Software is the powerhouse that sits behind almost every successful business. That powerhouse can have several functions. For some, software is all about the customer. Many startup projects revolve around developing a minimum viable product to release to consumers that opens the door for future investment. Other startups have different needs. They require new software to work alongside their existing software internally so they can scale their businesses.
Your startup may fall into either of these categories. The common ground is that you not only need software, but you need it quickly and it has to be developed to an extremely high standard. You may not have that technical expertise in-house. You may not even have software developers or a fully mapped development process for them to follow.
So, what do you have?
Access to software development services for startups courtesy of outsourcing.
What Does a Startup Software Development Company Do?
Even a successful tech startup may need the help of outsourced developers at times. After all, developing software is a time and resource-intensive process. A startup’s software development may be limited to consumer-centric products, leaving little time to build the custom software the business itself needs to operate. Of course, the reverse of this can also be true - the startup has to delay going to market because it's busy building internally.
It's in these situations when software development outsourcing for startups can help. But what exactly does your outsourced team of developers do?
Handle Product Management
You'll need talented people to oversee what's happening once your custom software development project is underway. Internally, you'll likely have a product manager in place. That manager can handle aspects of the project the startup handles, such as planning and communicating objectives, but they often don't oversee the development process itself.
That responsibility falls on the shoulders of the company providing custom software development for startups. Your new partner will create a dedicated team that functions in much the same way as your in-house team. The catch is that such teams need management if they're to avoid acting like a collective of freelancers each handling just one part of your software project. So, your software outsourcing company will assign a product manager to oversee the developers it has assembled. That product manager may work directly with your internal project manager, much as a BA works with your startup as a whole. They may also communicate with your business through the BA. What's important is that they're in place to keep your outsourced development team running even at times when your internal product managers aren't available.
Deliver Full-Scope Software Solutions
The most important part of an outsourced developer's work is the delivery of a fully functioning piece of software you can take to market or deploy inside your business. That software has to be a "final product." Delivery of a bug-filled piece of software creates more work for young businesses, with that work proving difficult to complete if you don't have specialists in the tech stack used for the software's creation.
Hence the use of the term "full-scope." Your software partner should be heavily involved in the development process, starting with planning. They'll work with you to determine project scope and key deadlines/deliverables. They also strategize, create wireframes, and handle architecture design, including choosing the tech stack through which the software will be developed. From there, your outsourced software team will handle most of the development, along with the quality assurance needed to ensure the software works as expected. You should receive software that has undergone rigorous testing and is a fully market-ready product.
Help You Create a Minimum Viable Product
A "final product" isn't necessarily a piece of software that will never require updates or further work. The term applies more to the creation of a working product that delivers on your promises to your early adopters. That's particularly the case for startups, for which the delivery of a minimum viable product (MVP) to the market is essential both as proof of concept and to generate cash flow for the business.
Don't underestimate the importance of your MVP. Startups that prioritize the fast development and deployment of an MVP have a 70% success rate. With an outsourced team that can handle custom software development for startups, you gain an "ace in the hole" for MVP development. Your product reaches the market faster and you gain a competitive advantage over others in your space.
Free Time for You to Focus on Core Business Objectives
Though bringing an MVP to market should be a priority for your startup, it's not the only thing upon which you must focus. Startups often promise to deliver cutting-edge technologies. The most successful startups are those that build solid business plans around these technologies, with those plans being informed by potential customer feedback. You need to build monetization strategies around your product, create an internal decision-making process for the business, and handle issues such as marketing and determining a target audience.
All fall under the umbrella of core business objectives. And all require you to take time away from software development to actually build a business around your startup idea. Outsourced software development companies deliver that much-needed time by giving you access to experienced engineers who aren't involved in the core business. In essence, they get to work on the software so you can place a greater focus on how you'll market yourself and deliver your product to the masses.
Handle Further Development and the Implementation of New Features
Your outsourced software development journey often mirrors the general startup journey. Both start with an idea. That idea is fleshed out and developed before moving on to the creation aspect. However, no idea can account for every possible market factor from the get-go, be that a business or product idea. The market will deliver feedback and your startup, like your software, has to adapt.
In the latter's case, this adaptation often involves the creation of new features delivered via your software. Those features may be planned out as part of a roadmap or created as responses to customer feedback. Either way, they demonstrate a need for ongoing maintenance and the further development of your software, both of which your outsourced team can handle. They're intimately aware of how your software works because they developed it alongside you, meaning they're also the ideal choice for developing new essential features based on user feedback. Continuous improvement of work already created is the objective.
Why Outsourced Software Development?
You understand what an outsourced software development team does in terms of its ability to seamlessly integrate into your startup and deliver a product. We'll now dig into some specific reasons why outsourcing gives you a competitive edge when it comes to software development for startups.
