Ubiminds

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Director, Professional Services of an information technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a unified platform for security in the cloud

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ubiminds to accomplish?

• Find the best talent for the job with competitive rates

SOLUTION

How did you find Ubiminds?

Referral

Why did you select Ubiminds over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ubiminds were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Identify top talent to provide cloud security expertise to our company's customers. As the project began, we were looking for 2 of the best individuals with cloud security, DevOps, and Customer Success / Customer-facing and Project Management skills Key Deliverables: 

• 2 Consultants sourced 
• Rates at a competitive level

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We quickly achieved the outcome we sought after. Within a short period of time, Ubiminds helped us find a large number of candidates that were positioned well with our requirements for talent. They helped us efficiently manage the recruiting, interviewing, follow-up / feedback, and eventually the hiring and onboarding process. 
Our first resource was identified quickly, and within a month or two after that, we found our second resource to fit our needs. This cycle of identifying, interviewing, and closing on talent was months faster than we were able to do internally / on our own.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Per my previous comments: 

• They delivered things on time 
• They responded to our needs extremely fast and with care and consideration 
• The service from the Ubiminds individuals was top-notch, far above and better than any other recruiting and talent-sourcing teams I've ever worked with 
• Requested changes were handled diligently 
• Concerns were handed with empathy and understanding, with quick action in response

What was your primary form of communication with Ubiminds?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The most impressive thing about Ubiminds is the people that support their mission. They are the best talent-sourcing team I've ever worked with!

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ubiminds could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior VP of technology at an education technology company serving K-12 districts in the US and Canada. We provide offerings from support and tutoring and college and career readiness.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

We needed a company that could provide us with quality engineering, data engineering, and software development support. Our company was growing rapidly in headcount, so we decided to partner with Ubiminds to meet our growth targets from an account perspective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ubiminds provides quality engineering, data engineering, and software development support for our educational support system platform. We treat the resources they provide as we do a full-time engineer; they go through onboarding and are embedded within our existing development teams.

We leverage Ubiminds for a variety of areas. One of the resources they’ve provided is in charge of developing data pipelines that help us transfer data from our app to our data warehouse. They’ve also provided us with a strong application security engineer, quality engineers, and front- and backend developers specializing in Python. They all work remotely.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 5–10 people from Ubiminds, including an application architect, a data engineer, a quality engineer, a frontend developer, and a backend developer. We’ve scaled the team up and down depending on our needs. Our main point of contact, Danielle (Relationship Success Manager) regularly checks in with us to make sure that the individuals are performing well and to see if there are any issues that they need to address.

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

I had worked with Ubiminds at a previous company, so I knew them before I came here. I wanted to partner with them again to help us meet our growth goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1,000,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

From a performance perspective, we haven’t had any issues that affected our engagement. All of the resources Ubiminds has provided have been strong contributors to the teams that they’ve worked with. The feedback from the managers that have managed them locally has been very positive.

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

Ubiminds has performed well in terms of project management. They consistently deliver on time and communicate well. We use Jira, Slack, Zoom, and Notion for communication and project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ubiminds has provided us with resources that not only have the technical expertise to deliver what we’re trying to do but also match the culture we’re trying to establish. All of them have been incredibly collaborative, enthusiastic, and aligned with our mission.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had one individual whose English skills were not as strong as the others, so there was a bit of a language barrier.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to take time to work with Ubiminds so they can understand what you’re looking for in terms of technical skills and from a cultural perspective.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a development company founded in 2020. We build apps and services using a decentralized storage network for storing data on blockchain technology. One of our apps lets users upload, download, and share files easily through this decentralized system. Currently, we’re also developing a SaaS product and targeting some enterprise customers. We have various teams within our organization, focusing on different parts of the business, such as engineering, marketing, and community management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

As CEO, I’m always looking at how to scale up our business in different ways, and one of them is by hiring good talent. When I started the company, I was in charge of those efforts myself, facing the challenges of looking for trustworthy people, screening candidates, and conducting interviews. At one point, recruiting was taking up a lot of my time, so I decided to look for a trusted staffing agency that could help me with those efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ubiminds has provided us with staffing services for the past year. Initially, we met with them to understand their processes and how they looked for candidates. We had written some job descriptions, so they also provided feedback on them and tailored them to their search process.

