Being an entrepreneur is in itself a challenge, and finding the right tech partner for your startup can be the most crucial and difficult one. In fact, when you don’t have any technical skills, you may need to look out for options for technical solutions.

As a non-technical entrepreneur, you come across various questions, like what are the most important things you need to take care of when it comes to developing a software product? What would be the right choice for the web framework? Do you need a mobile app? Should you go for native apps or a cross-platform app? Should you get a VPS to host the app or go with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud?

All those questions buzzing in your head can be answered satisfactorily by a tech partner. Now, what would you look for when choosing your technology partner?

Here are the 8 most important factors that you can’t ignore when searching for a trusted tech partner for your startup.

1. Cost-effective

Find a tech partner, who is not very expensive and not too cheap either. It should be a balance between cost and quality.

You need to explore and find a cost-effective technology solutions provider. It doesn’t mean to go for the cheapest solution provider. Instead, choose someone who can provide quality that you want and fits in your budget. You can settle for 10% up or down with respect to budget though. But, do not ever compromise with the quality.

An ideal tech partner will help with solutions to your business problems which will in a way, save your time, resources, money, and free up energy to work on other projects as well. Sometimes, you are stuck with the problem and couldn’t find the right solution. At that time, your tech partner can guide and help to understand what the problem truly is and gives the information needed for an effective solution.

2. Established

Find a tech partner, who already has goodwill in the market, which means you don’t have to waste time looking for the right people and then think about how it will work out.

Anybody will choose a tech partner who has credibility. The reason is simple. You can trust that you’re in good hands when your tech partner is established. Your business will be provided with all the technical support and solutions needed to be successful.

Don’t waste your time searching for a mixed bag of individual freelancers that may or may not get along with your product vision as a whole. That can be many risk factors working with freelancers. One most common risk is disappearing from you when they have a better opportunity to work. And you shouldn’t take that risk, especially when you can hire a well-established and experienced team.

3. Collaborative

Find a tech partner, who is curious about the problem you’re trying to solve, asks relevant questions, and offers their expert tech ideas for a better solution.

You need a tech partner, who can lead with you shoulder to shoulder. You don’t want to hire a follower, who agrees with every point you put forward. Remember you’re hiring a tech partner to deliver the best tech solutions because you don’t have the needed technical expertise.

Trusted tech partners take on a collaborative approach with implied responsibility. They never play a blame game and are always willing to accept their fault. They try to understand the scenario from the client’s perspective and come up with the best-suited solution. Healthy arguments have often led to the formation of great businesses. So, go for a partner who delivers what’s best for your business.

4. Reliable

Find a tech partner, whom you can rely on for not just quality software development, but also help with other tech questions you have.

Your tech partner or team should try to implement the best software solution and to deliver a high-quality end product. But that goes as high as what best they can produce. You need to make sure whether you can rely on your tech partner or not.

Besides good code quality, your tech provider should be able to help with every stage that takes you to a successful launch. You should be able to ask other questions that fulfill all the technical needs of your business goal. Trust is the very foundation of any lasting human engagement. And, your tech partner should be able to build trust with you fairly quickly.

5. Transparency

Find a tech partner, who is transparent with you at every stage of the process. From discovery to deployment, you should be in the loop.

Before choosing a tech partner, make sure that they and you are on the same page about the project requirements, development planning, deliverables, timelines, and estimated cost.

It’s absolutely fair to expect a well-defined and transparent development process from day one from your prospective tech partner. Your tech partner should be ready to give you access to the development process by any tools like Jira, Trello, Slack, etc. so you are well-informed about the progress all the time.

6. Reachability

Find a tech partner, to whom you can reach out by various available options like call, email, video call, messaging apps.

You should be able to reach your tech partner easily through different channels of communication during business hours. But, there could be some scenarios when you can’t wait until the next day. Then, you should be able to get in touch with your point of contact who can help with the problem.

Efficient communication is the key to a healthy relationship and running a successful project. A good tech partner always tries to provide the best possible way to communicate and maintain transparency during the whole process. They don’t just prefer traditional ways for communication but can opt for other options too!

Average developer with good communication is always better than an expert developer with bad communication.

7. Generalists or Specialists

Find a tech partner, who is a combination of both Generalist and Specialist as most specialists have to be generalists to some extent.

You need to ask yourself a question, whether you want a team with a wide-ranging skill base or a team that’s more limited but has true expertise in one or two specific areas. There are pros and cons to both of them. The generalist style team will do a variety of tasks well and can handle projects that require developing a multifaceted product. Whereas, specialists focus on one thing and do it incredibly well.

So when looking for a partner, try to find a team that specializes in what you’re looking for in your startup. But also possess other skill sets that you can use later on whenever needed. That way you don’t have to find and work with multiple tech partners.

8. Long Term

Find a tech partner, who’s not selling you the one-time solution but is keen to help you achieve your goals.

Building a tech product is a continuous process - it evolves over time. And, as business needs change, products need to be updated to function accordingly. For that, your tech partner should be available to take care of such product upgradations for the long term.

While choosing the right tech partner for your startup, always think beyond the project completion as you will be investing a lot of time, money, and effort every time you search for a partner. So make sure you choose a partner which can provide you with assistance post product delivery.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.Napolean Hill

In the end, a right tech partner will be interested in making you successful. Though, working with a tech partner for your startup is your choice. And that choice can have major inferences when it comes to the cost, time, and mainly success for your startup. So keep in mind the above qualities while searching for your next tech partner. Do you have some more to add?