How To Find a Software Development Partner For Your Startup?

Why finding a software development partner should be a top item on your list when starting a digital business? First, it is quite a common model to start a digital business by outsourcing app development to a third party. It is also quite common for existing small to medium businesses to look for a software development partner. 

In the good old days, traditional businesses sought after a skilled account and aimed at building a winning sales team. These days, those two things are comparable to having a software team. Just think about an e-commerce platform. A software team will set up a system to handle payments. They may even do all the prep work for generating reports. Then, they are also those who do the marketing research and help to implement digital strategy. Your app is like a “product distribution system” which they implement.

Being so central to your startup, it surely should be more than a third-party outsourcing service. That is, it should be a software development partner. So how to find the right software development partner? The one who has the right expertise and achieves set targets like your best sales team? A partner who is reliable and trustworthy like your trusted accountant? 

Why Do You Need a Software Development Partner?

This is a fundamental question with which you initiate your search. Imagine you simply google ‘create a website for my business’ or something along these lines. Then, outsourcing app development is rarely the top answer that Google will render. You’ll get answers about free website makers or articles about making one. Scrolling through these answers, you’ll realize the number of tasks on the list:

• Select your digital strategy;
• Pick a domain name;
• Choose a hosting provider;
• Add engaging content;
• Do your SEO for search engines.

These are the basic ones. Additionally, you need to consider a site’s functionality, layout, color schemes, and more. You will have to consider how to handle orders or sales, a list of customers, and more. The issue is that each of these tasks has evolved in complexity. Each of them, represent a point of competition for which you either succeed or fail.

For example, 97% of users judge a business’s credibility based on the website name as of 2023 data. In addition, a range of legal/trademark issues and user psychology are tightly linked to the choice you make. 

Then, 70% of existing and functioning business failed to make the right choice of their digital strategy. What to say about novices in it? Hiring a third-party company that makes digital strategy their expertise might just be the right solution.

Hiring a Software Development Partner

Often, most development companies start with a free consultation trying to figure out your needs. They help to establish what is best for you. They do that factoring in the phase your business is in as well as your budget and preferred time frames. 

Then, you can narrow down the service you need. It can be the development of the MVP app be it fixed price or custom. Alternatively,  maybe your idea requires a first development round simply for sourcing investors. This is when you focus on clickable prototypes and market research before developing the app itself.

Importantly, most startup development products include a discovery phase. In short, it is a phase when you get to know what your product should do and look like to attract your target audience factoring in the competition. This is your digital strategy backed up by the professional research of users, competitors, and the market with projections. So you can tick the first item on the list off. It will often take a week or two, and you can be sure of the success moving forward.

You can also check out Lean Project Discovery Phase: Definition, Process, Benefits to learn more.

Steps to Find The Right Development Partner

If the conversation is about finding a development agency, then it is a conversation about outsourcing. And if you are a startup looking to outsource, the best option is to outsource offshore. With that, the first right step is to choose the country. And you want to opt for the one with the largest talent pool. 

Step 1: Select the Country

It is imperative to choose the country with the largest talent pool and cooperation flexibility. A large talent pool means there is a high supply of specialists. This, in turn, means developers have to compete harder for the jobs and projects. This forces them to master their skills, keep up-to-date, and readily embrace new technologies. Plus, it means the development agencies can offer better rates. 

There are three largest groups of outsourcing areas: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Out of these, in Eastern Europe, for instance, Ukraine offers the right balance between a large pool of talent and flexibility of cooperation modes. Plus, lots of Ukrainian agencies have offices in Europe or the USA. They would make an internationalized and transparent partner offering quite attractive rates.

Step 2: Shortlist the Agencies

Once you have selected the country, explore its agency offering. For that, you can utilize international platforms. For instance, looking at the platform such as Clutch, you can check customer feedback. This platform also verifies company information. This company can give you a quote for your project, offer a trial period, and ensure risk-free, transparent cooperation. Listed benefits can be a main factor for shortlisting companies at this stage.

Another good thing is to remember to focus on companies that work with startups. Outsourcing is quite commonly used by a variety of companies: from startups to industry giants to software companies. Thus, an outsourcing agency will specialize accordingly. 

• Large outsourcing agencies with around 1,000+ employees usually work on long-term contracts. They might not be the best choice for a startup. They are often rigid in cooperation modes. Moreover, their services are broad so they might not have enough focus for a niche app development. 
• Too small companies with under 50 employees might not provide enough skilled developers. Your project may need to scale quickly, and a small company will likely struggle to do that for you. 
• So, an optimal choice would be to choose a company with between 50 – 250 employees. This offers a good variety of developers’ skills while preserving flexibility and focus. 

