Have any Y Combinator startups outsourced coding to China to get up and running faster?

I was suggesting outsourcing non-critical functions first, to get a feel of it.

I just got back from a business development trip to China. China programmers are cheap. Their monthly salary is $1,000 for the top of their graduating class programmer. Their work ethic is impeccable. Unfortunately, their english is not. This is where Indian outsourcing shines, their english language skills and eventual ability to meet spec is 10-15 years ahead of the Chinese as a society.

Although there are some other incentives to outsourcing in China. I was told that in some major cities like Xian, the Chinese government is offering free office space and subsidizes the salary of each of your employees if an american startup or company decides to hire employees there. Xian has particularly good tech schools (they would be like the UW of China), but they have 50% white collar unemployment.

engineering school ranks: http://www.asu.edu/chinainitiatives/documents/unv_rank_eng.p...

(sorry can't find the link for the government program right now... that tip was given to me by a senior partner at a private equity firm... I'll try to find it guys. although, I would much rather recruit top grads from #1 universities than save a few thousand dollars a month by setting up operations in some average place with subsidies)

So I am definitely looking into China or India for my startup. But, I would not recommend going to China unless you or one of your co-founders speaks chinese. The major problems as other people have noted, are quality control and communication. Otherwise, your outsourcing has just about as much success as saying that you plan to move to Hawaii and live off the ocean by asking dolphins to fish and pick up sunken treasure for you.

I think a great startup idea would be to help American companies utilize idling chinese programmers by providing middle management, oversight, and translators (and job training + good pay for your Chinese employees).

I've met a couple guys our age in China (25-26) who have already sold their company for $20-30 million (US dollars) and walked away with $6-10 million. All they did was copy a popular idea in the US like Pandora or Last.FM, hire some cheapass programmers for $1k a month a pop, clone the idea completely, sell it to a larger company. These guys probably sat next to you in class at Berkeley or UCLA. I also know of a few US startups that already finished a Series A ($7 mil) and have a majority of employees outsourced to China. Solo founder.

more info if you guys want it

I think it's doable if you're a smart coder and can find an equally really smart coder in China, India, etc. that's on the same page. Easier said than done of course. But if you can communicate well with the individual, make use of various tools, and can develop a long-term one-on-one relationship you should be able to save some time and money. Win-win for both of you.

There's some significant upfront investment though, just like hiring any key employee, and you can't hire someone the day after you realize you need the extra hands. Really doesn't work like that. Think long-term. Think partnership.

It's whole new challenge apart from your typical day job. Interesting one though.

he probably means outsourcing your design/foundry work to taiwan, then manufacturing the chips in china. management you keep over here. typical of a company like Marvell (not the comic company you nerds! :D)

also because semiconductor "startups" have higher capital costs than your typical software company.