Why outsourcing your MVP is a good idea

I often wonder why so many startup companies (or operating companies building a new product) feel they must use in-house, full-time labor to build their Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In many cases, I find that it is because the tech leader of the startup wants to assert their worth. Or because their executives are paranoid about their IP leaking. Whatever the reason, building your MVP with anything but outsourced labor in most cases makes little sense.

The Benefits of Outsourcing

You may be 100% sure that whatever product you are creating will be a success out of the gate. Unfortunately, probabilities and reality will show you otherwise. When you use in-house, full-time labor to create a new product you run the inherent reality that things usually take longer than expected. In doing so, you put people’s jobs, and investment capital at risk as you wait to see whether your product is as successful as you think it will surely be. Instead, for many startups or companies, hiring a qualified outsource software development company to create your application, at least for the MVP stage, is often a smarter way to go. By doing so, you can mitigate downside operating and capital risk, equity dilution, and effectively start your trust path off with all company stakeholders. Another reason is that outsourced software development companies bring a lot of value to the table in terms of the planning and idea validation. These companies see a parade of new ideas and have typically taken multiple ideas through the entire software development lifecycle. In summary, the experience that an outsourced software development company brings to the table includes:

• Better decision making when choosing which features are included and not included in the MVP, based on cost, effort and value to market
• Reduce risk of budget overrun and overuse of internal resources
• Better definition of expectations for a realistic time frame to market success and final project cost
• Idea validation by experienced software developers

If you do choose to develop inhouse, you should take the following precautions to lessen the probability of the outsourced work becoming a disaster.

To learn more about using AccelOne to develop your next MVP or other development project, speak with an AccelOne representative today.