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Daria Spizheva
Technology and software expert and author
I’m a writer with a passion for technology and a firm believer that the key to explaining detailed technical and business information is simplifying it into concepts everyone can understand.
Ira Gutnik
Director of Brand Strategy
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As any successful founder will tell you, building a thriving tech startup requires assembling a talented team of software developers who are dedicated, skilled, and aligned with your product vision. However, for many startups, building this team can be the epic battle that feels more like the impossible quest for the Holy Grail, as securing the right team plays a pivotal role in determining if their startup will be able to create a spark and scale or if their dream will wither and die on the vine.
So in this article, I’m pulling out all the stops and will be sharing the real-life war stories of two founders who faced this epic battle and their innovative solution, which now helps other tech founders build their own thriving offshore teams.
Back in the day, before TurnKey was even a glint in their eye, our founders, Sterling Lanier and Boris Glants, had another tech startup, Tonic Health. Unsatisfied with the existing talent available in their local market to build their dream tech team, they needed to find a better solution. At first, like many others, they initially tried the outsourcing model, but the results were less than satisfactory. Then they decided to take matters into their own hands. Drawing on Boris’ close bond with the local culture in Ukraine, they decided to explore offshoring as a potential solution.
They quickly could see the benefits of offshoring, but there were many gaping holes in the original delivery process. So they rolled up their sleeves and revolutionized the model into a unique system they called “YourShoring” aimed at providing startups and growing tech companies with offshore teams that operate as an integral part of the company.
At this point in our tale, you are likely asking, “WTF is Yourshoring?” Patience, grasshopper, I’m getting there. As you know, offshoring entails the practice used by tech companies seeking software development talent beyond their domestic boundaries. This approach becomes necessary when local sources fail to provide an adequate number of skilled and cost-effective software developers. In short, here are the pros and cons of this method:
Although Sterling and Boris were delighted that offshoring allowed them to expand their Tonic Health team effectively, it came with some nasty downsides. So, they created their own model that yields all the benefits of remote software development but without all the unappealing pitfalls of offshoring – and called it Yourshoring.
Yourshoring stands for building offshore remote software development teams entirely around your needs. In this model, your remote developers work within:
Yourshoring was the perfect model for Tonic Health. Three years ago, when it had grown to 140+ people and with serious valuation, it sold to the market-leading company. This freed up our founders to embark on a new journey to establish TurnKey.
The main thing that they knew they did very well and had learned during building Tonic was how to build lasting teams offshore and set up inner team processes, like retention, onboarding, and operations, for success.
Walking a mile in startup founders’ shoes prepared them perfectly to help other founders find, manage and onboard talents from overseas that act like a team and not just punch the clock paycheck to paycheck.
To build this new model, they first had to identify several critical problems that the existing outsourcing solutions failed to address adequately. By tackling these issues head-on, Turnkey has set itself apart from the competition and provides startups with a game-changing service.
Let’s explore these gaps and TurnKey’s innovative solutions.
Outsourcing Problem: Outsourcing companies provide you with developers that are just sitting on the bench. In their essence, they are not positioned to give you perfect fit talent; they sell you those people who are not engaged with other projects, meaning they are not the perfect fit for your product or team.
YourShore Result: TurnKey tackles this issue head-on and uses a multi-tiered recruiting process that identifies and selects the top 3% of talent who align perfectly with the client’s goals, values and product. This ensures that startups receive highly skilled professionals who are dedicated to collective success.
Don't compromise on quality or cost. Choose TurnKey for top-tier offshore talent.
Outsourcing Problem: Outsourcing vendors frequently fail to offer sufficient control over the offshore team. Many founders feel frustrated by the lack of complete control over their outsourced teams, as developers may work on other projects for the outsourcing company, jeopardizing the startup’s progress.
YourShore Solution: Your developers are wearing your hoodies, not ours! With Yourshoring, founders have full control and transparency over their dedicated remote development team built up of developers. These developers are fully embedded into your team and culture, working exclusively on your product. They integrate with your security infrastructure, report directly to you, and participate in all necessary communications, ensuring a seamless collaboration experience. They feel emotionally connected to the team and the product.
