Ria Blagburn

YouTeam - A fast and easy way to hire software engineers

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YouTeam is a marketplace of hundreds of software agencies that share information about engineers working for them, so that you could seamlessly select your contractors and hire them for your project. Simply search for a technology, browse available profiles, book interviews with desired specialists and meet their agencies in a matter of minutes.

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Anton Mishchenko
Hi everyone! Some time ago, in one of my previous startups I was tasked with scaling our development team by a couple of specialists. First, I childishly dreamt of an in-house hire as a perfect solution. As you can imagine, finding a permanent senior engineer for a small London-based startup on a budget is sort of mission impossible. So then I went on freelance platforms. After much trialling and testing I figured the whole "freelancer setup" won't work for a long term engagement I needed to form. So I turned to nearshore outsourcing. I was lucky enough to have some contacts in the market but even that didn't help much. Only after weeks and weeks of negotiation, waiting, delays, more negotiation and more waiting my team was finally formed and we could get down to work. Thankfully I had no further issues and they turned out to be great guys. We all have heard plenty of stories saying otherwise. Why does it have to be so hard with outsourcing? What if I just had access to hundreds of profiles of available specialists working in these agencies and ready to start work ASAP? What If I could simply book an interview, where I’d meet this specialist and the agency she works in - and make my decision in hours or days instead of months? What if I could then sign a direct contract but pay safely and securely with a money-back guarantee? I wish I had all of that, but I didn’t. That’s why me and my colleagues decided to build it :) Meet YouTeam - the simplest way to hire a software engineer. Welcome to the world of no-bullsh*t outsourcing. Please help us become better by sharing your feedback about the platform, the model or anything else. We are here to answer all of your questions!
Yura Krisarchuk
Great solution! I think it is the nice product for startups
Anton Mishchenko
@yuriy_krisarchuk thanks for your comment. Spot on, tech startups are our target early adopter audience as they (we) often have burning development needs to be addressed on a tight budget and in ever-changing conditions. In this instance in-house hire often becomes too expensive and almost "too permanent". Freelancers - too short-term and not "dedicated" enough due to the very nature of their operations. We believe this specific pain can be addressed with outsourcing, but the whole process of finding the right specialist and agency is really painful. That's exactly what we are changing :)
Mariia Ryfiak

Interview the candidates or send tech assignments with free assistance from your YouTeam advisor. Hire only select app development companies.

Pros:

Fast and easy way to hire software developers

Cons:

Upwork

Mariia Ryfiak
Brilliant platform to hire software developers
Anton Mishchenko
@mariia_riphyak Thank you Mariia - we love you too! :)
Ruslan
Congratulations to the YouTeam. I was lucky enough to start beta testing YouTeam this past summer, while I was launching my analytics platform. They have scaled my team from 4 to 10 people in 3 month. I'm excited that you finally launched platform, forward to hearing from all of you soon!
Anton Mishchenko
@ruslannaz Thanks for spotting us here, Ruslan! Anything we can do or help with - just hit us!
Anton Mishchenko
@ruslannaz also we are running a small promo for Hunters, where everyone gets 20 development hours for free if they book an interview with an engineer today :)
Hrant
I think it will be pretty hard to compete with others on the market. What is the selling point of your product?
Anton Mishchenko
@hr_ant99 the main difference lies in the source of talent, which in our case comes from within outsourcing companies. Generally this talent is not available anywhere else - most of the times you can't find it on any other platforms. This affects our positioning in the market. Having outsourcing companies as suppliers means that we cater to a market segment that demands a much more dedicated and long-term engagement than the supply that's formed from freelancers. At the same time such segment can now enjoy flexibility, transparency and safety not found in the direct engagement with a typical outsourcing company.
Anton Mishchenko
@hr_ant99 Thanks a million :)
Andrey Nikishaev
Nice thing, will definitely try it out in my current project)
Anton Mishchenko
@creotiv thanks Andrey! We are running a small promo for Hunters, where you can get 20 development hours for free if you book an interview with an engineer today :)
Mariia Tintul
The project gives the industry new and interesting opportunities! Being one of the current partners I can definitely say - it's a great team to work with! The product already has quite a set for a convenient and easy cooperation, and I heard there are even more plans to the future improvements! Great idea, new opportunities for network expansion, expert collaborative environment. Go Youteam!
Anton Mishchenko
@mariia_tintul Hi Mariia! Thank you for the comment and for working with us :) Indeed, we're implementing a whole new bunch of features for vendors in the coming weeks. Should there be any questions Sofia, myself and the team are happy to discuss. Thanks!
Lisa Dziuba
congrats on the launch! How is your solution better, comparing to others on the market?
Anton Mishchenko
@lisadziuba Hi Lisa! Thanks for your question. In simple terms, YouTeam combines safety of in-house recruitment with flexibility of freelance hiring and convenience / price of outsourcing. The client has a direct engagement with the dedicated specialist. The contract between the sides is also direct, so no middlemen are involved. YouTeam acts as a payment processor that protects the transaction and governs the relationship between two sides. While maintaining the level of collaboration that can be compared to your permanent full-time staff the whole thing is as flexible as a freelancer portal - engineer profiles are accessible and searchable, and the team is assembled in hours, not months. Last but not least, the costs associated with our solution are much more in line with those in outsourcing, making YouTeam a much more affordable solution than in-house hiring. Of course each of the aforementioned types of engagement have their own pros and cons - we use a little table, which you are more than welcomed to look at if you want to dig deeper into the differences: http://bit.ly/YTcomparison.
Pavlo Pedenko
Huh, congrats on the launch. But at the moment is really unclear to me: what is the difference between this and Upwork for instance?
Anton Mishchenko
@graver_ua Hi Pavlo! Thanks for your message. Actually we wrote a whole blog post about this - feel free to check it out and let us know your thoughts: https://youteam.co.uk/blog/upwor.... In short, we provide the same level of specialist transparency and flexibility Upwork does, but for a much-much more dedicated and professional work setup. All that with rates somewhat similar to those on Upwork ;) As you know, sometimes having a bunch of freelancers is not enough no matter how experienced they may be. Outsourcing is great when you need a more "professional" setup. Another organisation manages operational, financial and legal affairs of specialists, while client is enjoying a full-time dedicated access to them for a an agreed period of time. Finding such engineers and identifying reliable partners is a pain as is establishing a trusted relationship, and that's exactly where we can help.
Pavlo Kuznyetsov
I love this concept and I hope it grows massive. I plan on using it, that's for sure.
Anton Mishchenko
@pavlo_kuznetsov thank you! Are you interested in joining the supply or demand side?
Albert
What is the criteria for selecting these developers?
Anton Mishchenko
@pal9001 hi, thanks for your question! The main criteria for developers is that they have to be part of an agency that we vetted and verified before accepting onto the platform. It is then the agency representative that creates and manages profiles for these individual specialists. We reserve the right to have a short "pre-interview" with any engineer before any actual interview with an incoming lead.
Anton Mishchenko
@pal9001 thanks Albert! Any questions - please do let me know :)
Yuliana  Oselska

