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At those prices I'd expect inflating estimates, catfishing juniors by selling seniors in interview/contacts and splitting senior staff between multiple clients.

At those prices I'd expect inflating estimates, catfishing juniors by selling seniors in interview/contacts and splitting senior staff between multiple clients. Basically that's the price range a senior developer can make on his own remoting on platforms like toptal - there's no buffer there for the agency cut unless they are some partnership or losing money to catch clients. And best case scenario - they have decent devs available at those prices right now - it's likely they will figure out what I've said and cut out the middle man/work for some US client directly and get a 30% bump for little effort.

FrankLicea 4y ago
We kept encountering the same issues you mention. Our teammates weren't satisfied with the outsourcing company and didn't like being interleaved between projects (formally or informally). And with negotiating down lower rates, the clients they tended to attract weren't exactly tech companies, which was uninspiring for our latam teammates. We believe that by providing a platform that lets tech companies provide a premium developer experience, similar to the "Silicon Valley engineering culture", we can provide access to teammates that aren't typically found on Toptal/Turing nor at the typical outsourcing firm.
- sebleon 4y ago
  Dude - it's way better for companies to hire developers directly, no need for a middle man like Astro that's charging 15% (eg. 15% of $80k/yr = $12k/yr in middle man fees)... platforms like letsdeel.com or remote.com charge as little as $50/mo per person to take care of compliance and payroll
  - 1123581321 4y ago
    Oh, it’s only 15%. No, it’s not say better to avoid paying that. Just marginally better, and that assumes the ability to reliably attract and retain the same talent.
  - lincolnParkKid 4y ago
    Have you ever had to deal with paying salaries in local currencies in many countries, with all the legal/tax implications in countries like Argentina and Venezuela with ramping inflation and multiple legal currency exchange rates? Maybe if you need one you are better off doing it yourself but if you are going to build a team and want to avoid dealing with all that crap this model sounds interesting at least
  - FrankLicea 4y ago
    Yeah, we get the concern that Astro is just a middle man. Let me give a concrete example for why we think we provide more value than that. We work with a few companies, whose names people would recognize, that feel more comfortable using a US business entity that they can sign contracts with to move specialized equipment, like locked down macbooks, installing special software on work equipment, or installing specialized local network equipment, etc.. These companies have physical security requirements that makes it tough for them to directly hire freelancers. Through our platform we bring those kinds of opportunities to our teammates that would be otherwise localized only certain US cities. It's also common for freelancers to come onto our platform for various reason, 1) they didn't get paid by the customer or the customer withheld payment for onerous project tweaks 2) "contractors" were the first to get fired when times got tough, 3) "contractors" didn't get access to certain dev environments thus limiting their growth, etc. We understand it's not a solution for everyone, that's why we describe our business model clearly, and people can decide if what Astro brings to the table is worth it!
smallerfish 4y ago
They have decent devs, as I talked to several candidates. Both have high retention, under 10% churn. Devs are fully embedded, so there's no opportunity to split.

FrankLicea 4y ago

We kept encountering the same issues you mention. Our teammates weren't satisfied with the outsourcing company and didn't like being interleaved between projects (formally or informally). And with negotiating down lower rates, the clients they tended to attract weren't exactly tech companies, which was uninspiring for our latam teammates. We believe that by providing a platform that lets tech companies provide a premium developer experience, similar to the "Silicon Valley engineering culture", we can provide access to teammates that aren't typically found on Toptal/Turing nor at the typical outsourcing firm.

sebleon 4y ago
Dude - it's way better for companies to hire developers directly, no need for a middle man like Astro that's charging 15% (eg. 15% of $80k/yr = $12k/yr in middle man fees)... platforms like letsdeel.com or remote.com charge as little as $50/mo per person to take care of compliance and payroll
- 1123581321 4y ago
  Oh, it’s only 15%. No, it’s not say better to avoid paying that. Just marginally better, and that assumes the ability to reliably attract and retain the same talent.
- lincolnParkKid 4y ago
  Have you ever had to deal with paying salaries in local currencies in many countries, with all the legal/tax implications in countries like Argentina and Venezuela with ramping inflation and multiple legal currency exchange rates? Maybe if you need one you are better off doing it yourself but if you are going to build a team and want to avoid dealing with all that crap this model sounds interesting at least
- FrankLicea 4y ago
  Yeah, we get the concern that Astro is just a middle man. Let me give a concrete example for why we think we provide more value than that. We work with a few companies, whose names people would recognize, that feel more comfortable using a US business entity that they can sign contracts with to move specialized equipment, like locked down macbooks, installing special software on work equipment, or installing specialized local network equipment, etc.. These companies have physical security requirements that makes it tough for them to directly hire freelancers. Through our platform we bring those kinds of opportunities to our teammates that would be otherwise localized only certain US cities. It's also common for freelancers to come onto our platform for various reason, 1) they didn't get paid by the customer or the customer withheld payment for onerous project tweaks 2) "contractors" were the first to get fired when times got tough, 3) "contractors" didn't get access to certain dev environments thus limiting their growth, etc. We understand it's not a solution for everyone, that's why we describe our business model clearly, and people can decide if what Astro brings to the table is worth it!

smallerfish 4y ago

They have decent devs, as I talked to several candidates. Both have high retention, under 10% churn. Devs are fully embedded, so there's no opportunity to split.