Product

Build or Buy? How to Decide if You Should Outsource Development

Mike Fisher

December 23, 2013

Before you add new features to your product, you should ask yourself these four questions to determine whether it makes sense to outsource development.

Let’s say you’re a B2B software company that sells marketing automation tools, but you want to incorporate revenue optimization or predictive analytics into your product. Should you invest the resources into building those features yourself, or would you be better off outsourcing development?

That “build or buy” scenario is a classic debate that many growing software businesses face as they scale, says Mike Fisher, co-founder of hyper growth consultancy AKF Partners. To best assess your options, Fisher and fellow co-founder Marty Abbott recommend answering four key questions, including whether you have the in-house skillset to build those features. For the rest of the questions, watch the short video below.

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Photo by Mike Boening Photography

Co-Founder

<strong>Mike Fisher</strong> is the co-founder of <a href="http://akfpartners.com/">AKF Partners</a>, a consultancy that advises and mentors software companies that are ready to drive hyper growth. Prior to founding AKF Partners, Fisher served as the Chief Technology Officer of Quigo (acquired by AOL in 2007) and VP of Engineering and Architecture at PayPal. Fisher received a PhD and MBA from Case Western Reserve University, and served as a Captain and pilot in the U.S. Army for six years after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point.