Software Outsourcing for Start Ups — Frequently Asked Questions

What is a start-up?

This is the best question to start with as, of course, it is not obvious to all. A term start-up usually refers to an entrepreneur company at the first stage of its development aiming at promoting a new product or unique service. It is very often initially funded by the private money of the families, friends and the owner himself.

In simple terms, a start-up is a unique contemporary business, usually quite small and without a team of developers of their own. Nowadays, most of these companies are based on the Internet in many ways, as usually, when you want to sell your product successfully you will need a website with features enabling transactions, smooth payments, communication with your client and many more. Recently it became even more popular for the business owners to add to all the mentioned features also a mobile app which will improve the whole process and make it more pleasurable for your clients. And this is exactly what outsourcing software developers will do for your start-up. They will take care of the technical side of your idea (website, app etc.) and will make it look just like you have imagined it. They will take care of your intellectual property with quality assurance. And moreover, you will not have to create a development team of your own (in house team usually comes with greater expenses — you should see our article on Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Software Outsourcing to find out more about these costs).

So, if you have a concept for a great app that will make your business grow or if you are in need of a website enabling you to do the same thing, software outsourcing for a start-up may be just for you.

Why is it necessary to consider outsourcing software development in a start-up?

In order to achieve all the stages of the app or web development with no unnecessary time loss or pain of having to learn and do it oneself, one should hire a skilled in this field team of developers and designers to do custom software development for them. Probably the biggest advantage of development companies is that you can partner with them for long term cooperation or for a one-time run. It is very important as not only your requirements are met (with a product that is developed by people with great experience and expertise), but also you and your assumed co-founder have the freedom of ending the cooperation after the end of the agreed fixed-time contract or the project itself.

It is not easy to learn web development or programming from scratch. We know about it very well as all of us have been mastering it for years. Especially in the case when you want your project to be of outstanding design and have some more advanced features you should seriously consider hiring someone from the outside. We promise that it will pay you back in the future with an outstanding product.

Moreover, outsourcing software development in a start-up allows you to:

• reduce the costs of software development
• reduce your worries and responsibilities
• open the doors to new cutting-edge technologies
• be more flexible
• and more!

In our Pros and Cons of Software Outsourcing, we have analysed all the mentioned advantages of outsourcing development in detail. Make sure to have a read!

What are the stages of developing a start-up application?

Developing and solidifying your idea

Once you have this unique concept in your mind, you need to find out if it is possible to make an app or a website out of it. How to do it? You either have to do some online research yourself or simply talk to software developers. It is actually a good idea to contact a development company directly so that you can start a fruitful cooperation straight away. Your outsourcing partner will be able to provide you with their expertise and tell you about some possible solutions at once. The vendor will help you to choose the services and technologies that will suit your needs well, making sure that the overall cost is right and that you will make it within your time limit.

Planning the app

This stage includes all your ideas being put down on paper. The developers need all the facts about how you want it to look like, what features you want to implement AKA you need to plan frontend. It means some wireframing and creating first mockups and quality designs. The software development company will yet again be here of great help for your business. They know the possibilities of code, needs of particular projects and the startup market, which is really convenient for companies like yours.

Seek funding

If you do not have a sponsor at this stage of development yet and you do not seem to have enough money for your contribution you may want to seek funding. There are millions of ways to do that. We have to warn you, though, that it is not too easy but still, it is doable, especially for the entrepreneurs. However, it is all down to you whether you will actually find it.

If this fails, you also have a choice of bank loans, professional investors, services that specialize in start-up help and many more. (By the way, the article on how to find funding for your start up is coming soon!)

Planning the UX…

This is the wireframe, also known as screen blueprint, and it is nothing else than a clear visualization of a website or a web app. In a start up, it is necessary for good understanding and communication with the developers. It makes it easier for you to describe how exactly you want everything to look like and work, what essential features need to be there or how exactly your client will be interacting with your project. As here you need to plan basically all the functions of both frontend and backend, it may actually be the most vital stage.

… and designing the UI

This is the moment when you need to plan the exact UI, that is, user interface. It may be counted as the part of planning the wireframes too. You need to take care of the very look of your project so that it is pleasing to look at and amusing to use. Remember that the looks are very important for the most of the users as they do not wish to spend too much time using an ugly app. So, it needs to look good and feel good. You need a logical and smooth transition between screens and buttons so that everything is intuitive and nice. Moreover, usually the more professional and neat an app looks the more faith and trust people have toward it.

Rethinking

This is an optional point, yet I would actually say that it is vital for proper app development. It may come together with the process of showing it to people you trust or talking about it with them in order to receive some feedback. Once you get some fresh opinions you will be able to implement necessary changes (if there are any) and this will ensure your project going onto the higher level.

Starting development

Once you know how you want your app to look like you can move to letting your developers work. The outsourcing company will usually take care of both the frontend and the backend and you will be needed mainly to control the progress of the project and make vital decisions.

Testing

This is a very important part of the whole process as no one wants to deploy a dud app or website. And that’s why it is vital for you and your team to run several tests on your newborn coded baby. Whether it is done by the developers, you or your family (automatically or manually) it is just something you simply cannot miss.

Deployment & marketing

While deployment is mainly down to your developers, the marketing is something that you have to be very much more involved with. You may actually start with it much earlier so that all of your ‘coming soon’ actions nicely tease the public. It is good to think about an advertising strategy or even consider hiring a third party to do it for you.

What technologies to use with a start-up?

It is necessary for a start-up to choose the fitting technology in order to allow your business to grow. To make it all easier for you we will divide it all into two categories — Backend Tech Stack and Frontend Tech Stack. They both create the app or website as a whole and are usually run by HTML, CSS and Java Script.

What programming language to use with a start-up?

It is a very difficult question to answer properly as each developer will tell you a different thing. In fact, programming languages tend to divide people around the world as there are better and worse ones but there is no universally best one. This is why it is so much down to personal preferences and overall circumstances of your project.

Usually, the most commonly used and the most efficient programming languages chosen for both mobile applications and web apps are JavaScript, Java and Python. However, business owners also choose C#, C or C++ solutions for their development process.

Even though we also share a belief that the language does not matter as long as you get yourself some good developers, it is important to note that with each language there are certainly many good and bad sides that come with — so stay tuned in order to find out more!