Startups: Just say NO to outsourcing, contracting, and distributed teams

I'd downvote if I could. If you have to tap a guy on the shoulder to tell him is code is broken, you're not working with a professional.

Distributed teams are glorious when you weed out the jackasses. And in the meantime, remote guys are comfortable with much lower salary. That seems useful for a startup trying to keep costs down?

There is a line to be walked, though. Don't outsource anything key to your business, but don't waste time learning anything that is ancillary to it.

Technologists love to "find the answer" to technology problems, but startups need to quickly find the answer to customer pain and spending a week figuring out <insert unknown, complex tech> to build some connector that is valuable but not pivotal to your business is the wrong side of the line to be on.

I'd better have a kickass developer in India than a lousy one in the same room though...

So one of my businesses is a remote Rails shop. We helped to couple dozen statups to develop prototypes fast, get new version of product, support, consulting etc. Many of them got funded after, some became profitable businesses. Am I doing something wrong? :)