Ask HN: How does a founder judge quality if they can't code?

I am the founder of a small Canadian based startup which is currently in development. My background is business/economics and the project I am developing is a social network. I’m doing this startup by myself and with my own investment 30K. I’m not a techie so I shopped around for a company which I could hire to do the development. I eventually settled on an Indian company with a good track record of developing social networks. So far I’ve been very pleased with the company’s work and they have done an awesome job in the design phase. But during the design phase I have been managing the Indian team, to ensure quality, that they are meeting the project requirements, and make sure they understand what it is I’m trying to create. But in about a month, starting in January we are going to be finished with designs and move into programming. Here is my problem: Once we get into programming, I no longer have the ability to judge quality and make sure they are meeting the project requirements. I pretty much know zero about coding so if I looked at some amazing code and some awful code side-by-side, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This is a really dangerous position for me to be in because I’ll be making decisions that I have no qualification to be making. I’m not going to sit back let the company do whatever they want and I’m also not going to try and manage the technical side either. I’ve been talking to other startup guys and they all recommend getting either a CTO, consultant or a tech cofounder. The issue of course is money/equity. I don’t like the idea of giving a huge portion of my company to a cofounder or CTO. Plus I don’t know any. I’m favoring bringing on a consultant who I can pay an hourly or flat fee to do some project management for me. My project isn’t huge, only 30K fixed price (10k design, 20K coding). And all I really need is a tech guy to come in and look at the code make sure it’s good and make sure the company I hired is doing things properly. Everyone I’ve talked to says I need to bring in a tech cofounder who is a rockstar to do the coding for me. But I just don’t get it. I already have development team, and I shouldn’t assume they write shitty code just because it’s outsourced. But I do need someone to check it for me. I agree I eventually need a rockstar development team but if I bring in cofounders after beta instead of before they will be taking a much lower equity stake. Right now I don't need a developer capable of programing artificial intelligence. I just need good quality programing so I can launch the beta, test it in market and then develop the amazing technology behind it if its accepted by consumers.Because you can have the most amazing technology in the world but if people don't like the product, then there is no point.

Am I wrong? Any suggestions how I can fix this without giving away a huge portion of my company to a stranger, or going broke paying a consultant? Any advice is welcome. Thanks.