Outsourcing still stucks

In the current market environment, where money is tight and investments have to be reviewed carefully, it's easy to reach for cheap options.

Outsourcing is one of these cheap options. Depending on the country, you're looking at savings of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of euros. That sounds fantastic on paper. After all, why spend six digits on an MVP if you can get it done for 4 to low 5 digits?

It's important to understand that outsourcing, and to a lesser extent hiring any outside help at all, causes you to lose a few things:

The flexibility to react to the market and pivot if features become undesirable/unfeasible
Institutional knowledge about the inner workings of your app
Long-term vision and support

You have to have a plan in place to counteract these points and make sure that your startup is set up for success even once the outside help leaves.

When outsourcing, there's also cultural barriers to consider. These also need to managed, taking additional time away from founders at a critical moment.

Overall, outsourcing is still the worst way to go for early-stage startups. It's cheap on paper, but the follow-up costs are enormous.

Yours,
Søren