yeah, i really disagree with this article. although i've had good and bad experiences outsourcing all aspects of design here's the real trick in my experience:

yeah, i really disagree with this article. although i've had good and bad experiences outsourcing all aspects of design here's the real trick in my experience: a totally amazing UX person is a rare bird. if you're doing a startup, the likelihood that you can entice them to leave their clients behind and come work for you full time is unreasonable for you and them. hiring them on a contract basis to do the work gets you first class work and allows you to build a long term deep relationship with them. if they love the product, maybe you can hire them later. the other thing is you don't need a UX person full time. you need a UX person to manage someone doing your wireframes and then manage a designer to make them look cool. frankly, i don't see any way around outsourcing UX for a startup. your and their risk is too high to join forces. you'd waste their time. they'd waste your money.