Outsourcing Problem: Many outsourcing companies out there often keep their payment structures opaque, leaving clients unaware of how much developers are actually compensated. This often leads to the provision of low-cost candidates who may not meet the required standards.
YourShore Solution: TurnKey adopts a cost-plus model, offering complete transparency over prices. Clients pay the actual developer’s salary, plus a TurnKey fee that covers essential services such as recruiting, HR support, lower costs on equipment and remote workplace setup (which is significantly cheaper with TurnKey), local taxes optimization, and operational compliance.
To make this even easier, we even offer easy-to-pick bonus plans for those clients that also want to provide additional cash incentives or equity plans that track with performance—and TurnKey never takes a portion of these incentive programs. Yet another reason our staff retention rates are so high!
Outsourcing Problem: High turnover rates among offshore teams pose significant challenges for startups. It is almost impossible to build a startup when nearly half of the entire team churns every year! Still, it’s the reality most founders live in – the industry average year-to-year churn rate is close to 40%. With such high turnover, it’s hard for the new team members to understand what’s going on with the project, leading to their own dissatisfaction with the job.
YourShore Solution: TurnKey aims to reverse this trend by fostering an environment where developers feel engaged and part of the client’s team. By embedding developers into the client’s product and providing meaningful work, TurnKey reduces churn rates to below 15%. The company’s talent management division focuses on ensuring developer satisfaction and happiness, fostering long-term commitment, growth and success.
What our clients say: ResNet, a venture-backed company, partnered with TurnKey to build a dedicated software development team and ensure their long-term retention. Since collaborating with TurnKey, ResNet has developed over 800 features, written 300k+ lines of code in 24 months, and experienced 0.0% churn in their development team. TurnKey’s localized presence and expertise in offshore development have mitigated common challenges while providing top talent at a lower cost, making a significant difference for ResNet.
TurnKey’s boots-on-the-ground presence along with decades of experience building and scaling teams, mitigates against most of the cons people typically associate with offshore development (lack of transparency and high churn), while offering most of the pros (similar if not better quality of talent than in the US at a lower cost). That’s made a huge difference for us.
Say Goodbye to High Churn Rates. Partner With TurnKey For Stable and Dedicated Software Developers.
Outsourcing Problem: Global hiring often involves navigating complex legal landscapes and complying with foreign legislation. Traditional outsourcing companies offer limited opportunities and talent pools by operating only in specific countries.
YourShore Solution: TurnKey eliminates these legal headaches through Rest Easy! Promise, to take full responsibility for all legal matters associated with offshore team building. Clients can focus on their core business while TurnKey handles the legal complexities, including employee misclassification, intellectual property protection, and other potential legal issues.
Outsourcing Problem: Many outsourcing companies lack the cultural fit and personalized customer service required for startups in Silicon Valley.
YourShore Solution: We’re based in Silicon Valley which means we are local, responsive, and in tune with what you need. Whenever there’s trouble, we’re there on the double! You’ll have direct access to a local contact who is available to address any concerns or issues within 24 hours, ensuring a seamless and highly responsive customer experience.
Now that you understand our model, let’s map out the global destinations you can “Yourshore” to with Turnkey.
When it comes to building Yourshore teams with TurnKey, the process is made remarkably easy. However, it is essential to choose the right talent pool to tap into.
For us at TurnKey, Ukraine has proven to be an exceptional choice, and we have never looked back since making that decision. Ukrainian developers possess a unique combination of proficiency, integrity, and hardworking personalities, making them an ideal fit for startups. Over the years, Ukraine has emerged as a hub for highly skilled tech professionals, and their resilience and proficiency have been showcased, especially in recent times. We also offer opportunities in Bulgaria and Poland, providing clients with a diverse range of talent options to choose from.
Unlock Cost-Efficient Talent Without Sacrificing Quality. Choose TurnKey for Offshore Success.
While teams from Eastern Europe offer a myriad of benefits, there are instances where proximity and close communication become vital for certain projects. This is where nearshoring comes into play. Nearshoring involves Yourshoring to neighboring countries that share the same time zone, ensuring easier collaboration and communication.
