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Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

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41–50 of 93 posts

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are the product here, or well, people like the former you in theory."Cheap" developers, the American companies win, this "innovative" company wins, and the developers get screwed. Do you want to work with American companies? Open an US account as a person or as an LLC (it is very easy these days) and request to be paid there in USD.

However opening up an LLC and a bank account is not that easy, when you are from latin america, and receiving the money in a US bank account implies you have to report to the IRS.

Report to IRS is not a bug is a feature you have to pay taxes somewhere and there are plenty of non double taxation agreements within the US and Latam.

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. In decent remote-first companies the "quality at a fraction of price compared to what they can get elsewhere" makes no sense at all.

Average software developer compensation in the US can be around 100k to 120k . In latin america you can get excellent top tier tech talent for 30k-40k.

In my experience you can't get Colombian top developers for less than 60k

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However opening up an LLC and a bank account is not that easy, when you are from latin america, and receiving the money in a US bank account implies you have to report to the IRS.

Report to IRS is not a bug is a feature you have to pay taxes somewhere and there are plenty of non double taxation agreements within the US and Latam.

Amazing. Thanks for the feedback. With your help we can get better.

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average software developer compensation in the US can be around 100k to 120k . In latin america you can get excellent top tier tech talent for 30k-40k.

In my experience you can't get Colombian top developers for less than 60k

Happy to make some introductions and get you that talent. Email us!

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Report to IRS is not a bug is a feature you have to pay taxes somewhere and there are plenty of non double taxation agreements within the US and Latam.

Amazing. Thanks for the feedback. With your help we can get better.

Excelente lo que estan logrando amigo. Dios los prospere en todo lo que estan emprendiendo. Saludos de Chicago.

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing. Thanks for the feedback. With your help we can get better.

Excelente lo que estan logrando amigo. Dios los prospere en todo lo que estan emprendiendo. Saludos de Chicago.

Muchas gracias por la buena energia!

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#48
As the world keeps moving full remote this type of hiring middleware makes a lot of sense, but I have reservations for the trajectory of this model.

First, yes, companies in US/Canada and Europe will look for different regions (including LATAM) to source their talent needs. And I do believe that many companies will rely on middleware like this to handle contract and payments. It's great that you're setting up yourselves to be the leader of this model in Latam.

The problem I see is that your successful trajectory only makes sense to me if you guys handle dozens of contracts for a single operator a time. Meaning having something like 500 companies with ten or more remote Latam employees each.

Now, as an agent you have extraordinarily little leverage for retention. You generate all the contracts and boilerplate, and handle payments. But once a business has set certain employee footprint in a region, what will prevent them from cutting you off?

The way I see it, your path to success looks like having hundreds of companies that just need an employee or two per country, but that sounds like an incredibly intense operational overhead. Maybe that's how you have been thinking about it and have ideas for addressing this at scale with technology, idk.

In general, it seems that there are two potential paths, but one will be harder than the other one. One with long-term relationships which means more recurring revenue and a more predictable financial horizon. The other one is with short-term relationships (short-lived contracts, low footprint, small labor) and that path is more convoluted and with a less clear trajectory towards profitability.

This is of course a problem that all the companies operating on this model need to figure out. Not only you.

The other problem I see is with a foundational thought of your business: "quality at a fraction of price compared to what they can get elsewhere."

I would thread lightly with that. It almost seems like you're saying: "feel free to exploit the already undervalued and underpaid talent of Latam. We will make it easier"... My concern is that you're setting up your brand to have the same reputation as companies like Cognizant, Infosys and TATA. Yes, you could be generating value for stakeholders but at the expense of facilitating the exploitation of Latam professionals.

I would hope that this model doesn't become an alternative to the H1-B fiasco that was pervasive in the US. As a US immigrant that had an H1-B visa I will always remember those companies as the worst type of companies because they exploited Indian tech workers for years to the detriment of other immigrants like me that had to compete for the same visas.

Not saying that's what you're doing, but words matter so I would re-evaluate how you talk about the value you bring.

P.S: Also, as a fellow Colombian and Technologist please know that I'm rooting for you. One word of advice regarding HN etiquette. Please don't have other team members commenting as random commenters. It looks disingenuous.

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#49
Congratulations! I'm happy for you.

So we have Ontop for LATAM.

We have Manara (https://manara.tech) for MENA (Middle East and North Africa). It's backed by YC as well.

We have Andela (https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/connecting-african-softwar...) for Africa.

Honorable mentions: Pesto (https://pesto.tech/), Turing (https://turing.com/), Youteam (https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/youteam/).

Now I wonder whether I should make one but for South-East Asia (I live there)? :)

Re: Launch HN: Ontop (YC W21) – Easily hire and pay remote workers in LATAM

#50

Congratulations! I'm happy for you. So we have Ontop for LATAM. We have Manara ( https://manara.tech ) for MENA (Middle East and North Africa). It's backed by YC as well. We have Andela ( https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/connecting-african-softwar... ) for Africa. Honorable mentions: Pesto ( https://pesto.tech/ ), Turing ( https://turing.com/ ), Youteam ( https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/youteam/ ). Now I wonder wh…

There is also Pilot (https://pilot.co) originally for CEE, backed by YC as well.
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