# Outsourcing vs building it yourself: our app arrived from 2006

> Outsourcing app development vs building it yourself: the first Track My Academy build came back in PHP, styled like 2006. So I opened VS Code, learned what a product brief is for, and built it myself.

- Author: Rahul Dhileep Kumar (https://www.rahuldk.in/)
- Published: 2026-10-09
- Reading time: 7 min read
- Tags: founder, product, dev tools, startups
- Canonical: https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006

![Rahul in a motorbike helmet, coding on a MacBook in front of a large monitor](https://www.rahuldk.in/posts/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006/cover.webp)

Every founder has a moment where they say, "Fine. I'll do it myself."

Mine came with a very specific smell.

The smell of PHP and a design from another decade.

This post is about outsourcing app development vs building it yourself.
I've done the first one badly and the second one stubbornly.
So I have opinions.
Lots of them.

## The idea was simple

It started with a coach complaining.
He was struggling to manage attendance and payments for his training batch.

Small problem.
Annoying problem.
The kind that sticks in your head.

That problem became [Track My Academy](https://www.trackmyacademy.com).
The full origin story is in [how a coach's complaint turned into a company](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/a-coach-complained-so-i-started-a-company).

So we did what sensible people do.
We hired someone to build it.

On paper, that's textbook [outsourcing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing).
You pay an external provider to do work you'd otherwise do in-house.
Except we didn't really have an "in-house".
We had enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is not a department.

## Then the build arrived

I opened it.

I looked at it.

It looked back at me from 2006.

![An old CRT computer monitor on a desk, the kind of screen our first outsourced app seemed designed for](https://www.rahuldk.in/posts/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006/old-crt-computer-monitor.webp)

*Photo: [Siri louis](https://unsplash.com/@siri_louis) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/silver-crt-computer-monitor-on-brown-wooden-desk-KdMgF5Q9EP4)*

PHP.
A design that belonged in a museum.
The kind of interface that makes you check your calendar.

To be fair, PHP isn't the villain here.
Plenty of good software runs on it.
The design was the villain.
And, probably, so was our brief.

I'm not exaggerating for the joke.
Okay, slightly.
But only slightly.

I sat there and thought one clear thought.

"Damn. I'll do this myself."

## Outsourcing app development vs building it yourself

Here's my honest comparison, after one very educational PHP build.
These are opinions, not laws of physics.

Outsourcing makes sense when:

- You know exactly what you want, down to the screens.
- The app supports your business but isn't the business.
- Someone on your side can review the code and the design.
- You have budget for a second round. There's always a second round.

Building it yourself makes sense when:

- The product *is* the business.
- You'll be changing it every week for years.
- You're willing to be bad at it for a while.
- You'd rather understand every bug than pay someone to explain it.

Track My Academy was clearly the second list.
It's the company, not a side tool.

There's also a third option people forget.
Build the first version yourself.
Then bring in people who already understand what you're making.
For most student founders, that's where I'd point them.

## How to write a product brief that doesn't come back from 2006

Here's the thing nobody tells you.

If you can't describe what good looks like, you won't get good.
You'll get whatever the builder thinks "done" means.

And their "done" might be from 2006.

Bigger companies write a [product requirements document](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_requirements_document).
It says what the product should do, not how to build it.
You don't need forty pages.
You need one honest page.

![A hand-drawn website wireframe sketched on paper with an orange pen, the start of a clear product brief](https://www.rahuldk.in/posts/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006/website-wireframe-sketch.webp)

*Photo: [Compagnons](https://unsplash.com/@sigmund) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/website-wireframe-sketch-on-paper-4UGmm3WRUoQ)*

My checklist for a one-page product brief:

1. **Who it's for.** "A coach with one batch" beats "sports organisations".
2. **The one painful job.** For us, that was attendance and payments.
3. **Three apps you like the look of.** Screenshots, not adjectives.
4. **What "done" means.** Which screens, which actions, which devices.
5. **What you won't build yet.** This list saves more money than any discount.
6. **Who checks the work.** If nobody can read code, say so upfront.

Point three is the one I'd underline twice.
"Modern and clean" means nothing.
Every design was modern and clean once.
Even in 2006.

The aim is a [minimum viable product](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product).
That means just enough features for early users to actually use it.
Then their feedback tells you what to build next.
Not your imagination at 2 a.m.

## The first night of building a SaaS MVP myself

My setup was not exactly a startup lab.

A MacBook Air.
A second-hand iPhone my cofounder got me.
ChatGPT.
VS Code.

That was the entire tech stack of my ambition.

