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I work in the sciences, and have an idea for a program/tech solution to a common problem animal researchers run into, and my old lab griped about daily. I have the problem defined, and I have several ideas about a solution; my skill set doesn't include programming and my University doesn't care about developing "programs" only biotechnology ideas.

I'd like to pursue this, but getting bogged down trying to get started.

As I see it, I can fund this out of pocket and hire programmers to build this piecemeal, or find a partner who's willing to take a risk and work on this.

It's a long shot, but any helpful advice?

Sorry if wrong sub.

I work in the sciences, and have an idea for a program/tech solution to a common problem animal researchers run into, and my old lab griped about daily. I have the problem defined, and I have several ideas about a solution; my skill set doesn't include programming and my University doesn't care about developing "programs" only biotechnology ideas. I'd like to pursue this, but getting bogged down trying to get started. As I see it, I can fund this out of pocket and hire programmers to build this piecemeal, or find a partner who's willing to take a risk and work on this. It's a long shot, but any helpful advice? Sorry if wrong sub.

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[–] 0 pt

Sounds a bit like something I'd started working on for home inventory. Of course, I didn't need a clean room. The QR codes were to be able to scan a box to pull it up online (with a URL). I used a CMS (Drupal 8) with a custom node type and fields, and included one for having parent/child relationships (e.g. you could have an item within a box within a box).

The website was functional and I used a tablet, but data entry felt a little slow (something I could have eventually improved by making a more responsive client-side interface rather than the web server generating a web page each request). It was nice to be able to use the search function. Having pictures of my items was also a nice touch I thought.

After some work, I decided a spreadsheet would be more productive for my purposes. I'd start with an empty box, write a number its sides with a marker (e.g. "Box 12"), and write everything in a spreadsheet. It saved me some development time, and I'm still able to determine quickly enough where I've stored some random thing I rarely use (e.g. the other day I needed a SVGA cable and located it in Box 20).

I'm not sure about how to find someone good. I've helped with hiring other developers before, and it can be difficult to find good ones. You might want to try on guru.com or freelancer.com.