New answers tagged outsourcing
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Derek,
I run ContractIQ - A marketplace where startups discover elite outsourced product development teams. So I am up close to the issue you've at hand.
There is a very small niche of dev shops that are run by entrepreneurs who have done product startups (or) products over and over. They understand customer development intuitively and the trade-offs ...
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There are a certain irreducible core of duties that director of a company needs to obey, primary amongst which not trading whilst insolvent. Otherwise, many functions can be outsourced to specialised agencies. You might be surprised at the ratio of staff to revenue that even big MNCs like Nike have. The constraints are
activities which are unlawful in ...
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Check out Fulfilled by Sears. FBS is an end-to-end order fulfillment service from Sears that manages warehousing, pick/packing and shipping of customers orders for your business.
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Derek, Outsourcing to keep initial costs down is OK in most cases, especially if technology is not the core of your business model. If technology is critical to your business model, investors would like to see that you can attract the required lead technical person to drive the engineering for you. You can still use outsourced programming team for the ...
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Let's take your statement and simplify it a bit.
*The number one thing I've read is that "good fulfillment companies cannot be found through internet searches". *
If we reduce that down to it's simplest form, "companies can not be found through the internet", is that true? I don't think so.
If we go up one level, "fulfillment companies can not be found ...
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I recommend you create either a
1: 4-color, multi-page .pdf that -
a) includes testimonials
b) lists benefits of using your firm
c) quantifies your successes & why you're best qualified for the job
or 2: a PowerPoint presentation that includes the same points listed above. Either way, you can email this file to potential clients.
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At the end of the day, the investor just wants his money back with profit. That's it. Everything else is just the investor's way of predicting whether that's gonna happen or not. Yes, traditionally investors are hesitant to invest in teams without a tech co-founder. And their reasoning is valid: You're a tech company and there isn't one person on your ...
5
I heard a good analogy once talking about kids and nannies and how that relates to software products. Outsourcing your software development is like hiring a nanny to raise your children. Sure they will "care", but ultimately they are just kind of doing what you want them to do and babysitting your child, making sure they aren't getting in to trouble and ...
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There are no rules for what a VC or Angel will invest in. They make a judgement call about your business and your team. Some that outsource the MVP will get funding, some that build the MVP inhouse will get funding.
You mention traction, they will care a lot more about that than who built the MVP.
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If you're able to validate a business model with an outsourced MVP then I think that most investors aren't going to care that it was outsourced. However, I doubt that you can outsource the creative process that goes into creating an MVP that demonstrates a business model.
If you were hired as a contractor to build an MVP, how would you feel working for a ...
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You didn't state your country, but if you want to get a ballpark estimate of offshore developers, you can check out People Per Hour. They have developers from US, UK, as well as some offshore areas. It's basically a freelance site, so you can hire people for long term projects, or small one offs, or just see what people charge for various services. I've used ...
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If your doing multiple things at once can be useful. For example having someone on the phone and being able to call across the office "did we get that payment this morning??".
They can deal with the mail and be first into the office getting you open early. Because personally I prefer to work later in the day but some clients like to call at 8am.
They can ...
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I've hired a freelancer to complete some PHP for me at the moment, 2 weeks and still nothing, I've a feeling he's outsourcing it to someone else, waiting for the work to return, doing a code review, then handing it over to me. My project isn't time critical though and the price is ok, after I review the code for the 1st delivery, if it's acceptable I'll ...
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There is an interesting thing about all of this and its the cost of living with East V West and the cost of employing someone for simple tasks. I remember being at college where a kettle was thrown out even though it only needed a fuse. Why? Because the person repairing it was £50 an hour a new kettle was £12. Obviously this couldn't have been outsourced but ...
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Always having things laid out properly is the best way for all parties. I have spent time with grumbling clients yet the blame ends up coming back to them as they altered the project as they weren't sure what "they" wanted. End result project takes longer than it should and as a "Freelancer" they become irritated and decide to drop the project or lose ...
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Outsourcing is growing and hiring someone with little skill background against someone who is doing full-time freelance projects may not be the route to go. Its easier to get hold of 5 experienced people that can do tasks extremely well than waste time training someone who may never be up to the job in the end.
A prime example of this was recently I had ...
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