Whenever we need to fill a new role, Ubiminds connects with the initial candidates and prescreen them to choose the ones who meet our requirements. Then, they give us summaries of the chosen candidates and help us coordinate interviews with them.

The usual interview process goes as follows: Ubiminds has an initial call with the candidates, after which I talk to them for about 30 minutes. Then, the candidates have another technical interview with some of my engineers; Ubiminds facilitates the entire process. During some interviews, they’ve also let us use their own videoconferencing software.

Although we onboard new resources to our organization ourselves, Ubiminds also has their own onboarding process, which includes providing them with laptops to do their work. All the candidates they get for us are from Brazil, so they also offer them classes to improve their English. Moreover, they act as an intermediary from the financial side, helping us negotiate their salary and handling their taxes and financial obligations.

What is the team composition?

We work with three main people from Ubiminds. One of them acts as the headhunter, another one is responsible for our account, and the other is part of their finance department, so he answers my questions regarding payroll.

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

Our CTO had done a lot of business with Ubiminds at a past company. When we needed to hire more engineers, he recommended them. Then, we talked with a senior leader of my CTO’s prior company, and he had great things to say about Ubiminds. Thus, we went directly to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000, including the salary paid to the resources we’ve hired.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first communicated with Ubiminds in December 2021, and the first time they helped us fill a role was around March 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

So far, Ubiminds has filled three roles for us, helping us scale up our team. Thus, the main success metric is that they’ve done what they promised. Additionally, these resources seem to really like working through Ubiminds, which is great. They enjoy the classes and training they get, which is a sign that Ubiminds is a good place to work in.

Additionally, Ubiminds is very responsive. The second candidate we hired quit after one week, which was a shock for all of us, them included. Still, they understood the pain of that issue and helped us find someone else very quickly — they handled the situation very well and didn’t charge us for the additional expenses.

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

Ubiminds is very communicative, and even though they’re from Brazil, we haven’t experienced a language barrier. We communicate very easily with them via email and a shared Slack channel, so we can reach out to them whenever we need them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ubiminds is very friendly and always strives to help, so I now see them as an extension of our team. They’re always there when we need them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, there were occasions when Ubiminds showed up a bit late for the interviews or didn’t show up at all, which made the process a little more difficult. However, we provided feedback, and they fixed the issue. Other than that, it has been very easy to work with them. Of course, we would like it if they were more economical or could find people faster, but ultimately, everything has worked out well for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very communicative and responsive when they send you candidates. There’s a timeline to all of it, so if you don’t answer quickly, you might lose the candidate. Moreover, be upfront about the roles you’re looking to hire for; the clearer you are on your requirements, the better the candidates will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager of LawnStarter, Inc., a lawn mowing services provider and largest outdoor services marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

We were looking to supplement our team with high-quality staffing solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ubiminds provides us with HR recruitment and staff augmentation services. We give them our requirements that usually contain the candidate’s hard and soft skills over a 30-minute phone call, which they will then use to screen and interview candidates. 

When they determine that the candidate is a good fit for our company, the team will send them to us for further screening along with their description and information.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 4–6 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

My company was already in partnership with Ubiminds before I came into the company.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with the Ubiminds team in October 2021, and our partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Thanks to Ubiminds, we’re able to hire high-quality professionals and increase their retention rate. From what I understand, we haven’t had a single person leave our company since I started.

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re spectacular from a project management perspective, as they communicate well and organize the process wonderfully. Apart from that, they handle all our schedules and interviews professionally, which usually takes about 3–5 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re very impressed with how good they are at understanding our needs and what fits from a skill and cultural standpoint. They’re just really exceptional at finding the right candidate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My experience with them has been great so far, and I haven’t seen anything they need to improve on at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of your engagement, you have to be clear about what your needs are.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a mobile app development company. We have a digital nostalgia product that allows people to connect their social media accounts and local photos to a platform and reminisce about their memories from the past every day. Our company also works in the ad technology space. We’re not just a B2C company; we’re also a B2B company that allows other businesses to monetize their products via digital advertising. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

We wanted to scale up our mobile engineering team because we only had two mobile engineers. One of them was for iOS, and the other was for Android. We couldn’t scale the team up because we had too many direct reports. Our organization also had a flat structure that became too wide for one person to manage. 

