Startup Outsourcing — Moving from Idea to MVP to Shipping

MVP Sells.

To investors and the rare beta testers that potentially serve as marketers and cult-builders out of their own volition.

With the help of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), entrepreneurs are channeling their visions, ideas, and experiences into potential market-winning industries. Using a simple MVP, they can provide appealing features, and offer to solve problems and introduce certain functionalities to potential customers and investors quickly while not investing a fortune in developing the actual product.

By doing so, they get a pulse of the market, and feedback to develop their ideas into tangible and desirable products.

However, if it is time or resources that a startup skims on, the idea of outsourcing an MVP makes much more sense for a startup — particularly so for a Bootstrapped one.

Also, let’s be clear, an investor would be pretty excited on outsourcing a startup’s dev costs and responsibilities if that means they can get the same work, the same equity at reduced costs to the fund.

Outsourcing thus offers an exciting take.

• It offers a strategic advantage to founders — in terms of focus, and vision
• Brings dynamic evaluation and movement to the startup
• Presents an alternative — In-house vs Offshore vs Remote Employee vs Team
• Allows the founders to focus on the essentials and the product without the hassles associated with office and HR

Either way, prudence and overthought have caught up with facts, and startups around the world thrive through outsourcing particularly when sitting in an office is no longer a preference for elite software talent around the world.

Have doubts? How about these orgs -

• Github
• Microsoft
• Google
• Slack
• Skype
• Opera
• Basecamp

From new unicorns to older giants — every new startup understands the caveat of over-extending resources.

Wouldn’t it make sense then for startups rolling out their first pitch to the world to be cautious and absolute about their arrangements?

Building an MVP is the first step in the long journey of launching a successful product and reaping its benefits.

The case we make is clear. You hold the vision. The vendor takes care of the rest.

And with that said, it doesn’t make sense for most businesses to set up an in-house team of developers to facilitate MVP development — before they even have the nod from potential customers or a nudge from an investor.

And that’s why a number of new startups are increasingly considering outsourcing to expedite their MVP development or just get a better PoV of their vision, the market reception vis-a-vis the potential product.

We talk more about Outsourcing for startups and creating MVPs on a string in our services here and here.