Simon Willison’s Weblog

Is it a good idea for new start-up to outsource Software/App Development?

26th October 2010

My answer to Is it a good idea for new start-up to outsource Software/App Development? on Quora

It depends on what you mean by “outsourcing”.

If you’re doing a startup, never forget that the initial version of your software is just the start of the development process. It’s essential to continuously iterate on your software based on how your users are using it. You need a full-time development team.

If you’re asking if it’s OK to have your full-time development team based in another country, that could work but would make things a great deal more difficult due to the communication overhead. With a startup, just writing a spec and throwing it over the wall to be implemented by another team isn’t ideal for the reasons I’ve already outlined.