![Rahul at his first workspace with a MacBook and an iPhone, the Track My Academy goals poster behind him](https://www.rahuldk.in/posts/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006/first-workspace.webp)

Did I start coding immediately?
No.
Mostly, I researched.

How do real products look?
How do people structure an app like this?
Why does everything I write look worse than everything I see?

By the end of it, I'd built a landing page.

A landing page I actually liked.

That was the night I stopped waiting for someone else.

I learn by touching the thing until it makes sense.
That means doing it badly first, then slightly less badly.
The AI help came from wherever we could find it.
That story is in [dozens of email accounts and zero shame](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/dozens-of-email-accounts-and-zero-shame).

## The modern stack I ended up with

No PHP this time.
Again, nothing against PHP.
I just needed a fresh start and a clean conscience.

Here's what Track My Academy runs on:

- **React** for the web front end.
- **[FastAPI](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/)**, a Python framework for building APIs with type hints.
- **MongoDB**, a document database.
- **[Supabase](https://supabase.com/docs)**, which bundles Postgres, auth, storage and realtime features.
- **AWS EC2** and **Vercel**, where things actually run.
- **Razorpay**, the payments gateway.
- **Firebase** and **Redis**, quietly doing their jobs in the background.

None of this is exotic.
It's just current.
And I can explain why every piece is there.

That's my real advice for anyone outsourcing.
Ask the builder, "Which stack, and why?"
If the answer is "it's what we always use", that's information.
Treat it like a yellow card.

Knowing the stack also means knowing exactly how to break it.
I proved that when [I took production down for hours](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/the-night-i-broke-production).
Ownership cuts both ways.

## Then I built the Android and iOS apps too

The web app wasn't the end.
Coaches aren't sitting at desks.
They're on a pitch, holding a phone and a whistle.

So I built the Android and iOS apps for Track My Academy.
The Android app is live in production.
The iOS app is coming soon.
Apple reviews things slowly. So do I, to be fair.

![Two smartphones held up against a city skyline, one Android and one iPhone](https://www.rahuldk.in/posts/the-app-that-arrived-from-2006/android-and-iphone-apps.webp)

*Photo: [Daniel Romero](https://unsplash.com/@rmrdnl) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/two-smartphones-held-up-against-city-skyline-txROtUzmo_c)*

This is where building it yourself pays off.
I'd built the backend, so I knew it inside out.
The apps were new screens, not new mysteries.

If I'd outsourced the web app, the mobile apps would've started from zero.
Or from 2006 again.
I'm not sure which is worse.

Today [Track My Academy](https://www.trackmyacademy.com) covers attendance, fees, player analytics and parent communication.
Real academies run on it.
It's multi-tenant and role-based, which is a fancy way of saying "complicated".
It works on the web and Android, with iOS coming soon.
It's published by [TrackMy Tech](https://www.trackmytech.in), our bootstrapped sports-tech company.

## What I learned from the 2006 build

I'm not angry at the person who built it.
Okay, a little.
Mostly at myself.

Outsourcing works when you know what you want.
It doesn't work when you're hoping someone reads your mind.

Building it myself meant I understood every piece.
When something breaks, I know where to look.
When a coach wants a feature, I know what it costs.

None of that exists if I'd accepted the museum piece.

So, should you build it yourself?
Not always.
But if what comes back makes you wince, listen to the wince.

Your irritation is data.

Mine turned into a company.
Yours might turn into something too.
Or at least into a better landing page.

I'll take either.

## FAQ

### Is it cheaper to outsource app development or build it yourself?

Outsourcing usually looks cheaper on day one.
Building yourself costs time instead of money.
Outsourcing costs money, then often time anyway, in revisions.
If the product is your business, I'd rather pay with time.

### What should a product brief for a developer include?

Who it's for and the one painful job it solves.
Three reference apps, with screenshots.
A clear definition of done, and a list of what's out of scope.
And who will review the work before you pay for it.

### Can a non-technical founder build a SaaS MVP?

I was a bio-maths student in class 12.
That story is in [how I ended up in computer science](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/bio-maths-to-computer-science).
So yes, eventually.
Expect to be bad at it first.
That's the tuition fee.

## Your turn

Run a sports academy and tired of spreadsheets?
[Try Track My Academy](https://www.trackmyacademy.com).

Stuck deciding between outsourcing and building it yourself?
[Book a call with me](https://calendar.rahuldk.in) and we can argue about it.

Or see where all this happens now, in [my three-monitor desk setup](https://www.rahuldk.in/blog/three-monitors-one-monster-can).

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Written by Rahul Dhileep Kumar, product engineer and founder (Track My Academy, TrackMy Tech). More posts: https://www.rahuldk.in/blog