I’m always on a crusade to spread awareness that for a non-technology founder, one of the riskiest things you can do is using a software outsourcing agency to build your product.
The reason why it’s a risk is that in every software project – even very experienced technology people, like a CTO – there will be some waste. Non-technology people are so disadvantaged when using agencies that the amount of waste can get so large that it would have been better not to have bothered at all.
e.g. if you had of set fire to your money, at least you would have had a good story to tell the grandkids.
Someone asked me today if I were putting a number on it, how would I score the chances of a non-technology founder successfully outsourcing. Given the conversations I’ve had over the past 5-10 years with founders who’s businesses have either failed or needed rescuing because of outsourcing failures, I would put it considerably under 50%.
To put it another way, as a non-technology founder you have a 50:50 chance of wasting your money when outsourcing. My advice – go carefully.