The gotchas are structural, not personal. A fixed price quoted against a written spec turns adversarial the moment reality departs from the document. The milestone and deploy clauses to write instead, what Upwork escrow really covers, who owns the code, and the handover checklist to run before final payment.
How to Hire Offshore Developers as a Small US Company
You have decided to hire offshore. Now the mechanics: the three engagement structures and who carries the compliance risk, W-8BEN and 1099 questions answered from IRS guidance, why a work-made-for-hire clause is not enough across borders, payment rails compared, the OFAC screening obligation small companies miss, and a day-one access checklist.
When Outsourcing Software Development Works, and When It Doesn’t
A decision framework for non-technical founders holding three wildly different quotes. The two questions that decide it, four situations where outsourcing reliably works and four where it fails, real cost maths, the ownership checklist founders find too late, and the questions that reveal a shop true seniority.