01 - Custom Software Development
Make what you need. That's the driving philosophy behind companies that offer custom software development for startups as they exist to ensure you're not limited to "off-the-shelf" options. At least, that's the case on the internal level. Your startup may require software that does what no existing package does, with your outsourced developers being capable of delivering.
The customization aspect comes into its own when developing software for the consumer market. Outsourced developers can handle it all, from small-scale mobile apps to enterprise-level packages based on extensive project requirements. In short, if you can think it, the right outsourced software developer can build it. In doing so, they remove many of the pain points that startups face in terms of bringing unique products to market.
02 - Bring Innovative Ideas to Market Faster
A typical software development project takes between four and six months to complete. This timescale expands dramatically when working on large-scale custom projects, with time also being required to build a team to handle development. Time is something that a startup can ill-afford to waste as it rushes to bring a product to consumers.
Time is also precisely what you save when you work with an outsourced software development company. What many don't realize about outsourced companies is that they're also expert hirers. Lightci, for example, offers a full IT staff augmentation service in addition to its software development services, with the former achieving recruitment times of 10 days or less. Compare that to the 30-plus days it may take your startup to recruit a single software engineer and you see a clear time saving. Those same recruiting tactics are used to build your outsourced team, leading to a shorter time to market and time saved that you can use to build your startup.
03 - Learn More About the Software Development Journey
Expertise doesn't come easily in the business world, even for the tech-oriented startup that has a solid grasp on the ins and outs of software development. Processes still need to be created. Those processes extend to hiring, agile development, and the effective communication of project goals. Few young businesses have an inherent grasp on how to overcome these challenges, meaning they face a learning journey.
It's a journey that can be sped up with an outsourced software development for startups partner. While the software these partners deliver represents the most obvious reason to work with them, don't underestimate the education they can provide to you and your internal development team. A good vendor has a "been there and done it" approach when it comes to the full development process. They have systems and strategies, all of which are leveraged to create your product and can be learned directly from your partner.
04 - Reduce Costs with Outsourced Software Development Companies
Cashflow, or the lack of it, represents the number one reason why new businesses fail. For small businesses and startups, improper management and finances can put an end to the ambitions of 82% of founders. The message to take away from this statistic is simple:
Your startup needs to get a solid grip on its finances.
Part of obtaining that grip involves the intelligent spending of the money you have so it can help you to generate more money faster in the future. Outsourcing software development is an exceptional way to save money for several reasons. Labor costs are lower, with the average salary for an outsourced developer often being half or less than the salary of an engineer sourced locally. Outsourcers also help you to overcome many of the extraneous costs for which many startups fail to account. Building a tech stack, for instance, is much cheaper when working with an outsourced partner that already has access to physical equipment and software needed to bring your project to life. The same goes for hiring processes and general team management. Both are less costly when you're working with the right outsourced software development partner.
05 - Gain a Development Team with Specialized Skills
Does your startup have access to a global pool of software engineers?
The prospect of you answering "yes" to that question is unlikely for the simple reason that most small businesses are restricted to the talent they can find locally. Some may be able to expand their scope across multiple cities or even states. But the reality is that most new businesses have to work with what they have access to, which becomes a serious problem when a project requires access to niche expertise.
By outsourcing, you expand not only the scope of the projects on which you can work but also the talent pool to which you have access. You're able to find specialists through your outsourcer. If your internal team has capability gaps that you can't fill, an outsourcing vendor offers a route to talent you otherwise wouldn't be able to locate.
06 - Scale Up or Down Quickly
Rapid growth is the ambition of most startup founders. It's also an ambition that often goes unrealized, and not because the founder is incapable of scaling a team. Rather, they discover that scaling only adds to their costs. Add challenges related to hiring the right people and potentially cycling through internal team members in an effort to achieve harmony and many founders discover a flexibility problem inside their businesses:
They can't grow at the pace required or shrink when demand is low.
These scaling challenges are inherent in trying to build an internal team. They're also not present when working with an outsourced software development company for startups. Development at scale is achievable because outsourcers create flexible teams based on your requirements. If those requirements change – as is often the case for a startup as it's forced to make many business assumptions as it tests the market – the outsourced team changes too. Your outsourcing partner equips your business with the ability to scale in either direction as needed.
Try Lightci Software Development Services for Startups
There is only one thing left for you to do - find an outsourced development partner that gives your startup access to the rare skills it's currently unable to access. Lightci is that partner:
- Never worry about project delivery again as you gain access to versatile software engineers capable of working across multiple tech stacks on frontend, backend, and consumer-focused projects.
- Work with an outsourced software product studio that has already delivered for major brands like Google, Coinbase, and Brex.
- Discover a straightforward three-step process that gets your customers using your product fast - define requirements, built to spec, and offer delivery and maintenance.
Book a demo with Lightci to get started with software development for startups that magically bring your product ideas to life.
