Stop Offshoring
Thursday, September 27, 2007
A friend of mine, who became VP of Engineering at a new startup a few months ago, told me shortly after he joined that they were offshoring their R&D to China. I thought they were nuts. The company only has 3 employees in the U.S. -- my friend, the CEO, and another business guy. Instead of building up a core team locally, they hired engineers in China to build the first version of their product "because it's cheaper."
Expectedly, a few months later, following delays and complaints, he's having second thoughts. I believe that a new startup is the worst candidate for offshoring. In the beginning of a company's life, you need dedicated people you can count on to help the company survive. In the case of a tech company, having the technical foundations built by *your* team is so important. Do you really want the software that you'll first launch with to be built by people half a world away? Seriously, the money you save by hiring "cheaper" employees isn't worth it, especially if your company won't be around to benefit from it.
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