Startups - don´t outsource coding [video]

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I've just had to hunt through some 100 or so open tabs to find the one with the audio that I didn't want and didn't expect.

...

And after all that it said (paraphrased): Do the coding yourself so you can iterate faster - assume your competitors are doing the coding themselves, and realise you have to compete against them, so you have to iterate faster. Outsourcing slows you down.

<shrug> Wasn't worth the 2 minutes taken to find it.

to save everyone the trouble of watching a very slow video, the basic insight is:

    if you are working the mobile space, you need to code.  there are teams of
    2-4 dedicated hackers working on your idea, so if you're outsourcing development,
    they can iterate 20x a day and you can only iterate once.
    as such, you will lose.

That said, "Don't outsource coding" is too big a statement. Naval is saying "IF you're working in a crowded space, your iteration cycle will be too slow if you outsource".

There are times when outsourcing coding makes plenty of sense.

While these kids clearly don't understand what Philip Rosedale is building (or even the space they're entering) you still shouldn't blindly accept what Naval Ravikant is saying. They're obviously naive about how much their app should cost to build and are at a distinct disadvantage because of their naiveté, but outsourcing in the this way could allow you to iterate faster and more effectively than if you only relied on your smaller team alone. Believe me I am no fan of outsourcing in general, but blind generalizations like this are harmful and misinformed. I am a little disappointed that I am starting to see submissions like this on Hacker News.

Please go watch the Foundation Philip Rosedale interview and learn about his concept before you dismiss it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irF-V9RUuXo

Programming is not for anyone. You can't just say "oh dude, you have this idea but you have to learn iOS and Ruby and Java and JavaScript (because, surprise, they're not the same) so you can implement what you design and then try to sell it". Don't outsource coding, don't outsource design, don't outsource anything! Find co-founders that share the same values as you do and can complete the team with design or coding skills.

For the curious ones, this is the service mentioned in the interview : http://www.lovemachineinc.com/

I would say "divide and conquer model of social coding."

'non-coding founders'

What a fantastic designation.

:)

See also: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000007.html

You have to go to 2:55 to get to the part about this topic.

Sorry, I just had to go back to that part where two really truly retarded things are said back to back:

"We started to iterate the product..." Translation: We smoked some weed and someone was like, "Dude, IPHONE APP!"

"How scalable do you think our idea is, do you think it's a good idea?" Not sure where to start but, Dude, is "Scalable" like the new "dope"? "sick"? "rad"? "dudical?" "mega"?

Honestly, the title says enough for me. Experienced first hand. LEARN HOW TO CODE THERE IS NO OTHER WAY

...without spending more $$$£££ than you should...

...unless your color.com and have cash to burn!