In the last couple of years, outsourcing product development has exploded, nearly doubling in size over the last 2 decades. Much of this is due to the lack of engineers in any given region, but there are other reasons as well, like more advanced tech requiring specialized engineers with experience in specific industries. As products continue to become more and more complex, founders are having to tackle bigger and bigger issues, which in turn creates the need for specific expertise. Development partners play a big role in filling this gap, and are able to do so seamlessly with the help of many new communication tools.

It’s no secret that finding a technical co-founder is hard, not to mention finding additional engineers. Enter: development partners. These are the folks who have large teams of engineers that can act as your own engineering team without breaking the bank. These are by no means a replacement for a technical co-founder, CTO, or engineering team, but they can be instrumental in helping founders get off the ground with a product that’s ready for the market, or at the very least demo-able. 

Often times the decision is not whether or not you should use a development partner, but rather who the right development partner is for you and your business. The first thing to think about is what type of model you are going to use. The three most common models are fixed cost, dedicated resource, and hourly.