Why 2018 could be the year when outsourcing companies rock again
What are the two common things between Slack, Whatsapp, Groove, Basecamp, Instagram etc?
They are all unicorns?? That was the easy one to guess
What’s the other one? Yes, as you may have expected because of the topic of this post- they all were built with a remote team.
Hard to imagine right? But it is correct.
Jason Fried of Basecamp mentions, he outsourced it to take advantage of the cost- opportunity gain, while Slack was initially outsourced to a design firm who built the app, the website as well as the logo. Stories of other startups are equally interesting as well and though it can be said that these companies went on to gain huge success not because they outsourced but because of other more important decisions they took during the journey of their product, it provides ample evidence that Outsourcing if done right can prove to be an ultimate hack for a founder in the game of startups.
The last few years have been a bit hard for the outsourcing industry with all the bad news on outsourcing being highlighted and data skewed to prove theories. Although the reality remains that the advantage outsourcing provides to early-stage startups is the steroids that are required to win.
I look at 2018 to be pretty bright and prosperous for outsourcing industry and here are my reasons
1. More niche tech requirements
There is more dearth of a great pool of people than ever. In 2018, more startups will be built on the idea around Machine learning and AI for X, and Blockchain for Y. The demand for conventional tech and slow workers may die soon but those who will learn the new technologies and show expertise in emerging areas will actually see their earnings get even better.
2. The growth trend in overall startup trend
More and more non-tech founders are building more and more technology companies. The barrier to understanding technology and coming down and as more founders explore building tech companies they will need teams.
3. Better communication and control
With tools like GitHub, Slack, Trello and marketplaces such as Toptal, Remote Pandathere are now more ways than ever to collect information about developers, assess work, provide feedback, control contract terms etc. It is now easier for even non-tech founders to assess progress, gauge quality of work and know if they are taken for a ride.
4. More maturity in the market
Ever since a requiem for outsourcing has been seen as inevitable in last few years, there has been a process started for making things right. Many outsourcing firms now invest in providing value that goes beyond just providing a solution. Given the competition and vying for long-term contracts, outsourcing companies seem to up their ante. Many firms are providing add-ons for digital marketing, growth hacking, proof of concepts etc in addition to development just to help the product succeed. Better value for money seems to now emerge out from contracts and this could just be the year that results are more apparent.
In all, I believe there is great enthusiasm among both the buyers and sellers. As the chapter Director of StartupGrind Pune, I got to meet around 150+ startup CEOs last year and everyone seems to be pretty positive on giving Outsourcing a try. Their only inhibition being quality.
If outsourcing companies can take care of it then 2018 can actually be the best that the companies ever had.
