

Ask HN: Outsource everything but coding? - onlylikecoding

You usually read about startup that coding is like only 20% time... and it seems that most successful startups have a nice and strong voice through posts of the founders. But what if you do not want to do marketing, blogs, twitter and all. Can you outsource it cheaply?<p>Is it viable that the voice of your company is not really you? Can you find something like a ghost writer doing all the PR, Marketing, Promo and copywriting?
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il
Outsourcing marketing and copywriting is very inefficient for a startup. The
first thing any decent copywriter/marketer will do is an extensive amount of
research about your product,market,customers,competition,etc. Research is
probably 50% of marketing, and all of this research will cost you a lot of
money.

You already know your product better than anyone- you should be its best
salesperson.

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iamdave
Wow, quite the opportunity the last few days when it comes to outsourcing to
pitch some services :D

Here is the incredibly short answer:

But to answer your question, yes. I am a virtual assistant and virtual
recruiter; it is my job to execute the outsourced office-level tasks of my
clients. A large part of this involves administering document management
systems, and handling massive amounts of text. Within this I am tasked with
copy writing and PR for my clients-the ends to this means being sales leads.

So yes, it is possible to outsource everything but coding. It's not entirely
the easiest adjustment to make, and there isn't a one size fit all formula.
Find the one that works best for your organizational structure and go with it.
Check my profile if you have any further questions.

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pclark
I'd bet no. Coding is a "minor" part, but the _product_ should be your core
function, and the product encapsulates PR, marketing, etc etc.

Your marketing is your voice, you wouldn't want to outsource your voice would
you? If you don't want to do that stuff find a co-founder who does

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damoncali
No - code is just a small part of this business. That would be like saying,
"can I outsource everything but accounting?"

OK, not exactly like that, but not far from it.

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jeffepp
It is hard to outsource your passion. Outsource sparingly until you can define
what tasks you are willing to accept substandard results...

