This is taken from the perspective of an Indian, with respect to outsourcing to India. I personally have had the same problem in the past (with India) so I look

This is taken from the perspective of an Indian, with respect to outsourcing to India. I personally have had the same problem in the past (with India) so I looked around. In the end I settled on outsourcing, in a slightly different way, to some guys in Russia, Latvia and Brazil. The short version (which I appreciate is still quite long!) is: 1. I employed individuals, not companies. It took more time, but I got good quality people on board. This is 8 years ago when I started, so I think I speak from experience. 2. The initial guys I started to work with, I have now made partners in some of what we do (sourceguardian.com as one example - they are full partners in it). Reward well and treat people with respect. It goes a long way. 3. I usually start with small tasks and build up. This way you can assess quality of code, but of equal importance you can also recognise if someone is motivated and who will deliver to deadlines. Anyone who misses immediately, I don't use again. Harsh, but it works for me. 4. I was not a programmer when I started. I appreciate this is Hacker News, but we're not all born like that and indeed it was never my dream. I learned to program so that I could put myself in the mind of the people I was working with. Worked for me, and guess what?... I enjoyed it. I'm still not a good or fast programmer, but I can converse more accurately what I want with the knowledge of what will work I find it annoying when people put their own personal perspective as some kind of universal law. Outsourcing maybe sucks for many people, due to their experiences, but for me personally it has allowed me great freedom in my business and has introduced me to more cultures and more people than I would have otherwise.