The best choice for a startup to find a reliable development partner is to find a mid-size agency that focuses on Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development. 

Step 3: Find the Right Expertise

At this step, you need to match the agency’s expertise with the domain you want to get into. 

• Is it a healthcare app, or a gaming one? 
• Are you thinking of going into IoT or maybe a fitness app? 
• Is the idea for a budgeting app or an e-commerce platform? 

It is best to check if the agency has expertise in your required domain. 

You can check this by scrolling through the reviews on Clutch or going directly to the agency’s website. 

• On Clutch, each review indicates the domain along with the type of development. 
• On the agency’s website, they often have a dedicated section. 

However, should you count the agency out if it does not have the exact domain match but fits by all other parameters? For instance, the agency has developed iOS apps, the agency’s rates are within your budget, and it specializes in MVPs. But, they haven’t exactly demonstrated expertise with IoT(utility apps) or traffic apps. The answer: You should still consider this agency. 

For one, imagine an accountant who worked for a trading company or a salesperson selling tyres. Now they find an opportunity to work for a service company. Would their skills be transferable? Very likely. So, the same applies to a development agency. 

Additionally, they hire developers with previous years of experience. The agency might not have developed an app that you wish, but its developers have. Check about that by setting up a meeting.

Step 4: Review Case Studies/Portfolio

Case Studies are curated samples of the agency’s work. You can check them out either on Clutch or on the company’s website. They can give you a more tangible feel of the company’s capabilities and achievements. For example, case studies often showcase KPIs the business sets to achieve. You can see a variety of software products developed from case study to case study. Often, they provide several screens of the developed product.

Step 5: Check the Technology Stack

You account for not only the right expertise and guaranteed results but also varied mainstream technologies. For instance, if the agency works with niche technologies, you might get stuck in a disadvantageous position. An agency can either increase a price or cooperation might not be satisfactory. But you won’t be able to do much as other agencies might not work with unpopular technology. 

Generally, for several years now, the mainstream technologies are:

• Kotlin for an Android app;
• Swift for an iOS app;
• React/Next.js for a web app.

If you choose an agency which utilizes mainstream technologies, it is one of the safety nets for you. You can be sure the documentation can be easily understood by other developers. In addition, if you are not satisfied, you can opt out of this agency and take your project elsewhere. This, ultimately, puts you in a protected advantageous position where the agency does its best to complete work up to your requirements and expectations. 

Additionally, there are more benefits to using mainstream technologies development-wise. So, it would be suspicious if the agency avoids those.

Step 6: Evaluate the Agency’s Culture

This step is crucial as you get to check how your software development partner’s values and working style align with your startup. 

For instance, startup culture is flexible and agile. It also requires more compromise in development. It may also mean mercilessly cutting some features or works around a feature. Companies that do not work with startups can be too rigid in these aspects. They are more likely to argue for a “proper way” than an efficient one. Contrast it with the lean development. These agencies have no problem sticking to only what is necessary to achieve the startup goals. 

Another point is respecting the startup’s budget and deadlines. Sometimes development can hit a difficult point. You can either release a less-than-perfect product and get some traction or push forward for a perfect release but delay getting traction. Startup-oriented agencies view these decisions from the lens of cost-benefit analysis rather than processes and standards. This ensures projects don’t get stuck.

How to evaluate that? You can grasp these elements from the initial meeting with the agency representative. 

Step 7: Communication

The quality of communication is important for two major reasons. One is transparency. Two is being on the same page with your development team. 

As for transparency, you need to be able to voice any concerns, raise issues and feel that you will be informed of any issues with the project. You feel the need to reconsider some previous decisions. Regarding all of these, you should receive honest and prompt communication. After all, you should feel you can trust your software development partner.

In terms of being on the same page, communication should include an efficient exchange of strategic documents. Project documentation must be a “single source of truth”. And it must be shared. One of the key documents is Ongoing Specification. It is developed during the discovery phase and updated as the project progresses. It often reflects the business requirements along with features and their acceptance criteria. As a rule, this document is maintained by the technical product owner or product manager. Sometimes, it can be even written by you. Acceptance criteria document the functionality that must be achieved so that a product fulfills its purpose. To get a better idea of this, you are welcome to check out Acceptance criteria examples.

It is also an indicator of a good startup-oriented agency. They will make sure that your product is functional as soon as possible and then they will refine functionality. Often, this fine-tuning is guided by the user feedback in an efficient MVP. 

FAQ: How Startups Can Choose the Right Software Development Partner