As a result, our main challenge was to find some to be the head of mobile engineering to oversee our existing engineers and report to me. We also needed to hire additional mobile engineers that the head would manage while I served as a skip-level manager. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ubiminds provides the personnel that our company needs. For iOS, we need Swift engineers with some knowledge of Objective-C programming. For Android, we need Java- and Kotlin-skilled engineers. Generally, the staff that Ubiminds provides should have high-level skills in mobile software engineering. 

Meanwhile, for the head of mobile engineering role, we require management experience, good IQ, good soft and communication skills, and the ability to be both a tech lead and a people manager. 

At present, we’ve filled the head of mobile engineering role, but we still reach out to Ubiminds on a monthly basis. We check whether the people we’ve hired through them are doing well and happy. We ensure that everything they need, whether that be related to HR functions or devices, is fulfilled. 

What is the team composition?

On a regular basis, we deal with three people from the Ubiminds side, consisting of the head of mobile engineering and two other people. 

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

We used to work with a professor that had his own consulting firm. He suggested we reach out to Ubiminds because he had success at placing engineers through them.

Meanwhile, we didn’t explore too many offshore or nearshore options while searching for someone to fill the head of engineering role in our company. We spent over six months trying to fill it locally in New York. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was even more difficult to find the right fit. At that point, we were ready to try new things, and engaging with Ubiminds was one of those things. 

How much have you invested with them?

Year to date, we’ve spent between $75,000–$100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

In terms of the hires that we’ve made through Ubiminds, the head of mobile engineering has been fantastic. He’s changed the way our mobile team operates. Overall, he’s provided the level of oversight and leadership that I haven’t been able to provide because I was stretched so thinly. On top of that, he’s been able to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders in a way that satisfies everyone. 

Meanwhile, the two additional mobile engineers they’ve hired have also been good. One of them only started last week, so we don’t have much feedback on him yet. The other one started six weeks ago, and he’s been fairly effective in the role that he plays. 

For Ubiminds themselves, everything has been smooth. They’ve been good at providing the hires with their needs, such as information, laptops, mobile devices, billing and invoicing tools, and others. 

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

Everyone’s working remotely, so communication hasn’t been challenging for us. On top of that, they’re nearshore, so there’s only a couple of hours’ difference between our time zones. We do stand-ups every morning and have monthly meetings with the entire company. Further, we conduct weekly sprint planning meetings. A project manager oversees all of these. 

Furthermore, the engineering team is on Slack for day-to-day communication. We also use Monday.com as task management software. For any announcements or broadcast messages, we email the entire team or a subset of team members to let them know what they need to do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Ubiminds team is attentive to feedback and adjusts accordingly. If they send me a resume that doesn’t fit what we’re looking for, I take the time to highlight what I like and don’t like about it. Then, their team takes our feedback and strategically adjusts the candidates that they send to me. Overall, the hiring process has been smooth because they actively listen and adjust to our needs. As a result, we’ve found the people we need for our mobile team quite quickly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have frequent and honest communications about the roles that you want them to fill. Some people simply write a job description, put it out there, and expect things to come — that’s not how it works when you use recruiters. You must spend time early on to establish what you like and dislike. If you don’t, you’ll end up with too many resumes that simply don’t fit your requirements. In the end, you might get disillusioned. Moreover, remember that Ubiminds is receptive to feedback and instills value into it in a way that you may not find in other recruiters.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our SaaS company is primarily in the marketing technology space. We have 1,400 employees and are mainly US-based, but we have a global presence. I am the VP of engineering and I lead a large portion of our team as well as play a role in overall engineering projects. We have about 300 engineers, all focused on software product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

We have teams in Asia and in Europe, but we were looking to grow a team in a timezone that’s a little closer to the US. We worked with Ubiminds to hire engineers in Brazil that could work collaboratively with the US team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Ubiminds for several months and met multiple times a week to get the process going, from recruiting, sourcing, and then to interviews. Their team would filter down to a small set of candidates that they had high confidence in. Those candidates would be sent over to us for additional interviews to make sure that they were fit for the role. 

