Skip to Content
The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know
book

The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

by Jeff Scheinrock, Matt Richter-Sand
September 2013
Beginner
368 pages
5h 56m
English
Wiley
Content preview from The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

In or Out?

image

A dilemma most entrepreneurs face is what business functions should be outsourced, and what should be kept in-house. It’s a trade-off, and sacrifices are made either way. Outsourcing can be more expensive, but it’s also possible to get extremely talented and specialized people this way. It can also keep your costs variable, making it a good way to get started and test your concept. In-house employees will be a lot more committed, but top-notch people are also a lot harder for startups to hire and retain.

In most situations, the right answer is to hire employees for your core capabilities, and outsource the other functions. For instance, if your company is a website, your programmers should be in-house employees. If you’re running a bakery, you shouldn’t outsource the recipes or the baking. The core functions of your business keep the wheels turning. Outsourcing might create too much risk. Your core functions are also your secret sauce. They’re the reason customers prefer you to your competition. It’s hard to outsource your competitive advantage.

icon

Previous | Chapter Contents | Next

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Start-Up Guide for the Technopreneur: Financial Planning, Decision Making and Negotiating from Incubation to Exit, + Website

Start-Up Guide for the Technopreneur: Financial Planning, Decision Making and Negotiating from Incubation to Exit, + Website

David Shelters
What Successful Project Managers Do

What Successful Project Managers Do

W. Scott Cameron, Jeffrey S. Russell, Edward J. Hoffman, Alexander Laufer

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781118744482Purchase book