FrankLicea

75 ms·

1.
by FrankLicea 2y ago
How relevant is this when AI has the ability to both write and debug massive code bases? I imagine a future world where 100% of coding and debugging is done by prompt not by editing code.
2.
by FrankLicea 2y ago
Cool! Still worth thinking through the application, it's a great way to think critically about your business. When we first applied with Howdy.com, we didn't get in, but the process of filling out our application gave us some insi
3.
No One Understands How Nintendo Made ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’(forbes.com)
5 points by FrankLicea 3y ago|0 comments
4.
by FrankLicea 3y ago
Sincere question, why do you think HN tends to down weight discussion on Visas or immigration?
5.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
In the last 4 years of operations in Latam we saw it a handful of times, all during the last 1.5 years of the Covid hiring mania. Mostly by big companies. What’s telling is that we haven’t seen those offers since. In fact we’ve seen rates n
6.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
- US companies are less likely to offer 15K/month, whereas before it wasn't uncommon - Local Latam companies are having an easier time retaining talent - Devs in Latam have lowered their salary expectations and often are putting r
7.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
I co-founded Howdy.com (YC W21) about 3 years ago. It's a platform for building your own dev teams in Latin America; automate vetting, payroll, offices, equipment, etc. We're profitable and just closed a series-A. Here's the
8.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Thank you Shorel! I think many people that object to the model haven't experienced these pain points themselves, either in the US or in Latam. But we recognize the model is not for everyone.
9.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
I had worked with a team in Colombia before and I speak Spanish, so we initially gravitated towards hiring people both in the Austin, TX and Colombia. We found really great teammates, who spoke great english. We also loved the US timezones,
10.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Oops, updated!
11.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Happy to jump on a chat on work through this together, I hope i can be helpful! Checkout my profile to see my email address and send me a DM! we'll get in touch.
12.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Thanks for letting us know stg. Sorry about that, we'll look into it immediately. In the mean time, I'm happy to setup you up on my end. Would you mind emailing me? You can find my email in my profile.
13.
by 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
14.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Yeah, good point, of course direct freelancing is always on option. We believe that we provide enough info so that everyone can make a rational economic decision. For example, the way customers pay is : 1) Customers pay for the developer&#x
15.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Interesting experience! Would love to know more, if that's okay. How many freelancers did you manage? and how big was your team? I think that a few freelancers are manageable (not sure if that applies to you!) But we've noticed co
16.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
I understand the frustration and I'll try to explain a bit more. Candidate salaries tend to vary based on country, experience, skillset, etc. People on the platform set their personal salary requirements and it's up to companies t
17.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
More ideas, do you have former colleagues you can reach to? Can your colleagues introduce you to new people? Getting a personal warm introduction has been the best route for us.
18.
by 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
19.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Send me an email and I'll get you setup. See my email in my profile!
20.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Really good question. Honestly, it was word of mouth and referrals. I had a successful career as a software developer and product manager for various startups and large companies in the Austin area. Eventually I had colleagues that went off
21.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Thank you! You're obviously a smart person! :)
22.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
You know, if I could do it over, we would have also considered Wichita, Kansas or El Paso, TX (my home town) but unfortunately we didn't do it for no other reason than it just didn't cross our minds at the time. I speak Spanish an
23.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Astro is by Austin Software! It's a productized version of what we do. People kept thinking that Austin Software was a product outsourcing firm, i.e. they kept asking us for quotes or rate cards, etc. So to avoid confusion we built Ast
24.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
It's up the companies to make compelling offers to candidates if they want to find good people. What I can tell you is that this is more common now then when we first started, which we're very glad about! In fact, on our platform
25.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
As mentioned above, you can think of Astro as something like a love child between Toptal + Gusto + WeWork + Amazon. Unlike Toptal or Turing, etc, we fulfill local benefits, equipment, even team-building events. We’re proud of the fact that
26.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Thank you for the kind words! Your experience is exactly why we built Astro! We do a few things 1) Astro provides a standard set of benefits and perks, this tends to attract companies with great culture, 2) Because Astro isn't a projec
27.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Fair question! Regarding VC influence, we actually bootstrapped the company in 2018, and we've had to build a profitable self sustaining business from the get-go. So we don't have the "court the next VC round" problem an
28.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
I believe I did answer the question, but let me try rephrase! First, the rates tend to be comparable to _just_ the salary component of a US teammate (Austin, Texas). The US salary component doesn't include insurance, taxes, and other p
29.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
We love this question. We become the employer of record, similar model to a Professional Employer Organization (Think Tri-Net). We'll handle all the international legal HR stuff. Then Company A signs a contract with us to work with the
30.
by FrankLicea 4y ago
Just haven't gotten there yet! One of the founders speaks Spanish and the other previously worked with teams in Colombia and Uruguay, so the Spanish speaking parts of South America came naturally to us. That said, we've got big pl

More ›