They were able to help us get to the point where we were ready to make offers to the candidates, but our legal team came in and shut the project down. All parties were frustrated, and we did not actually employ engineers via Ubiminds. However, the work that they did with us was useful in securing candidates. There were a lot of potential risks and barriers to us working together, but their CEO and legal team were able to help us out. 

What is the team composition?

I was regularly meeting with four people. We spoke to the delivery manager and the recruitment lead on a daily basis and had one person from their legal team join our weekly calls. We also had plenty of meetings with their CEO, which I didn’t expect but certainly found helpful. 

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

We filtered our search down to Mexico and Brazil because of the time zone and the access to engineering talent. From there, we did some of our own research and went through heavily weighted referrals in our network. 

We didn’t have a direct referral to the team; we had a referral to another staffing company in Brazil that was no longer in business and recommended that we talk to Ubiminds. We evaluated a bunch of different partners but Ubiminds came out on top, so we decided to go with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in November 2020. The project hasn’t necessarily ended yet as we’re still trying to work through some issues, but all operations stopped at the end of February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I was evaluating Ubiminds on their ability to find quality engineers for our company. The success rate between who they sent us and who we want to move forward with was high. They were clearly approaching the staffing project similar to how we would.

They were very efficient and effective at finding us quality candidates, which is not easy to do. I thought that they would take long, as the recruitment process usually takes a couple of months of calibration, but they found high-caliber people incredibly quickly. We kicked off the recruitment in January and took a month to get to the offer stage with a candidate. 

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

We wanted a high degree of collaboration so along with using Google Sheets, they were communicating with us ad hoc via Slack. They were sending us structured weekly reports on the status of the process and the various pipelines, which we would then discuss.

We had also been going back and forth on a daily basis, which was super efficient because, with other vendors, you’d have to reach out first to know what’s going on. They were incredibly helpful. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a focus on quality over bodies. In the staffing industry, it’s easy to just get five people without focusing on their skill in high-quality product software development. What separates Ubiminds from other providers is that they’re not just a body shop and that they find engineers that would be hirable in the US.

We immediately felt like they were our partners and members of our own team. They were highly collaborative, which is not common in this sector. I’ve worked with a bunch of other contract firms who will only try to be nice and helpful because they wanted our business. Few are actually genuinely helpful like Ubiminds.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of it is a matter of scale and has to do with the legal and business negotiation side, not with the actual service performed. They are small and nimble so they can move very quickly to work with startups and high-growth companies. However, we are a bigger company, and we have certain standards and sets of requirements, so we encountered some hurdles. All the vendors that we work with have to have a certain amount of insurance to reduce the liability for us, but they didn’t have that for us in advance. They had to work to acquire that insurance. 

Ubiminds didn’t seem to have as much experience working in the environment of large companies. I think they should be more proactive in providing their own contract terms. They’re very flexible and will work with the terms of the company that’s hiring them, but I think they should work on this as they grow and mature.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Definitely set up a Slack channel and be highly communicative. Some people will want to check in with Ubiminds only once a week, but I don’t think that’s the right approach for this type of engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a company of about 100 employees, including 35 in-house engineers and 12 outsourced engineers. We operate in the internet space. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

We have a main provider of engineering contractors, but for some of the roles we are looking for, we needed somebody in the same time zone. As a result, we partnered with Ubiminds to provide us with staffing solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start of our project, we onboarded a data analyst from Ubiminds. After that, we also onboarded a frontend engineer last December. Currently, we are working with them to hire a site reliability engineer (SRE). They are helping us fill our staffing gaps, and quickly augment our existing staff with more affordable staff offshore. They pre-screen candidates before presenting them to us.

