Let me approach it from another angle:

If your the Founder or even the startups Tech Lead you need to outsource the development to a software dev partner who had deep experience and focus in your segment and tech stack, working with clients like you (size, culture) in locations like yours and meeting other criteria you deem important to the success of the dev effort (cost, size of partner, certifications, global location, language proficiency are a few).

Why? Because 1. Investors and the market shows no mercy in ISVs in a hyper competitive marketplace that are not laser focused on envisioning the best product possible and then evangelizing, marketing, selling and funding its future's success.

The more cycles you spend building an "organization" and running non-core functions like accounting, legal, HR, Software development (yes Dev too), the less you are spending evolving and promoting your "widget". Even a software product company is NOT a software services company. Finding and engaging the right software development partner that is perfectly (or well) aligned with your requirements and success criteria will provide you benefits such as fast and flexible team ramp up and ramp down, cost efficiency, knowledge base of innovation curated from other tech engagements, the relief of searching, hiring, training, retaining and down scaling this function internally, speed to market, best practices such as Certified Scrum leadership and more.

If you can source and perform due diligence smartly you can de-risk the intimidating aspects of global outsourcing and you can reap the benefits.

This isn't to say you hand over or don't control the core product IP and vision. It's just that you don't carry the burden of creating a world class dev shop from scratch.

Do (all!) this and investors and the market will more likely love you.

Feel free to reach out if you need more guidance

Andy Hilliard
President
Accelerance Inc.
Mobile: (704) 649-1087
Skype: ahilliard2
LinkedIn: Connect with me
Web: www.accelerance.com
Palo Alto, Charlotte, Chicago, NYC, Phoenix, Amsterdam