Ask HN: How to approach a computer vision freelancer
Computer Vision is a highly specialized field. If what you need is an MVP just get some code out of the internet with a run of the mill dataset and create an MVP based on that. That means you don&#x27;t care about the accuracy, recall, F1, and all the mambo jumbo we do care about and you should if you plan to have a product built around computer vision stuff.<p>You can even run that kind of stuff using Microsoft and IBMs API out of the cloud for an MVP. If what you need is to test the product idea. Mind you if I were you, I wouldn&#x27;t even build the product in the first place and do a proper UX work first that will allow you to figure out pretty fast and very cost effective if it makes business sense to pursue computer vision at all.<p>Now assuming that you have all those angles covered. No, you shouldn&#x27;t hire a freelancer. This is a piece of technology that is very specialized, very complex and difficult to get right (to fit for purpose) and debug; you either want a contractor company that knows what they are doing and ensure they are skilled in knowledge transfer (the good ones are not cheap). At least if down the road you want your company to be able to build your own team on top of the base technology. Another alternative is to buy a third-party product and deal with the risk of the technology not being fit now or later in a year for your purposes.<p>Disclaimer: I work for such a contractor type.