3 ms·

I run a "one-person" saas that is profitable. I have an offshore contractor that helps me run the service, and one offshore support person to help with tickets.

I run a "one-person" saas that is profitable. I have an offshore contractor that helps me run the service, and one offshore support person to help with tickets. I do all of the marketing, product development, finances, sales & customer success. Do I recommend it? Probably not. I am very tired of doing everything myself and am excited to grow it to the point of hiring more team members. I recommend that when starting a startup to plan to build it big enough that you can afford not to do everything solo. It's stressful and lonely, but also strangely rewarding. A note on "offshore" team members: I hear a lot of people say offshore workers are low quality or don't care about the work yada yada. I have found the opposite to be true - offshore folks are the same as any other people you employ: pay your people well, treat them with respect and invest in their future and they will do great work. My support and ops team members have been with me for 3+ years.

alex_lav 3y ago
> I hear a lot of people say offshore workers are low quality or don't care about the work yada yada. IME it's just like everything else - you get what you pay for. Bulk offshore TCS consultants will be as bad as you'd expect (again, in my direct experience), but that doesn't mean any/all offshore labor should be instantly discredited.
b20000 3y ago
where did you find them, and what country are they in?
- ian0 3y ago
  Im based in Indonesia and have built a few tech teams here over the years. Also know of a few dev houses based here with clients internationally, both in Europe & the US. Can vouch for what the OP says, if you take care of people, pay a decent salary for their region, people will be loyal and quality is very good. You will need to learn a bit about the local region and culture though if your hiring directly. This is especially true now as the local tech scene is loosing good senior folk through redundancies and forcing people back into the office.
- gwnywg 3y ago
  I'll chime in to share my experience, I was once looking for companies/startups looking to get offshore developer (I was offering my time) and remember I got direct link to the company through meetup app email distribution list for a python meetup in my city.

alex_lav 3y ago

> I hear a lot of people say offshore workers are low quality or don't care about the work yada yada. IME it's just like everything else - you get what you pay for. Bulk offshore TCS consultants will be as bad as you'd expect (again, in my direct experience), but that doesn't mean any/all offshore labor should be instantly discredited.

b20000 3y ago

where did you find them, and what country are they in?

ian0 3y ago
Im based in Indonesia and have built a few tech teams here over the years. Also know of a few dev houses based here with clients internationally, both in Europe & the US. Can vouch for what the OP says, if you take care of people, pay a decent salary for their region, people will be loyal and quality is very good. You will need to learn a bit about the local region and culture though if your hiring directly. This is especially true now as the local tech scene is loosing good senior folk through redundancies and forcing people back into the office.
gwnywg 3y ago
I'll chime in to share my experience, I was once looking for companies/startups looking to get offshore developer (I was offering my time) and remember I got direct link to the company through meetup app email distribution list for a python meetup in my city.