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Launch HN: Astro (YC W21) – Build your own dev teams in Latin America

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Re: Launch HN: Astro (YC W21) – Build your own dev teams in Latin America

#21

Post by wefarrell »

I am 100% your target market as I've built several teams in Latin America mostly by finding developers directly and paying them as C2C. Sometimes when I need talent immediately I'll use Toptal.

Is it possible to use your logistics without your sourcing? Frankly I think I'm better at finding the best combination of skillset and personalities for the project I want to use than you or any other staffing service. However a lot of the developers I find are hesitant to jump through the hoops to start their own company and receive international payments.

Re: Launch HN: Astro (YC W21) – Build your own dev teams in Latin America

#23

Post by runako »

jacsamira wrote: post #15
bberenberg wrote: post #11

Seems cool. How much coaching do you have for US companies to better understand the team's local culture issues? For example, I worked with teams in Brazil in the past and while they were smart, kind, etc they were slow in every sense of the word. They didn't have the US culture of respond quickly, unblock people, get shit done, etc. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact working slower may be a benefit, but the…

Pricing-wise, I'd say our all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US, but our fees are inclusive of benefits, tech, offices, etc... and the US salary is not.

Thanks for this. Could you expand on this a bit, given "developer salary" in e.g. the Bay Area/NYC means wildly different things from (say) Houston or Pittsburgh?

Were you indexing against Bay salaries or US median/average?

Re: Launch HN: Astro (YC W21) – Build your own dev teams in Latin America

#25

Post by smallerfish »

Not to be a downer, but that's pretty expensive. I spent last week in [latam capital city] and met with 3 local outsourcing firms, down from 6 that I'd pre-screened by Zoom. I then reduced the list to 2 based on the co-founders of each being technical, and their solid recruiting practices. Both have offices which devs are free to come into (or work remotely), both pay salaries and offer benefits, both provide embedded developers with project managers in the background, both provide in house training and skills development. One charges $30/hr-$45/hr, one $40-$55, with the rate difference being based on the location of the devs (the cheaper range is 2 hours north of the metro area).

Both have accounts in the US which you can pay directly if you don't want to deal with wire transfers (though those also are easy). Both handle taxes.

Re: Launch HN: Astro (YC W21) – Build your own dev teams in Latin America

#28

Post by jacsamira »

wefarrell wrote: post #21

I am 100% your target market as I've built several teams in Latin America mostly by finding developers directly and paying them as C2C. Sometimes when I need talent immediately I'll use Toptal. Is it possible to use your logistics without your sourcing? Frankly I think I'm better at finding the best combination of skillset and personalities for the project I want to use than you or any other staffing service. However…

Thanks for the note! We have one team we do this with. Email me and we can discuss offline j@austinsoftware.com
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