Should Startups Outsource?

If there is any skill set which is required and is not part of the founding team’s skill set, outsourcing is an option. For example when we started Bitequest.com, we did not have a technology co-founder and hence got a web developer to make our website for us.

Outsourcing benefits the startup in a number of ways.

Immediate Solution: Solutions are easily available and the time to start work is immediate.

Quality Skill Set: A good vendor will have good skill sets and can do better work than what you can do is you try to acquire the skills somehow.

If not outsourcing, entrepreneurs have a couple of other options.

Getting someone with the skill set on the team: This is the best solution. Finding someone will take time. But this option will eventually turn out cheaper and more controllable as the product has been built in house.

Learning the skill set: The founder(s) can decide to learn the skill set and build the product in house. This takes time and the learning and product may not be as good as in the other options available.

Hence, a lot of entrepreneurs prefer getting things outsourced, especially during the early stages of their startups. Once they grow and want to have a better control over their processes, teams with the relevant skill sets are built to get everything in house.