In the last post I mentioned our meeting with a development company. We met, chatted for about three hours, and was promised a draft scope document sent to our sticky little Gmail accounts within two weeks.

Three weeks passed and still no document. So I began formulating a different plan. Initially we intended to create a feature rich environment for launch, but a second option was always available. Something akin to a 37 Signals approach: keep it simple and launch early. At least that’s what we’ve taken away from their school of thought.

We’re now in discussions with a different development company, and are in the throws of raising a small amount of funding. This will allow us to launch late in the year with the core features. As we add members we’ll extend the feature set based on feedback.

Lesson learned: always have a “plan b” running in parallel.