Is outsourcing though Elance/Guru a reasonable way to get started
teej: Depends.  I know a guy with no programming skill who had an idea.  Take that flash helicopter game people like to play and put it on Facebook.  He hired a Russian guy through elance to do the flash, and a brilliant guy in Virginia through IRC to do the PHP.  His app got big and he sold it six months later for a significant chunk of cash.