Hiring Remote Developers For Startups: Why & How

There is no better time to hire remote developers for your startup. The IT outsourcing industry was worth $66.52 billion in 2019 and it was given a further boost by the ongoing pandemic. Companies of all sizes are looking for remote software developers to meet their IT demands while retaining a certain degree of flexibility.

As a Business Development Manager at Uptech, I’ve been helping various co-founders with their remote IT outsourcing needs. From what I’ve heard, our clients have greatly benefited from such hiring remote developers, rather than from any other form of partnership. .

In this guide, I’ll show you how to hire remote developers to startups, where to find them, and how to recruit the right one for your team.

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Benefits Of Hiring Remote Developers For Startup

Did you know that giant tech companies like Whatsapp once leveraged hiring remote development teams to fulfill their IT needs? Whatsapp outsourced most of its development work during its early years and it saved the then-fledgling startup tremendously in budget.

If you’re running a startup, you have every reason to outsource, and here are some of them.

Overcome Tech Talent Scarcity

Hiring remote developers with the required expertise can be a daunting affair. This is particularly true if you’re based in the US, which is currently struggling with a major tech talent crunch. 

Hiring remote developers broadens your pool of IT expertise. For example, if you’re having trouble finding a Python developer locally, you’re likely to find it in Eastern European, where we’re based. 

Hire In The Shortest Time

When you’re hiring remote software developers, you have to go through the mundane process of putting up ads, holding interviews, evaluation, shortlisting candidates, and onboarding. They are time-consuming and time is a luxury that startups couldn’t afford to waste.

Instead, you’ll cut short the hiring process when you turn to a remote IT staffing agency. All are sorted out by the outsourcing agency. 

Stay Flexible 

Startups are plagued with uncertainties during the early years. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain a fluid organizational structure as the startup grows. This means hiring a team of in-house developers is not an ideal option, as it introduced a substantial long-term operational cost.

In this case, hiring remote developers becomes an attractive option. You don’t get tied up with long-term commitment as you only pay for services you need. 

Save In Hiring Budget

When you’re located in developed countries, tech talents come at a premium. In the US, you could be paying around $180 per hour for a developer, but in Eastern Europe, the same expertise could cost $50. 

Cash is the lifeblood of startups and you’ll want to be cautious on how you’re spending them, particularly for recruitment. 

Tap Into Proven Experience and Skills

If you want a higher chance of success when building your app on the first try, you’ll want to work with remote developers. The reason is quite simple. Remote developers tend to work on various types of projects and are likely to be familiar with the app you’re building.

For example, our team has built apps in m-commerce, real-estate, fintech, and many other niches. Chances are high, we are familiar with your industry and could help you avoid common pitfalls when building the app.

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Where to Hire Remote Developers 

Now that we’ve pointed out convincing reasons to hire remote developers, you’ll want to start searching. To aid you in your remote hiring campaign, here are a few sources that could land you your first hire. 

Industry Publications

Before actually hiring remote developers, it would be a good idea to check their blogs. Luckily, most IT outsourcing firms maintain a good content marketing strategy. You’ll want to check out blog articles, thought-leadership pieces, and case studies from companies offering software development services.

Some companies publish on platforms like LinkedIn and Medium. But you can do a quick search on Google on software topics to find blogs published by such companies. 

From the publications, you’ll have a good idea of what the outsourcing provider is capable of. You’ll get a glimpse into the provider’s past works, developers’ expertise, quality standard, working style, past works, and recommendations from clients.

Third Party Research & Review Platforms

Getting unbiased reviews and research from third party platforms is a good way to help you search and decide on what remote team to hire. Here are a few that help.

Clutch

Clutch has more than 150,000 IT agencies in its directory and has sought out more than 98,000 reviews from real customers. You can search for IT development companies in any location and check out brief details like hourly pricing, service focus, and clients’ feedback. 

GoodFirms

Get connected to more than 60,000 IT companies offering a diverse range of services at GoodFirms. This B2B IT review site has garnered more than 30,000 verified reviews from clients that sought out the companies under its listing. 

Besides being a platform for IT service providers, GoodFirm has a buzzing community where you can seek out the opinions of other industry experts. 

VenturePact

VenturePact does more than bridge your startup with verified remote developers. It provides project management tools and automated code reviews to ensure that all deliverables are up to industry standards.

Freelancing Platforms

If you just need an additional remote software developer, freelancing platforms can be a good option.

Upwork

Upwork is the leading freelancing marketplace in the world. It boasts a huge pool of freelancers in various disciplines, including software development. You can post a job on Upwork or browse through the profiles of remote developers to hire one.

Toptal

Toptal has a stringent selection process that only allows top developers on its platform. When you hire remote developers at Toptal, you’re assured of the best candidates possible but be prepared to pay a premium price for the service.

