If you are about to embark on a new software project then I have some tips for you to keep your fixed costs low and to save some money.
First this model is not for everyone, depending on what stage of maturity your company is at or what you’re developing.
But for many, like founders getting a new startup going, or founders with constrained runway balancing needs or experimentation/PoCs…
This idea to keep a lean core team that focuses more on the strategy and business use-cases over the implementation is a very smart idea.
You can easily save $80k-$100k per developer per year, you can be saving hundreds of thousands of dollars off of development costs in a short period that instead goes towards extending your runway and giving you a better chance to succeed.
You can attack this from two angles.
The first is a really good development partner and my suggestions here is to go with a company who has offshore resources with a local Australian office.
I know of several companies I can recommend with this type of setup and it alleviates several issues that you’re thinking of.
The second part is having someone in your core team that is technical whose main role is simply to enable the distributed team and be an amplifier of your business use-cases.
This person is also protecting your IP and can be the lead person if you ever decide to transition over to the in-house route.