If there’s one thing I’ve learned with after 2+ years of working with outsourced developers, it’s that they never say no. You can introduce all the agile-scrumming-gantt-charting-waterfall-SDLC you want. At the end of the day, if you have not clearly outlined everything in clear form, visually, to three degrees of detail, you’ll be at a disconnect with where your vision of the product should be and what the developer produces. It sure does force you to become a better product manager though.

For those of you starting tech companies, do yourself a favor and include a technologist on your founding team. Ideally, you will have one business person, one product person, and one technologist. The business and product/design person can be the same person. You will want to have a business person who can sell snow to an eskimo..as they say. That person should be able to network, sell, lead, and have enough creativity to contribute effectively to product. In terms of a technologist, you’ll want a shit-hot rockstar programmer who can take idea to conception in the time that 2 average programmers can. You’ll often find that this person has been programming since grade school and is Geeked-Out to an extreme. They should live and die code. They should dream in loops, strings, and calls.

Sometimes, outsourcing your web development is your only choice. In those cases, slow progress is better than no progress. Make due with what you have and be clear with communicating your ideas. In some rare instances, you may be able to cut a deal with a web consulting company and license the technology they build for you. If that doesn’t suit you, there may be others who will do it for an equity stake.