Guru

Guru is the go-to hiring platform that leans towards technical skills like software development. While it has a smaller talent pool than Upwork, you’re likely to find great programmers and app developers on Guru. 

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Hire Remote Developers In 7 Steps

With access to all the talents in the world, your only responsibility is to find the right remote team to hire. Follow these steps and you’ll land the right candidate for your startup.

#1. Identify Your Startup’s Requirements

Every startup is unique in terms of idea, product, services, and organizational structure. You’ll need to determine how a remote developer could drive your startup closer to its goal. 

Ask yourself if you’re hiring to launch an MVP to test the market? Or do you need support for existing IT services? If you’re building an app, which platform are you targeting? Web, iOS, Android, or all of them? 

Your requirements are pivotal in deciding the type of talent later on. 

#2. Choose The Collaboration Model

The next step involves determining the collaboration that you’re comfortable with. Can you manage a freelance remote software developer, knowing that you’ll need to take the lead as a project manager?

Or will you choose hiring a dedicated remote team of developers where the development is managed entirely by the outsourced team?

Your choice will affect tasks delegation, coordination, and cost. 

#3. Decide Where Do You Want To Hire Remote Developers From

Depending on the location of the remote developers, you may need to deal with cultural & linguistic differences, rate, and ease of coordination. If you’re in the US, UK, or Western Europe, it makes sense to hire remote software developers from Eastern Europe.

Eastern European developers are familiar with the western working culture, possess well-tested skills and they are highly affordable. Also, it is close to many western countries, which facilitate real-time discussions during working hours.

#4. Access Talent Pool

Now that you’ve set your sights on a particular country, you need to start headhunting from the various talent pools. If you want to hire full-time employees, you can post job listings like this on recruitment platforms like Lensa and Glassdoor. If you’re looking for freelancers, Upwork and Guru are the perfect places to start. Else, you can start browsing review platforms like Clutch and Wadline and get connected to top development firms. 

 Or you can reach out to reputable app development companies from blog articles like this.

#5. Confirm That You’re Getting The Right Expert

Regardless of your chosen platform, you’ll still need to assess the skills of the potential candidates. Freelancing portals allow you to go through the profile and work history of the developers. If you’re using platforms like Clutch, you’ll want to find out what other clients say about the respective providers. 

#6. Finalize With Interviews

Nothing beats a face-to-face interview to give you a better picture of who you are likely to hire as a remote developers’ team. Schedule a video call and communicate with the potential candidate, whether it’s a freelance developer or a product manager. You’ll learn if you’re able to communicate with them efficiently and if they have a design process that you’re comfortable with. 

#7. Start Onboarding

Once you’re happy with the shortlisted candidate, you can officiate the hire with a contract. Specify the expectations from both parties clearly and provide all the necessary requirements to commence the job. It may also help to use an HR software tool like GoCo to make the onboarding process smoother.

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Why Choose Uptech

As far as remote software development is concerned, Uptech is a leader in the industry. Our company has a wealth of experience working with tech clients from different regions. It means that we’re able to understand what your startup needs quickly and get started with minimum fuss.Our team is powered by experienced cross-discipline software experts. We’re familiar with software development best practices and leverage that to simplify app development for our clients. We break down complex tasks into smaller ones and execute them in iterative sprints.

Let’s look at some of our cases:

Nomad: Real Estate Web Platform

One of our notable experiences involves Nomad, a startup in the real estate industry in Dubai. We helped Nomad to build its real estate web app from scratch and deliver a solution that more than satisfies our client. It is an effort that involves multiple facets of software development, including the discovery stage, user research, UI/UX design, and backend development.

Eatable: Food-tech Startup

Another case we take special pride in is Eatable. Eatable is a food-tech company that helps restaurants in the sphere of dark kitchen not be bothered with the orders and delivery, but focus on the food only.

For Eatable we carried out a Discovery Stage and found out that the B2B partnership with restaurants will be a perfect model for this type of business. Uptech brought in great value to Eateable by improving the workflow. Earlier it took a long while until the menu was changed.

The Uptech team managed to alleviate the workflow and let the restaurant's edit the menu themselves without waiting for the admin’s approval. The updated menu management system saved a lot of time and allowed moving on faster.

Fintech Projects

Besides that, Uptech also has ample experience in fintech app development. In several fintech projects, we used a Product Approach to make the final product human-oriented and vivid. To that end, our Product Team conducted several types of researches:

• User Research;
• Technical Research;
• Business Research.

With the results of these researches, we managed to build products that matched user needs and brought real value to the businesses.

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Summary

Startup founders hire remote developers to address the tech talent shortage. The move is greatly beneficial as it provides flexibility and access to a cheaper, broader talent pool. We’ve shown you where and how to find the right remote IT talent and made our point of why Uptech is in a good position to assist you. 

Talk to us and learn how to take your ideas to the market affordably and in the shortest time.