What is the team composition?

I work with Roberta (Head of Operations) and Danielle (Tech Recruiter).

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

Another company had already used them and referred them to us. We liked tthat our companies share the same philosophy. We wanted to hire people on the team that could be real team members of our company. We also wanted people that’s not going to be just there to do work and follow our orders, but a team we could collaborate with. 

How much have you invested with them?

They do not charge a recruiting fee, but we pay approximately $9,000 per person for the candidates that we have hired through them. In total, we’ve spent $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since October. We’re basically working with Ubiminds indefinitely. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

So far, we’ve been completely satisfied with their services. The folks they’ve sent to us are great — smart, very able, collaborative, and productive. Most importantly, everybody gets along with them very well. Looking for an SRE engineer has been going pretty slowly, but it’s really hard to find good SRE people. 

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

Roberta has been excellent. She even made a little presentation for us, so that people could get to know the company a little bit better. Overall, we’ve had no trouble.

The team sets up regular meetings so that we can check-in, and they’re also good at canceling them whenever it feels unnecessary. In summary, I believe the communication we have is perfect — it’s a model communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

How well they fit in with our process, and how they stick with their philosophy of bringing in real team members have been impressive. They really seem like they care about providing good people and matches. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing bad to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t work with them if you’re looking for somebody to just finish things. If you’re looking to augment your team and to have positive team members, they will be an amazing partner. I’ve already recommended them to a few folks. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a lending service for small businesses. Our mission is to make sure that small businesses have access to and an understanding of funding they need to grow and expand. We provide a large amount of educational content on funding and running a business. There’s also a ton of material around loans and financial assistance for small businesses. 

We also have a tool that helps us match lending specialists with clients. Our team works with them identity products that best match their needs. On their behalf, we submit applications and receive offers. We’re also responsible for walking clients through their offers and option. Our other site offers more general information and content and business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

They’re staffed on frontend work and full-stack development to assist the continued growth of our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our CMS runs on PHP, so they largely base their work on PHP and JavaScript. Their work is heavily geared toward React on the frontend. We used it to build our own design system that we use to maintain our properties and refresh our look over time. We also have a decent-sized Ruby on Rails and have some internal APIs that need extensions every so often.

Their company allows us to play a role in the interview process, helping us make sure that we put together the right team for each project. That allows everyone involved with hiring to be engaged and involved.   

What is the team composition?

At this point, we have one of their team members on staff and plan on hiring several more. 

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

I’d worked with them in the past and was happy about the company culture and experience collaborating with their developers. It’s a good-natured company that takes care of its employees. Their services still offer competitive prices and flexibility with services. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000 on their services to this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We follow a lean, agile process that allows us to review their code every time they create something new. All their work is of very high quality. The output of our Ubiminders is on par with our full-time staff.

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re engaged in all of our planning and meetings. We communicate with them using Jira, Zoom, and other project management tools. I appreciate their engagement. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of maturity and knowledge that the technical staff provides us is very impressive. The process is strong, and I can count on them having all the skills we might need. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It does take some time to make sure that your hiring needs are understood by their team. They’re continuing to hone their process to make sure the success rate after hiring is as high as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an ed-tech company founded 10 years ago and acquired in November 2019 by the largest educational company in the world. I’ve been with the company for the past four years, and my role has been head of engineering. I lead the engineering team, including not only operations but quality and engineers with different expertise.

My role has primarily been to build two products. We have millions of users around the globe, and our primary customers are school districts in the US. Our products are primarily focused on K-12, but our customers are also higher education and corporate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ubiminds?

Being based in New York, our biggest challenge is finding talented people that are aligned with our mission. We’re competing for great talent with headhunters, finance, and high-paid jobs in general. We don’t have the same financial resources to hire those top-edge candidates, so I started opening the map. With COVID, everyone is talking about building distributed teams, but I started doing this 3–4 years ago.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

What Ubiminds offered at the time was unique and different from traditional recruiting companies. We gave them our standards, interview process, the bar of engineers we wanted, and our budget, and Ubiminds actually went to the market and found those kinds of people.

