Technology is your asset 🔑

A tech team is not just a cost center that can be easily outsourced. Doing so is a strategic mistake.

If someone else controls your development process, code repo, and perhaps even servers, do you own your product?

No, you are a hostage.

There are legitimate times when you can’t or don’t want to hire a dev team and want to engage freelancers or an agency.

The golden rule is:

• Own the servers and the accesses
• Own the development process
• Own the codebase repo
• Own the domains

You’ll need someone to oversee it all and check the quality of the work you’re paying for if you are not technical yourself.

Here’s a quick check to see if you are safe:

If all externals leave tomorrow, do you have all you need to onboard a new team?

If not, there’s a critical piece that you don’t own. It might be a deployment script, an undocumented procedure, or access keys to a third-party service.

Ask that question and take steps to ensure you have all the keys to your kingdom.

You’ll sleep better when no one can ransom you with your own product.

Yours,

Taj