

10 reasons that start-ups 100% absolutely should outsource (almost) everything - webwatch
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/25/10-reasons-start-ups-100-absolutely-should-outsource-almost-everything

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dangoldin
I had a professor who's sole purpose was to say "Outsource everything except
your core competency."

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mosburger
Not sure I agree with this reasoning:

"8. Outsourcing keeps you from hiring the wrong person. A bad employee hurts
every company, but a bad hire can destroy a start-up. Early hires in start-ups
need to be considered very carefully, because they can make or break the
business. Outsourcing allows a start-up to get work done while taking its time
on hiring key employees."

Couldn't you get just as burned by outsourcing to the wrong agency?

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dcurtis
I can see the reason for this. If you hire a terrible employee, it's harder to
fire them than it is to cut off an outsourcing agency. Early employees define
the culture of the company.

On the other hand, you'll never get the quality of work out of outsourcing
that you could possibly get from a great hire.

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hs
The article forgets about effects from 'uncertainty': black swan, div/0,
singular matrix, etc, if you will

It reminds me about specialization: country T for tobacco which outsources
corn to country C. Within the next year, there's movement against cigar and
there's ethanol boom

Some kind of hedging is needed: be able to do _everything_ yourself so when
outsourcing goes sour (it will, since you have less control), it won't hurt so
much - you can go without it

"the best way to get approval is not needing it"

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julieb2
I think the "almost" is key here - because there are certainly some functions
that shouldn't be outsourced. Some people (not sure if this is me or not)
would say that the development of a core application, for example, should
absolutely NOT be outsourced no matter the cost.

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swombat
Agree. Outsourcing development is probably one of the likeliest causes of
death for web startups. If you don't have a technology-minded cofounder who
can build the application, don't start the business.

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Harj
digg worked out ok. there's always an exception.

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dcurtis
Right, there are always exceptions. But you shouldn't give advice based on
exceptional cases.

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nazgulnarsil
doesn't this invalidate all advice since only statistics can give non-
anecdotal advice?

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swombat
If you give advice about anecdotal cases, you should package it with advice
about how to make that exception situation arise again.

If you don't know why it went well despite poor odds, don't give advice :-P

