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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

#51

Post by samstave »

FrankLicea wrote: post #17
samstave wrote: post #14

Looking at your screenshots, suggest you provide definitions... You have a screen: https://i.imgur.com/dRVwqZ2.png What if a profile doesn't match that? -- When looking for a "scrum master" How am I to then evaluate who ends up in said bucket... but If I select a bucket, how can I be known to the guy who heavily sides on scrum master (in your bucket) but they are really a talented [OTHER] bucket that doesnt show up w…

Thanks for the feedback! Yes good catch. We chose the roles we see most often requested, but when you scroll a little further down, you'd see a field where you can just type the role you're looking for! Thanks!

May you please make the titles a link to your typical job desc/min quals that one in a title may have?

This should be an open repo for job descriptions....

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

#52

Post by FrankLicea »

mwcampbell wrote: post #41

> We ended up working with various partners in Latin America because of the strong talent pool, great English, and US friendly time zones. I'm curious about whether you tried to find developers in the US but not in Austin or one of the big tech hubs. Or have you found that most of the good US-based developers head for the tech hubs? (Even if that were true before, surely it's different post-pandemic.) I'm not opposed…

Good question!

At the time, hiring domestically vs internationally, wasn't a mutually exclusive decision. A team that really needs to hire fast to, say, launch a new revenue feature, needs to be expanding the top of the funnel of good people in all locations simultaneously.

So we ended up with a mix of teammates in Austin and in Colombia, and crucially, we did our best to make us all feel like one product team working for one company.

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

#53

Post by mwcampbell »

FrankLicea wrote: post #52
mwcampbell wrote: post #41

> We ended up working with various partners in Latin America because of the strong talent pool, great English, and US friendly time zones. I'm curious about whether you tried to find developers in the US but not in Austin or one of the big tech hubs. Or have you found that most of the good US-based developers head for the tech hubs? (Even if that were true before, surely it's different post-pandemic.) I'm not opposed…

Good question! At the time, hiring domestically vs internationally, wasn't a mutually exclusive decision. A team that really needs to hire fast to, say, launch a new revenue feature, needs to be expanding the top of the funnel of good people in all locations simultaneously. So we ended up with a mix of teammates in Austin and in Colombia, and crucially, we did our best to make us all feel like one product team workin…

Fair enough. But why not, say, Austin and Wichita, Kansas? Is it too hard to find people outside the big cities?

When you hired in Colombia, and when you hire in Latam now for Astro customers, do you bring a bunch of people together in a physical office, or do they work from home?

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

#54

Post by jacsamira »

andrew_ wrote: post #50

> Our pricing is also transparent I'm sure there are reasons, but your pricing isn't truly transparent until I can find it from the homepage, without signing up for an account. Should I have to sign up with my burner/spam email address just to access that? Edit: I'm not able to find the pricing even after creating an account. This isn't a great user experience for someone trying to figure out how much the platform mi…

Andrew, thank you for the feedback. This is something we'd love to be able to be better at and would love any advice you may have.

We send the rate with each developer. We don't have a flat rate; otherwise, that means we set the rate. The developers set their own rate and we send that over with their profiles after you state what you're looking for and who in our platform is a match.

What's a better way of going about this?

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

#55

Post by FrankLicea »

andrew_ wrote: post #50

> Our pricing is also transparent I'm sure there are reasons, but your pricing isn't truly transparent until I can find it from the homepage, without signing up for an account. Should I have to sign up with my burner/spam email address just to access that? Edit: I'm not able to find the pricing even after creating an account. This isn't a great user experience for someone trying to figure out how much the platform mi…

Thanks for the feedback, I see your point! That's on oversight on our side, nothing nefarious intended, we'll have to figure how to best spell out the pricing.

Pricing-wise, I'd say the all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US (Austin, TX), the fees are all inclusive of benefits, tech equipment, offices, perks, etc...

When you decide to make an offer to someone, you'll get a break down of 1) the teammates's personal salary requirement), 2) the benefits and taxes and, 3) our management fee.

Because we don't set the rates, the candidates do (just like in the US), it's hard to say exactly what the price will be, it depends on the individual's requirements.

That said, we can def offer guidance on what the market tends to be!

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

#56

Post by andrew_ »

FrankLicea wrote: post #55
andrew_ wrote: post #50

> Our pricing is also transparent I'm sure there are reasons, but your pricing isn't truly transparent until I can find it from the homepage, without signing up for an account. Should I have to sign up with my burner/spam email address just to access that? Edit: I'm not able to find the pricing even after creating an account. This isn't a great user experience for someone trying to figure out how much the platform mi…

Thanks for the feedback, I see your point! That's on oversight on our side, nothing nefarious intended, we'll have to figure how to best spell out the pricing. Pricing-wise, I'd say the all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US (Austin, TX), the fees are all inclusive of benefits, tech equipment, offices, perks, etc... When you decide to make an offer to someone, you'll get…

What percentage does Astro charge on top of that (e.g. management fee)? Where's the breakdown? You're claiming transparency but it looks fairly opaque. I'm not trying to be combative, merely pointing out the marketing pitch is at odds with the data available.

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

#57

Post by andrew_ »

jacsamira wrote: post #54
andrew_ wrote: post #50

> Our pricing is also transparent I'm sure there are reasons, but your pricing isn't truly transparent until I can find it from the homepage, without signing up for an account. Should I have to sign up with my burner/spam email address just to access that? Edit: I'm not able to find the pricing even after creating an account. This isn't a great user experience for someone trying to figure out how much the platform mi…

Andrew, thank you for the feedback. This is something we'd love to be able to be better at and would love any advice you may have. We send the rate with each developer. We don't have a flat rate; otherwise, that means we set the rate. The developers set their own rate and we send that over with their profiles after you state what you're looking for and who in our platform is a match. What's a better way of going abou…

I'd recommend some document that outlines the fees Astro charges based on selections for the teams. Any AWS pricing calculator is a decent model to use.

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

#58

Post by rootsudo »

FrankLicea wrote: post #55
andrew_ wrote: post #50

> Our pricing is also transparent I'm sure there are reasons, but your pricing isn't truly transparent until I can find it from the homepage, without signing up for an account. Should I have to sign up with my burner/spam email address just to access that? Edit: I'm not able to find the pricing even after creating an account. This isn't a great user experience for someone trying to figure out how much the platform mi…

Thanks for the feedback, I see your point! That's on oversight on our side, nothing nefarious intended, we'll have to figure how to best spell out the pricing. Pricing-wise, I'd say the all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US (Austin, TX), the fees are all inclusive of benefits, tech equipment, offices, perks, etc... When you decide to make an offer to someone, you'll get…

"Pricing-wise, I'd say the all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US, the fees are all inclusive of benefits, tech equipment, offices, perks, etc..."

Well, then as a USA based org, I'd have to say - what's the point? If it's comparable to a USA dev Salary, what savings/arbitrage/win a I achieving here? Wouldn't it be easier for a USA based company to just corp 2 corp/1099 or such someone onshore, then offshore and have a middle man?

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

#59

Post by rootsudo »

ivanmontillam wrote: post #48

Venezuela and Argentina have vibrant software development community, but have challenges in terms of payment methods, specifically about local currencies. How'd you deal with that? The challenge with Venezuela and Argentina is that you cannot pay developers in local currency, otherwise they'd be losing a truckload of revenue (e.g. Argentina is heavily taxed for remote workers and the official exchange rate for foreig…

The easiest way is to pay in dollars and advise them to not use the Government rate/bank rate to convert. There is a market rate and government rate - and there are services that will just pay out in Dollars in those countries.

Also, cryptocurrency. Ironically enough.

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