

Anybody outsource their startup? - abhay23

I know there was a thread earlier on this topic but I am here to talk about legal things. 
So I have an idea that I could develop myself but I do IT consulting fulltime. What I could do with my job is to write specs and design but coding isnt somethhing I am looking forward to at end of the day- simply because that what I did whole day anyways. Architecture and design isnta chore so  I am thinking of outsourcing coding to a guy (and few developers) in bangladesh  . At the same time, I am planning to submit my idea  to Ycombinator so if and when my idea is picked up for funding, I already have necessary resources to build a prototoye rapidly and look for additional funding.<p>So my question is : what does it takes  to protect my idea when working with these guys? The only thing I am aware of is getting a Non disclosue agreemnt signed from them .   Anything else? Appreciate any input on my situation.<p>And by the way, will Ycombinator cosider funding me when I am outsourcing work somewhere else?
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pjackson
_So I have an idea that I could develop myself but I do IT consulting
fulltime._

I'm not sure how Ycombinator views it, but I think you should get some skin in
the game. I know it can be tough to jump ship and work on your startup full or
even half time, but you can't give yourself any excuses. (Like working IT
consulting full time).

That said, outsourcing your development is a fairly common practice.

There are a number of boilerplate "work for hire" and "intellectual property
agreement" forms available, but if you're serious about this idea, you could
not spend your first $500-$1000 any better than getting a competant attorney
to write you one.

You might be able to rely on oDesk or E-lance to provide you with protection.
The people who outsource through those platforms are required to agree to the
standard "work for hire" terms and conditions.

I'd go the lawyer route, though. If your idea gets traction, you'll eventually
need one anyway.

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jmtame
I don't know of any startups that outsource their development. I know of
startups that pull in the assistance from other studios or extremely talented
contractors nearby, although the last startup I was in, we did that early on
(seed funding stage) and the studio that worked for us did a terrible job. It
was a nightmare and in the end, I was sent in to fix all of their problems in
Flash. It was a combination of incompetence on behalf of the studio, and they
weren't physically present, so the pressure on them for succeeding wasn't as
strong as if they were in the same room as us.

What happens if you outsource? You'll either save on two things: time and
money. If you save on time, you're going to pay a high price for good quality.
If you skip out on price, you're going to get crappy code, and you will spend
just as much time explaining to the developers how to build your product. And
I know of startups at my school that have re-written their entire code base
simply because of how rapidly they're iterating. Can you imagine what it'll be
like trying to get a company from another country to write your initial code
base, and then eventually hiring someone to manage it? I'm guessing it will be
a nightmare. There's a reason why companies like Google and Facebook are
desperate for top engineers, it's because the quality becomes a competitive
advantage, it's pretty important in a startup and investors know this. That's
why so much emphasis is on your team, and not necessarily your idea.

Why not stick it out for a month and write your own prototype? It will take
the same amount of time to find, hire, explain, review, and finalize code
being done by someone else.

I want to say that any ambitious angel investor or VC will NOT fund you if you
outsource your development. Why would they? You aren't bringing much to the
table at that point. And if your only advantage is some code that was written,
well I'm sure your angel or VC already has several programmers in their
rolodex that could do the same thing, with better code, much faster. So you'll
have a very hard time convincing someone why they should invest in you,
instead of just pass the idea off to one of their existing startups to work on
if their current gig is failing.

I don't want to discourage you from pursuing your idea. Just keep all of this
in mind when you make your decision.

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akd
Nothing can protect the "idea." If all you're contributing is the idea itself,
you'll soon find yourself cut out of your stake, even if the idea takes off.
Your engineers or investors will work around you :)

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abhay23
Thanks you all for letting me know your thoughts. ummm lemme think more.

