
The new litmus test for Silicon Valley startups: How little can you spend? - pg
http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/13/appirio-startup-google-tech-cz_vmb_0613startup_print.html
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willarson
There is a lot of buzz recently for outsourcing software development (thank
you Guy Kawasaki), and it still bothers me somewhat. At one point someone made
the observation that outsourcing tech is fine as long as tech isn't supposed
to be your core speciality.

I can't imagine outsourcing the foundation of a project that I might have to
work on for years to come. Maybe this is a bit overly romantic, and it would
be more efficient to outsource the initial version, and build a custom one if
and only if interest emerges.

Much of my discomfort about the outsourcing stems from the fact that these
people are charging 5-10k and taking 4-8 weeks to build something really
unspectacular. Then again, its easier to build a slick technology demo than to
create a reliable tool...

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gyro_robo
I have a different test. How far can you get with zero "employees", meaning no
equity?

Salaries with no equity just keep you on the economic treadmill. Thus I feel
somehow it's unethical and expliotative to employ anyone the traditional way.
When I read stories about immigrants folding cardboard boxes for HP printers
all day, to me that is not an acceptable cost of having a successful company.
Of course then there's the issue of motherboard manufacturers in China and
Taiwan using sweatshop conditions or something close to it -- making products
we all use -- and people claiming this is an improvement for those workers. I
find the whole notion of people having to work dead-end jobs -- often in poor
or even appalling conditions -- just so they won't starve, to be extremely
distasteful.

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gyro_robo
On the referenced page, the banner is of a half-ass shot. Not exactly the
image _I'd_ want to convey...

<http://www.appirio.com/downloads/google_gadgets.php>

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wschroter
Cogswell - sorry I don't have the link, but check Mark Andreesen's blog on the
view of the dot com bubble and how over-hyped the failure rate was. He made
some good points about how, despite all the lavish stories, a good number of
companies made it through just fine.

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cogswell
If Dot Com buble companies had been a little more thrifty, we might see a few
more of them around today. I think the cheap factor is just a correction for
the spending spree during the first bubble.

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acgourley
Usually the cheapest option is not the most efficient. But usually the next
cheapest is.

