A big concern for both you and your investors.
You want to save money, build for cheaper and maintain more of your equity, but there are risks to consider going this route.
Here’s some ways to reduce the risk:
1. Separate your code from your production data
Often your data is more valuable than your code. Don’t give access to your real customer data. If they need it to debug a customer issue, anonymize it first. Use a separate company for devops if you need too. Prefer that to be local.
2. Check your contracts.
Make sure IP is assigned for exclusive use by you and they are not “licensing it” to you. Also make sure they have proper contracts in place with their staff that protects your IP.
3. Use a company with a local presence in Australia, a lot of risk is reduced. You still get the cost benefits with less risk.
4. Plan and develop smartly. Break down your product into smaller bits or services that have little value on their own unless combined together. You need some kind of technical co-founder or advisor for this.
Any others?