In the early stages, startups need to be cost-conscious, and many aren't focused on research anymore but on building a product. Given the high salaries of software developers, why not outsource most of the development work and keep a small internal team of 1-2 developers? What are the pros and cons ?
Being cost-conscious keeps you aware that cheap things cost more, and cost is not only money, but time, restlessness, anxiety, frustration, etc.
If there is a team you know can deliver with a manageable level of technical debt later, you have worked with before, and you can afford their rate, then maybe. If not, you're building a castle on sand, and don't even know if there will be a castle in the first place.
Then, there's the whole cycle period, from talking to customers to development, the smaller the period, the more cycles.
We developed bespoke software for large, and less large organizations, and they were repeat clients, and we were paid many multiples of the rate of people in the U.S or Europe because we didn't just do "development"; we dived deep and transformed their whole models in some cases. They loved it enough to want to involve us with everything, invest, partner, what not.
That level of involvement is rare.
If I wanted to outsource for some reason, I have people in mind, people who were previously on my team for years, people I hand-picked, people I built a company with.
If you want an MVP or something you can just use as an asset for marketing and the first sales, that can deliver some value but that will most probably will be re-written later, I think you can find people like that. However, you're asking abut "outsourcing" to an "internal" team, and that's a bit confusing to me, hence my long-winded answer.
If there is a team you know can deliver with a manageable level of technical debt later, you have worked with before, and you can afford their rate, then maybe. If not, you're building a castle on sand, and don't even know if there will be a castle in the first place.
Then, there's the whole cycle period, from talking to customers to development, the smaller the period, the more cycles.
We developed bespoke software for large, and less large organizations, and they were repeat clients, and we were paid many multiples of the rate of people in the U.S or Europe because we didn't just do "development"; we dived deep and transformed their whole models in some cases. They loved it enough to want to involve us with everything, invest, partner, what not.
That level of involvement is rare.
If I wanted to outsource for some reason, I have people in mind, people who were previously on my team for years, people I hand-picked, people I built a company with.
If you want an MVP or something you can just use as an asset for marketing and the first sales, that can deliver some value but that will most probably will be re-written later, I think you can find people like that. However, you're asking abut "outsourcing" to an "internal" team, and that's a bit confusing to me, hence my long-winded answer.