Engineers will under estimate to have the lowest quote and get the contract. Once the entrepreneur is sucked in, it becomes a sunken cost fallacy.
Entrepreneurs often don’t know about the tech, and underestimate significantly the scope of the project. They ask a bunch of features that are supposedly critical, and they can’t prioritize ruthlessly nor extract the key components needed. They often pick an eng that will low ball their quote, which often means the less professional engs.
In these cases, you are better of having a tech project manager, even part time, a few hours here and there to cut the bullshit, pick the right engs, and have a clear list of deliverables. Paid by the hour.
And sometimes it means that the PM tells the entrepreneur that their project will cost 2x to 5x what they expect (they want a Twitter competitor for $5k). Once you convinced them that their money would get nowhere close to what they want, good luck getting paid for the several hours that you helped them (crickets usually), even if you saved them $10k by avoiding a costly mistake. Entrepreneurs are more unprofessional than Eng. at least Eng can make a living.
Now as a project manager I am getting paid upfront. 😅 I don’t need to work with cheap amateurs. 😂
Pm me.