Part 1: Finding New Team Members
This is the first in a three-part entry on hiring developers abroad. Click here for Part 2: The H-1B Visa Process, and here for Part 3: Moving Day.
Many many months ago, I read this post about the difficulties of hiring developers at a startup. There’s also this on a surplus of founders leading to a shortage of good developers, especially in SF. But, it wasn’t until I read this post on the difficulties of hiring developers abroad that I became inspired to write this article. What happened here to Pau should never, ever happen to any great developer, worldwide, and it effected me deeply.
There are plenty of great developers (and designers!) out there that would be overjoyed to write code at your startup.
They just don’t live in this country. Yet.
We had an amazing team of 15+ Ruby and Python engineers at Citrusbyte. Clients loved them, they fit in amazingly with the team, and their code was top-notch. The vast majority came from countries like Argentina, Uruguay, and The Philippines. We also had two great international designers.
I personally had the pleasure of onboarding a good chunk of them, and now count them among my friends. Not only were we and our clients getting top-quality work not usually available at a consultancy - we were able to create a rich and culturally diverse environment that transcended day to day business (that sounds fluffy but it’s true).
So - it’s going to take a little extra work to find foreign devs and designers. But, guess what? You were going to work extra hard anyway, competing with a mass of other startups for really scarce, local, quality engineers. Foreign developers have a bit more operational work associated with hiring them - but you’re accessing more available and higher quality engineering talent.
A couple brief notes:
-This post was originally written focused on developers, but has been expanded to include designers. It still may have a developer focused feel to it, at times.
-While this article focuses on H1-B visas, I also feel compelled to mention http://startupvisa.com which I recommend any reader pledge their support to. The Startup Visa legislation is working its way through Congress, and supports entrepreneurs staying in the US with new companies.
Here’s how to find developers or designers abroad:
- Use your network: Your existing development team should be working on open-source projects, either professionally or personally. Often, there are contributors on these projects who make great targets to bring aboard. Ask around - the odds of finding a talented, available developer in the right programming language are high. If you’ve already hired someone internationally, they probably have friends/contacts they can recommend who are eager to join them. Again, ask around within your existing dev team.
- Use your tools: There are plenty of places on irc, Hacker News or GitHub where you can find foreign developers. For designers, Dribbble is really the big winner, sorting by location, skill, or popularity (based on number of likes or comments). Again, I’d recommend exploring with a developer who is already on board and knows the landscape. I have not seen as much success going through Mechanical Turk or Odesk.
- Conferences: Next time you are taking a vacation - pick a location with a language specific conference happening at the same time. See baruco, RubyConf Argentina, RubyConf Uruguay, euruko, etc. Attend the conference - and chat up everyone you see. The conference organizers are a great resource and generally are awesome programmers themselves, or can recommend some.
- Craigslist: I have seen a surprising amount of success posting on local craigslist boards. It generally works better when you are traveling abroad so that you can meet with people in person.
- I am much less of a fan of hiring foreign consultancies, although in certain situations it can work out well - usually on smaller, more specific projects.
Checking for fit:
Reach out via whichever channel the initial discovery came from. If a referral was involved, definitely go through the shared connection. It is stunning how receptive developers are compared to the US, largely due to the relative levels of competition for their services.
The basic pitch is: “Hey, want to work on [insert challenging technical problem] for our company [insert awesome company description] with a great development team [insert open source contributions and notable team members]? We’re based in the US, can hopefully triple your salary, and think you’d be a great fit. If all goes well, we’d love to have you move out here as well!” For designers, the pitch is a bit more product focused.
A note on money: this is not going to be a main selling point with developers. Instead, focus on the product and team. However, I believe strongly in paying people what they’re worth - and that means their market-rate in the US (with some minor adjustment for cost of living). If you reward developers and designers abroad fairly for their value, you will find that salary does indeed become a more serious consideration, especially if you are talking 2-4x what they currently earn.
It is imperative for both sides to have a feeling-out period, or trial project. This typically looks like this:
-Hire developer as an independent contractor for a 1-3 month term.
-Simple, easily understood contract agreement.
-Fair market value - flat monthly rate.
-Integrate them immediately onto a live project with an existing team member or two.
-Constant communication: irc, skype video. Get their feedback, give yours.
While having everyone in the same room is important for a product minded startup - it is surprisingly effective working over irc and skype for developers. The communication barrier is less, and workflow is less obstructive.
If all goes well and they are well reviewed by you and other devs - fly them out and put them up for one week to three months to get a better sense of the cultural fit. More on that process and the H-1B process in Part 2.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer and am not giving legal advice in these posts. I am simply sharing my thoughts and experience in hiring developers abroad and completing the H1-B visa process. You should always consult with a lawyer before working on H1-B visas, or any independent contractor or employee issues.