Startups prioritize timezone over cost, shifting remote engineering to South America
Chad Ingram · $0 to $2m in 6 months helping SaaS companies hire engineers fast · Jul 18, 2022 · at 12:04
Chad Ingram is the founder of Distro, a platform connecting US tech startups with vetted international software engineers.
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“What we found is that it wasn't a money thing. Though they're saving money, they were really concerned about, you know, Just getting the right team members with the right experience and time zones. So we're finding that most of our customers right now are, and the ones who are in process to hire, because we have more that haven't hired yet. There's like another six or seven right now we're working with on that side and they they're focused on South America. So we've been really successful in South America, but it's more expensive for sure.”
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“I can't tell you how many startup, you know, entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs, whatever you want to call them, keep telling me like, oh yeah, I'm building my product. Well, when'd you start? Two and a half years ago. Okay. You've lost. You've lost before you've…”
Ingram: Startups should aim for a one-third debt, two-thirds equity ratio
“One ratio that I like to look at, this is independently, so this isn't from, you know, any particular firm that, that pushes this agenda, but I like to look at it like a one to you know, one-third on debt and two-thirds on equity.”
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“That would be top line. So that's the full marketplace charge. So like the full salaries and everything. So the way we recognize revenues, we take the whole thing in.”
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“Like how do you can't compete with that. Like there's really nothing you can do about that. And it's only getting worse.”
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“The problem is, is that only the less qualified people are applying. The really qualified people are happy where they are. They're being recruited.”
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“In the first few months we started building product, within, I don't know, six weeks or so, we learned that what we had already built needed to be deleted. What if we had built that for a year? We would be done. We would have already missed the boat.”