Being that my project is building a website, I find it somewhat necessary to have a place to dump files when needed.

I checked out Github, but before signing up, I just wanted to get opinions on what the best online team management site is for websites. I want something simple like Asana, but with advanced features like a repository and version tracking.

So I've been working on my startup for the better part of the year. I recently decided to freeze it due to a lack of funds. Through the process of building it, I've hired programmers and explained my idea to probably 4 or 5 of them so that they have a better idea of what to do on the site. I'm no longer hiring them and I'm worried that because I've explained the premise of the site to them, they might take my idea and build it themselves, though I haven't given any single one of them the entire blueprint.

Today I decided to change servers to Network Solutions. They are offering a month of free site support and to even build my site for free. I spoke with a representative for over an hour today explaining my idea to him in order to get a month free of programming help. It seems like such a good opportunity that only a fool would pass it up. However, now I'm wondering if I should've explained my idea to him, even if he is with a professional outfit.

What are your experiences with disclosing your startup ideas and how open are you to people? Is it a mistake to involve anybody outside of my immediate circle in on the project?