Outsourcing Your Venture

Everyone has ideas. But, everyone can’t build their ideas.

Or can they? Are they willing to manually develop the process to start?

After running 3 Start Norfolk’s(200 plus participant startup weekends in Norfolk) 2 Hatch rounds and advised dozens of startups across the country one thing is evident; those who can’t build it (or think they can’t) will look for a co-founder(unlikely) or outsource their venture.

Note: Just because a feature looks simple on the frontend, does not mean it is easy to build in the backend. Code takes time, would you tell a doctor he is doing something wrong?

Outsourcing is risky for a number of reasons.

1. Expensive

2. Lack of interest from the development team

3. Bugs

4. New features

5. Pivot

6. Not lean

7. Waiting game

Paying a developer or any outsourced team can cost you double to four times the amount you would if it was built internally or technical co-founder was on the team. When you start a company or are deciding to take the next steps, you are all-in, your outsourced development team…isn’t. They aren’t staying up late at night working on the marketing jargon or cold-calling potential customers. They are sitting back building as they want. I’m not saying that consulting firms out there aren’t to be respected. What I’m saying is that they don’t have the same skin in the game as you do.

Learn a CMS.

Why don’t you give equity to your development team? This may seem like an awesome idea, and, in the short run, it is! But, once your product has been released, all hell could break out. Money is what drives us. And if X Consulting firm(or developer) has built your idea to your liking, they may think they are all set. This is where bug fixes, new features, and pivots come in to play. What happens if your idea is built, yet you need changes. If you don’t have a great upfront expectations, those who built it may be working on something else to pay their bills. I told a friend about four months ago to be careful with using an agency to develop his concept, he said not to worry, I know what I’m doing. Last week, we were talking and he said I was right. I didn’t want to be right and all too often this situation comes up. It’s not fun.

Outsourcing design is okay, but once you start hiring internally I think it’s good to bring on a full-time design/marketing guru.

The team who builds your product needs to have a strong producer or project manager to guide you through the process. Think Lean.

How could Outsourcing work?
Simple Prototype or Proof of Concept. However, if you could develop your proof of concept manually with tools in your pocket, you have a better chance or raising capital, with proven needs in a specific marketplace. Take Carry Norfolk for example, before they wrote a line of code, they ran their company off of text messages.

Before you dive in and start building your product, make sure you have interest from others first. Pitch your idea at a Startup Weekend, pitch contest or to a local developer user group. Pitch it at work, on the bus and to anyone you can. Set up a simple landing page and see if you get sign-ups. If you don’t it may save you some money if you decide to outsource it.