Same two-page spec. Same requirements. Same clarification calls. Twelve firms sent proposals back. The low bid was $800 — the cost of a nice dinner for two. The high bid was $80,000. A hundred-fold spread for identical work.

What if the biggest lesson from your first vendor search isn't which firm to pick — but why the market can't agree on what your product is worth to begin with?

In Episode 23 of Starting Up, host Jay Sensi walks through the reality of shopping for developers when you have no technical background, no CTO friends, and no idea what anything should cost. Domestic firms, offshore firms, a buddy's brother. NDAs cobbled together from free templates. Three weeks of clarification calls that sounded like Greek.

Quotes clustered nowhere near each other. And a gut feeling that said "keep looking" — right before an unexpe ...