The platform approach enables really faster and easier to find outsourced contractors - both a single engineer or the whole development team.

What's important, these engineers are not freelancers, they work for real software development companies. The point is that, on the one hand, these companies want to make sure their engineers are fully engaged at decent projects. On the other hand, the clients don't need to spend time and cost for due-diligence and pre-vetting process.

This is exactly what YouTeam is aimed at - to match both sides on one marketplace.

Pros:

Pre-booking. Each individual profile contains the information on engineers' availability so their services can be booked in advance.

Cons:

none so far

Andriy Rohalya

In general we are happy with such collaboration

Pros:

We got really interesting costumers using this system

Cons:

Not a small fee

Taras Slyvka
Hi, where is your monetization?
Anton Mishchenko
@taras_slyvka Hi, thanks for the question. As it is the case with many marketplace we are taking a commission on every invoice that's billed through the platform. The percentage varies depending on a number of factors, such as length of engagement, team size etc. Rates on the platform are set by vendors themselves, while we are happy do advise on the "market averages" if needed.
Irina Maltseva
Awesome product guys! Wish you all the best!
Anton Mishchenko
@maltseva_i Thank you! Any questions - we're here to respond :)
Artur Kiulian
@andriy Sounds like you guys are trying to solve the "bench" problem for most of the agencies. My question is, how do you make this process secure enough for the agencies not to lose those employees if I decide to hire them directly bypassing your system and their agency as a commissioner.
Andri Grushetsky
@arturkiulian thanks for your question. Actually, the scenario you described would be extremely rare, as for our customers working with YouTeam provides a number of great benefits when compared to hiring engineers directly. Such as, personalised customer service and legal support. However, looking at the scenario you described from an employee perspective, if some engineers would jump on such opportunities, then maybe the agency where they work in one way or another is not good fit for them, or they are not being valued enough. If so, moving on maybe a good thing for them. But, such mode of recruitment would be pretty painful to execute. Instead, after sometime of working with a talented and hardworking engineer through YouTeam, you could ask your agency to colocate them at your offices or to transfer them to your company permanently (provided the engineer would like that). Both options are feasible, and YouTeam would assist you with any of them.
Andrey Nikishaev
What's your average budget per project? For example, can I hire good developer for $2-3k?
Anton Mishchenko
@creotiv we observe typical rates for the majority of senior level developers in the region of £25-35p/h or $30-45p/h. Mid or Junior levels are usually priced lower. Additionally, there is an automatic discount of 10%, which is applied to projects with length of engagement longer than one month. Also, rates on the platform are set by vendors themselves, which gives you different options to choose from.
Olena Zanichkovska

Great way to find new clients and partners

Pros:

New way to hire great talents

Cons:

more visibility on engineers professional level

Roman Zvarych
It`s something new and valuable for me. Looks like the easier way to hire good guys. ;)
Anton Mishchenko
@roman_zvarych thanks for finding us here - happy to chat about any possible collaborations!