Outsourcing for startups — when NOT and why?

Idea, MVP, time to market, product-market-fit, proprietary technology are the most important terms for an early age startup.

But most of the startups have this question of if we should outsource the technology or build it in-house?

The answer for most of the early-stage startup is NO to outsourcing, but it also depends on a few parameters,

Idea Stage

If you are in the idea stage and want to validate your idea, most of the times it can be done without making a full software product. Try finding the ways where you can validate your idea with existing ways like social media or any available tools.

Technology or Business

If the product is having proprietary technology, you would never want to outsource it. You may outsource the nonproductive tools like website, and touch-points e.g if you already have backend developed in-house, you might outsource mobile front end app.

If your idea is more business and technology is just a tool for enablement, outsourcing may help you.

Scaling Stage

Outsourcing might help in later stages where you want to scale and want to ship versions in less time. You would need to identify technologies which are not “core” to your product and can outsource supporting applications and touch-points.

Verdict

To conclude, if you are an early-stage startup and technology is your core, you should avoid outsourcing, but if your expertise and idea are more business-oriented and need software as enablement tool, hiring someone to develop and maintain can help you focus more on your business.