It's interesting that you ask this question. My consulting company has started offered a sort of "bootstrapping" service to startups, and it has become one of our more popular selling points. We're based in san francisco so we obviously talk to a lot of startups, and they all want the same thing: to get up and running fast. But we've been hit plenty of times with problems of ongoing code ownership and making the transition from software development to software maintenance. We're expensive, and it's worth it when we have a team of folks building software, but it's not really worth it over the long run, either for us or the client, to have us dealing with day-to-day web software issues.
So we've started offering a bootstrapping service in which we incorporate the client's team members as they come on board. When they're local they just come in and work in our office, and when they're remote they're remote. But initially they are just one more programmer, and as time goes on someone from the client becomes more and more the technical lead until we just pair program ourselves out of a job. Which is great for them (they have a fully up and running internal team) and us (we prefer the initial software development anyway).
This has worked out great for us but i haven't heard this type of consulting service offered by anyone else (granted, i'm not looking very hard). There are downsides, too, tho. At some point in the project accountability has to transition from us to them, and there is a gray area in there. If we are in charge of the project but the client is the one hiring, it's hard for us to confidently continue to guarantee work, etc. But what winds up happening is we get involved in the hiring and screening process as well.
I would actually be interested to know if there are other companies out there that specifically offer this type of startup bootstrapping, and how they deal with some of the issues involved.
Slashdot Mirror
It's interesting that you ask this question. My consulting company has started offered a sort of "bootstrapping" service to startups, and it has become one of our more popular selling points. We're based in san francisco so we obviously talk to a lot of startups, and they all want the same thing: to get up and running fast. But we've been hit plenty of times with problems of ongoing code ownership and making the transition from software development to software maintenance. We're expensive, and it's worth it when we have a team of folks building software, but it's not really worth it over the long run, either for us or the client, to have us dealing with day-to-day web software issues.
So we've started offering a bootstrapping service in which we incorporate the client's team members as they come on board. When they're local they just come in and work in our office, and when they're remote they're remote. But initially they are just one more programmer, and as time goes on someone from the client becomes more and more the technical lead until we just pair program ourselves out of a job. Which is great for them (they have a fully up and running internal team) and us (we prefer the initial software development anyway).
This has worked out great for us but i haven't heard this type of consulting service offered by anyone else (granted, i'm not looking very hard). There are downsides, too, tho. At some point in the project accountability has to transition from us to them, and there is a gray area in there. If we are in charge of the project but the client is the one hiring, it's hard for us to confidently continue to guarantee work, etc. But what winds up happening is we get involved in the hiring and screening process as well.
I would actually be interested to know if there are other companies out there that specifically offer this type of startup bootstrapping, and how they deal with some of the issues involved.