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

Post by skeletal88 » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 6:56 AM UTC

CodeBeater wrote: post #46

wefarrell wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazilians tend to take two hour lunches without work interruptions. Outside of that time, the ones I have worked with have been fast and responsive. Had I not known that I too probably would have thought they were slow and unresponsive. I figured that out by actually going down there and working with them for a week. As far as the "unlbock people, get shit done, etc..." I think that's the case with a lot of outsourc…

I wholeheartedly second this. I have an unique lens on this issue as I'm in a unique spot. Despite being Brazilian myself, for most of my career I worked and managed US based developers, and just very very recently shifted to working directly with Brazilians. I saw no major difference in responsiveness and "get shit done" (aka initiative) between those two cohorts. The only thing that took me by surprise is that Braz…

Post by CodeBeater » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 7:12 AM UTC

skeletal88 wrote: post #112

CodeBeater wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wholeheartedly second this. I have an unique lens on this issue as I'm in a unique spot. Despite being Brazilian myself, for most of my career I worked and managed US based developers, and just very very recently shifted to working directly with Brazilians. I saw no major difference in responsiveness and "get shit done" (aka initiative) between those two cohorts. The only thing that took me by surprise is that Braz…

Why should someone be happy to deal with work stuff outside of work hours? It seems to be a thing in the US, but not in Europe or other places.

Post by schnitzelstoat » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 8:01 AM UTC

CodeBeater wrote: post #114

skeletal88 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should someone be happy to deal with work stuff outside of work hours? It seems to be a thing in the US, but not in Europe or other places.

I agree with you, nobody should. But what took me by surprise was that they get angry even about their headspaces. For instance, sending someone a text and saying "don't worry about this until you're back from your break" will yield little to no effect, as they value being completely disconnected from work during any hours they're not being paid for. Which I think is perfectly reasonable.

Post by sebleon » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:02 AM UTC

FrankLicea wrote: post #103

moonchrome wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At those prices I'd expect inflating estimates, catfishing juniors by selling seniors in interview/contacts and splitting senior staff between multiple clients. Basically that's the price range a senior developer can make on his own remoting on platforms like toptal - there's no buffer there for the agency cut unless they are some partnership or losing money to catch clients. And best case scenario - they have decent…

We kept encountering the same issues you mention. Our teammates weren't satisfied with the outsourcing company and didn't like being interleaved between projects (formally or informally). And with negotiating down lower rates, the clients they tended to attract weren't exactly tech companies, which was uninspiring for our latam teammates. We believe that by providing a platform that lets tech companies provide a prem…

Post by sebleon » Thu, Jun 23, 2022, 9:09 AM UTC

neolander wrote: post #3

This looks cool! I've been bullish on Latin America since remote became more popular. It's natural that people in the US would want to hire someone in more similar timezone and culture than people on the other side of the world. There are great people everywhere, but in my view, it's been much harder to source good people from Latam than it is from Eastern Europe or South Asia.