10 reasons that start-ups 100% absolutely should outsource (almost) everything

I had a professor who's sole purpose was to say "Outsource everything except your core competency."

Not sure I agree with this reasoning:<p>"8. Outsourcing keeps you from hiring the wrong person. A bad employee hurts every company, but a bad hire can destroy a start-up. Early hires in start-ups need to be considered very carefully, because they can make or break the business. Outsourcing allows a start-up to get work done while taking its time on hiring key employees."<p>Couldn't you get just as burned by outsourcing to the wrong agency?

The article forgets about effects from 'uncertainty': black swan, div/0, singular matrix, etc, if you will<p>It reminds me about specialization: country T for tobacco which outsources corn to country C. Within the next year, there's movement against cigar and there's ethanol boom<p>Some kind of hedging is needed: be able to do <i>everything</i> yourself so when outsourcing goes sour (it will, since you have less control), it won't hurt so much - you can go without it<p>"the best way to get approval is not needing it"

I think the "almost" is key here - because there are certainly some functions that shouldn't be outsourced. Some people (not sure if this is me or not) would say that the development of a core application, for example, should absolutely NOT be outsourced no matter the cost.