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

But, I read below that you're doing a Rails idea.

It benefits you to outsource if you need a lot of C++ or Java work done cheaply. Examples of this would be if your idea requires multi-platform support or porting.

1) You're developing a game that would benefit from a wide array of desktop and hardware suppor (osx, windows, linux plus the different graphics cards and shaders languages and versions)

2) Or you needsoftware support for your new Dodgeball Cellphone app on a wide array of smartphones.

3) You need to port large existing codebase to another platform. Itunes from Mac to Windows.

4) You need a lot of artwork done to support conceptual artwork that you already have.

For a rails idea, since you're working at such a high level, you should be doing this work yourself or closely with another person that you have a good relationship with. It sounds more like you need a solid co-founder or you need to learn rails or django (it only takes a couple days to get started). Most of the time, we get stuck on little design decisions (what kind of validation should I do on my logins etc etc?). This is stuff you need to figure out yourself. It's hard to pay people to think for you.

Going to China pays big when you're looking for early stage employees or when you need to temporarily outsource a piece of your company (at 20% cost) that you see yourself replacing with a better solution later.

If you're prototyping ideas for YCombinator, and if you have a good idea, someone will join you as a partner.

Get up and running quickly by using a more productive language, not by someone else writing your crown jewels.