If I wanted an engineer with a certain expertise, they would curate and do all the heavy lifting to find those candidates and get them excited about our company, and we’d follow the same interviewing process we would when hiring an engineer in New York. We use them to build distributed teams without compromising quality, but at lower costs.

In the early days, they would ask us about our company mission and the kinds of products we sold. The engineers we were hiring already had good jobs, so they needed to understand what the next couple of years would look like for them. The candidates were interviewing us as much as we were interviewing them, trying to find the best match.

Once a candidate started working for us, Ubiminds would take care of all the labor laws in Brazil and the logistics, and they’d focus on keeping the employee excited.

A traditional recruiting company would get its fee and be done. Ubiminds keeps the relationship and they focus on keeping engineers for the longest possible time.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with their recruiting managers.

How did you come to work with Ubiminds?

I’d been struggling with hiring for many years, and I would ask for engineers during meetups and on social media. I wanted to work with a company in the same time zone, and I’d heard good things about Argentina and Brazil. I was part of the same WhatsApp CTO group as Ubiminds’ CEO, and he told me about his company. I’d worked with some large staffing companies, but Ubiminds was offering a different kind of product.

How much have you invested with them?

Ubiminds doesn’t charge me hourly. All the contracts I have with them are enroll-based SOWs because they aim to hire long-term fulltime employees. I pay a flat fee of $90,000–$110,000 per person per year, and I pay that monthly. This is irrespective of how many days off someone takes or how much overtime they log. I pay them $1.3 million–$1.5 million per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first hire with them was around September 2017, but the conversation started earlier.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

After all these years, the metric I look at most is attrition. People are staying committed to our mission and delivering the value I want in order to build the product I need. In other words, Ubiminds doesn’t work project-based, as many consulting companies do. They’re helping me build my product by finding people that align with us.

Their engineers follow the same career ladder that I have in my organization, so we’ll make sure that whoever is doing a great job will get recognized and promoted, and we’ll readjust the fees for that new role. The metrics we look at with Ubiminds are no different than the ones we have for internal fulltime employees, so the expectations for them are exactly the same.

While it may sound obvious, it isn’t. I’ve worked in offshore models where people just hired because it was “cheap”, but it didn’t turn out cheap at the end of the day, given the quality.

One thing that really made Ubiminds different is that they work as any other fulltime member of our team. They’re available, they follow the same career ladder, and they’re measured by the value they deliver to users.

How did Ubiminds perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Greenhouse internally, and the dedicated recruiters from Ubiminds are reporting to our internal recruiting team. If I want to hire a full-stack engineer, we will open that position and post a job description in Greenhouse, and the Ubiminds recruiters will have access to it, along with our US ones. They also use our Slack. We’ve had the same Ubiminds recruiters working for us for all these years, so they know our culture and team very well. That’s helped a lot in finding candidates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really high-touch, so they’re not the right fit for someone looking to build a team for a six-month engagement. Ubiminds works as part of our team, and they make money if their hires are successful. The longer we keep them as part of the team, the better it is for them, so they have an incentive to keep the team engaged. They take care of all the logistics involved in keeping people together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At some point, I struggled with how fast they could scale. I think they were in the very early days, and it’s been resolved. They were open to feedback, and they put in more recruiters to fulfill our needs. I have a very good relationship with them, and we wouldn’t have been acquired without Ubiminds’ team. We’ve had a successful exit, which is really hard to find. There’s always room for improvement, but they’ve helped me scale my team faster.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If the client is trying to find a near- or offshore company just for the sake of price, Ubiminds is not the way to go. If price is the only concern, they can go to India or Eastern Europe, but they’ll be losing the collaboration factor and many other things.

If the client wants people that will align to the company mission and help build the product long term, then Ubiminds is worth the price. They’re cheaper than actually hiring in the US, but they’re way more expensive than Eastern Europe and India. They’re also not the kind of people that’ll have people sitting, waiting to be hired. They’re going to seek the people we need.