At TurnKey, we understand the importance of nearshoring, and today we help businesses build custom teams in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, overcoming cultural differences and providing lower labor costs. By choosing to nearshore, tech businesses can tap into a talent pool that not only offers proximity and small time zone differences but also cultural affinity and a shared understanding of business practices. This allows for seamless collaboration, real-time communication, and the ability to align development efforts closely with the business objectives.
What our clients say: Headspace, a pre-IPO company, faced challenges in recruiting top development talent at a reasonable cost locally. To address this, they turned to TurnKey to establish an R&D innovation center of excellence in Mexico.
TurnKey swiftly built the initial team for Headspace’s innovation center within 30 days of the contract being signed. The onboarding process was efficient, allowing the new hires to integrate seamlessly into the company’s operations. The early success of the center led to expanded plans, demonstrating the effectiveness of the collaboration. The talent pool provided by TurnKey exceeded their expectations, and the speed at which these talented individuals were found was remarkable. Within a short period, we demonstrated our ability to identify highly skilled engineers who seamlessly fit into Headspace’s requirements.
TurnKey was able to build out the first team in under two months of working with Headspace. The talent was overwhelmingly positive. We were surprised at the quality of the engineers Turnkey was able to find and the speed with which they were able to find them.
With Yourshoring, we’ve got your back if you’re a startup or a high-growth tech company in a bit of a pickle. You want to hire top-notch offshore developers, but you don’t want to give up control over your team and product development process. We get it, and that’s why we do things differently from the usual offshoring firms out there.
Unlike typical firms in our industry, we purposely avoid traditional outsourcing and DO NOT manage any aspect of your actual development. Instead, we specialize in custom recruiting developers from Eastern Europe and Latin America who seamlessly integrate into your existing development team. This approach ensures that you maintain complete control over when and how your developers work, as well as the projects they contribute to.
Think of us as an exceptional tech recruiting firm that not only connects you with offshore developers perfectly aligned with your requirements but also provides an Employer of Record (EOR) service. We handle all the legal, payroll, and administrative complexities associated with employing and paying offshore developers. We remove these burdens so that you can focus on what truly matters: driving your business forward.
This is why we refer to our model as “Yourshoring” rather than “Offshoring.” Our goal is to establish a collaborative partnership where Your Dev Team becomes an integral part of Your Culture. They work exclusively on Your Roadmap, adhering to Your Rules and operating within Your Security Infrastructure. With Yourshoring, you have a dedicated team working closely with you, while retaining full control and ensuring a seamless integration with your existing operations.
We believe in creating a kickass work environment that attracts top talent and keeps them motivated. Wanna know what our development team really thinks about Yourshoring? We’ve got the inside scoop for you:
I love being part of a team where I can make a difference everyday in building awesome software that is built to last.
We’ve doubled our client base since I started, in no small part because every idea that our team has is seriously evaluated. And the ones that show the most promise are quickly turned into critical initiatives.
Working directly with a founder to solve a critical business problem has given me the freedom to fully utilize all of my creativity and technical skills.
Throughout the article I’ve been sharing the advantages of Yourshoring, so now you might be wondering when is the right time for Yourshoring. Well, I’ve got you covered, here’s the godfather of Yourshoring, our CEO Sterling, talking about how to choose the right time to offshore:
At Turnkey our unique approach to offshore team building results from the founders’ firsthand experience and deep understanding of the challenges faced by startups and growing tech companies. By addressing the shortcomings of traditional outsourcing solutions, TurnKey offers startups a comprehensive and customized service that enables them to build lasting, dedicated offshore teams. With a focus on talent, control, transparency, churn reduction, legal support, and exceptional customer service, TurnKey is revolutionizing offshore team building and helping startups thrive in a global marketplace.
TurnKey Staffing provides information for general guidance only and does not offer legal, tax, or accounting advice. We encourage you to consult with professional advisors before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business or legal rights.
Are you ready to revolutionize your offshore development strategy?
Embark on a journey to Yourshoring development success.
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