We live in a world of startups that are attempting to improve our lives. Innovation is knocking on our door, and change, as it always does, is unavoidable. Your time to market will be impacted if every startup has to build their teams from scratch to build great software.
Building your remote team — courtesy freepik.com
What does everyone do ?
If you are a startup owner looking to get started with product development right away, there are several proven ways to solve this problem.
Let me describe some key steps in the development of a software product:
1. Hiring a CTO, a person with reasonable experience working with business stakeholders and defining IT architecture.
2. Define and Document your business vision, mission and goals.
3. Outline the scope of MVP and target dates to meet investors.
4. CTO defines the base architecture, guidelines and governance around the product.
5. CTO will assemble a Tech team to start the work for achieving the MVP product.
6. Once the base product or MVP is ready, the founder/CTO will decide the road map for future changes based on how well the MVP is received with investors and what kind of changes are requested by customers/investors.
We are going to talk more about step 5 — one of the challenging steps in the journey to build a product.
Assembling the Tech Team for MVP
If you are a well funded startup, then forget about the rest of the article.
Assuming you are among the 90% of startups, who want to start small with their own money or with the money from a small group of investors, then please read further.
Option 1 : Use Freelance Platforms to hire remote developers
The standard and easiest way to get started is to hire a remote developer from a general freelance platform. Depending on the budget and the nature of the work, this includes a wide range of platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, Toptal, and Fiverr.
Pros
1. There is an abundance of talent available.
2. Pay on a need-to-know basis, with no commitment or additional overheads to maintain payroll or provide additional employment benefits such as 401k, PF, or whatever is appropriate for your location.
3. Flexible rate cards and resources — There is a wide range of rates and resources available.
Cons
1. Finding long-term freelancers who work as a team and understand the end goal is difficult; similarly, finding long-term clients is difficult.
2. Without any process for knowledge transfer, freelancers can choose to stop working on any arbitrary day.
3. Working with freelancers in different time zones is extremely difficult, necessitating the expenditure of valuable time and energy to effectively coordinate the team.
TIP: In general, treat freelancers as an extension of your team rather than outsourced machine. Build trust and show the future beyond freelance contracts. Show that you care, perhaps across oceans, while working remotely!
Option 2: Use an agency to hire remote developers.
There are numerous agencies available, much like there are numerous freelancing platforms. It is important to understand the skills of the people running the agency. Important factors to consider are:
How long does have the agency been within the market?
Do they provide the services we require? Are they experts in those fields?
What is the ideal size of agency for you? Ascertain that you are not a small client for the agency.
Can you verify previous clients’ testimonials? To understand how the agency handles client relationships, insist on speaking with an old client.
Pros
1. One-stop shop for all your needs; no need to waste time looking for individuals who are experts in each technology that you require.
2. It is much easier to increase or decrease the size of the remote team.
3. Retaining team members is critical, especially when working on a business-critical app with a high level of functional complexity. Working with an agency may allow you to keep key team members beyond your MVP.
4. Transitioning from one team member to another or from one agency to another is possible, ensuring no knowledge loss.
5. Concentrate on your business rather than wasting time on problems you don’t need to solve.
Cons
1. Finding the right agency is undoubtedly difficult, much like finding the right freelancer.
2. In general, the cost of agencies is higher than the cost of freelancers.
3. Individual attention from agencies will not be possible, as it is with freelancers.
Choosing the right team members is one of the most important issues you must address as a startup, whether you hire a freelancer or an agency.
All of that down to just two primary factors:
Go for freelancers if you want to deal with all of the people management and have the time and energy to validate the work done.
If you want to delegate this problem as a business and make your money work for you, then agencies are the way to go.
Whatever you decide, as long as your product is innovative or solves a market problem, preferably both! You will succeed in some direction.
Good luck, and I hope you enjoy working remotely with fantastic remote developers and agencies!
