Almost every startup founder dreams about making a dent in the world. With more than 800 unicorns (private companies valued over $1 billion) roaming the global markets, there’s a possibility that you might join their ranks. While building another business on the scale of Figma, Apple, or Airbnb is no small accomplishment, more than 70% of startups never make it past the first round of financing.
The biggest issue that often sinks even the most brilliant business ideas is a lack of technical expertise. Since most startup founders are entrepreneurs, not techies, they tend to lose focus and miscalculate the time and resources needed to create an MVP or scale it further. When faced with solving this issue, most non-tech founders can choose one of three ways.
Learning all the necessary skills yourself
While it may work for part-time pet projects and small-scale startups you would be running out of time soon enough. Even if you are an eager and diligent learner, you might find yourself not talented or technically inclined. And while diving headfirst into the complexities of coding and assembling hardware, you are at risk of completely forgetting about the business side.
Choosing a CTO
Having a dedicated tech co-founder might be an option if you know somebody knowledgeable. Your startup can certainly benefit from such a person on board. But not every Steve Jobs can get himself a Steve Wozniak. Then there’s always a chance of personality clashes, petty disputes, and differences in vision. Most techies also prefer starting their own companies rather than playing a second fiddle to an entrepreneur founder.
Building an in-house team
Hiring developers for your company is a solid approach for completing tech-intensive projects. The downsides usually include heavy spending. You need to cover paychecks, renting, maintaining, cleaning, furnishing an office space, getting an HR expert for recruiting and managing your employees, among other things. If your budget allows that, by all means, go ahead. But if you are short on cash, or you just need to create a Minimum Viable Product for the early adopters and to test the market, starting with an in-house team might be overkill.
When outsourcing becomes a preferred solution
Going with an “outside” technical partner is a great option that is used by many successful founders. You can choose a tech-savvy individual or a company to help your startup get off the ground.
You can hire an offshore or nearshore company. Offshore companies are generally much more affordable. Quite a few high-profile cases show that an offshore startup development company can become a lifesaver even for big-name startups, including Slack, GitHub, and WhatsApp. If you are looking for the fastest, cheapest method of product development, you should consider outsourcing. A lot of professional teams around the world specialize in areas that can benefit you at different stages of launching a product or a service.
Benefits of outsourcing
Hiring a technical partner has many benefits when done right. Don’t forget to do your due diligence before striking a deal. Vetting the team you’re planning to partner with is a must if you don’t want to get any unpleasant surprises down the road.
Advantages of having an offshore technical partner:
- being supported and guided by a professional company with extensive knowledge of industry standards and best practices;
- using their coding and hardware assembling expertise to reach your business goals;
- finding common ground with fellow startup founders since most specialists have previously built their own startups, or launched products and services;
- an agency with a good track record has experience working with hundreds, and maybe thousands of customers similar to you, which means that they can understand your needs better than you do;
- they have likely dealt with similar business issues that you are facing as an entrepreneur;
- partnering with an experienced offshore developer gives you an advantage without blowing the budget;
- you can bring down operational costs by hiring only a “skeleton crew”, and scaling up when you need to move fast;
- an offshore tech partner usually has mentors, tech leads, coders, product specialists onboard, which lets you have all your questions answered.
Risks of outsourcing
You should understand all the possible downsides that come with this approach to startup building.
Offshore tech partners might not be the best option in some cases:
- outsourcers tend to work on multiple projects at the same time, so you must insist that you have priority;
- getting all the necessary work done and meeting deadlines can be an issue if the developer has too many clients at the same time, or lacks streamlined business processes;
- you may run into difficulties with language, culture, and even time zone differences that might hinder progress, so, you should pay attention to them to increase your chances of success;
- if you don’t want to work with a developer from a different timezone, opting for a nearshore company might be a better choice;
- with an offshore developer, you can’t oversee every minutiae detail first-hand. For some founders it presents a serious hurdle from a psychological point of view;
- you will have to deal with issues of control and trust. Signing NDAs, developing a project roadmap, and communicating freely at any time can be a solution.
Questions to ask before getting a technical partner
You need to understand what kind of product or service you are developing before thinking about outsourcing your project.
Do you just need to come up with a solution to customers’ needs? Is new, unique technology your main selling point?
If you just want to make a product, as WhatsApp did with their messaging app, for example, you probably should choose the outsourcing route.
If you are on the verge of a technological breakthrough, patent it and develop it with the help of your dedicated in-house team.
Think about your customers: are they regular non-tech people or tech-savvy professionals?
Experts advise hiring a tech partner if your goal is to create products and services for the general audience.
Is your product based on a patented technology that you don’t want to share?
If yes, then you’d better be developing it in-house, if no, you can outsource it without having a second thought.
Conclusion
Before you decide to partner with an offshore software development team, take a look at their history and previous work. Search for reviews, contact their former clients. Check whether they have all the necessary expertise with technology stacks and frameworks. If you can’t make a decision right away, you should probably seek advice from consultants, mentors, or other business partners you trust.
If you want your startup experience to be fruitful, then hire the right team. 80% of your success depends on it.
