Trouble Hiring Dev Firm

[MiLe31]

Hello everyone,

I am seeking some guidance. My team and I are trying to build a web portal... nothing technologically novel, but not something so simple that I could do it on Wordpress.

So, we need to hire internally, partner, or hire externally.

Hiring Externally:
The issue we have found with hiring externally, as in hiring a dev firm, is that the prices vary wildly... from $15k to 250k. And usually price doesn't seem to correspond with quality. Some of these firms are proposing crummy solutions, like PWAs when we know PWAs are not a solution for a large web portal / marketplace, but they are easy to build... so... therein we find the issue. The dev firms we've spoken with are like McDonalds. Take the order, cook the burger, and forget about it. We don't want to bother dropping 30k on something like that, or 100k+ on something only marginally better. We want the right solutions. My team and I are IT recruiters; so, while we are not technical, we are not oblivious.

Hiring internally:
I recruit technical people all day. i could find them. The only issue is, I recruiter them... I know how it goes. Unless we have a big name, like FB, Google, etc., it will be hard to keep a talented person in house. Maybe I'm wrong, but our team tends to focus on infrastructure recruiting more than software recruiting for this reason. Talented software devs are hard to keep. Sure, that's not true across the board, but I don't want to risk hiring one internally, paying 100k, then they leave, and a new person has to spend months learning about the systems the other person built before it can be finished and launched.

Partnering:
Partnering, or co-founding, has similar challenges as does hiring internally, with some addition challenges on top. Not all dev experts are entrepreneurs. My worries are greatest with this option, but my instinct tells me it's the only way to get it done.

Any guidance on this topic would be appreciated. Any company referrals, etc, all appreciated. Thank you.

[AestheticallyBeautiful]

Hello, while there is a lot of information you have already provided but there are still a few questions.

What is your location?
Are you looking for someone who lives at the same location?
Are you considering the option of hiring a developer firm that can be at any location and get the job done?
What is the exact number are you willing to invest on this? While you have mentioned a few numbers in the text but you have also said that "nothing technologically novel, but not something so simple that I could do it on Wordpress." So this remains as one of the questions.