Vilmate LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s a crowdfunding platform focused not so much on donations and awards, but more on equity and loans. It’s one of the biggest ones in Scandinavia.

I have been the chief technology officer [CTO] for six months, leading development and the development team. I was previously CTO in another company, so I’ve been leading software development for a few years. I’ve been in IT for six years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with VILMATE?

I was recruited for this job. The company had an issue with developer retention onsite. I was tasked with setting up a new team. Since I needed to do it quickly, I saw a challenge in Stockholm with the developer market being oversaturated and felt that the recruiting process would take a long time. I contacted VILMATE, who I had worked with in my previous position because I felt comfortable with their recruiting process and I trust them as people. In this company, we’ve not outsourced before. There’s a cost-benefit to outsourcing. As I see it, there’s another benefit that has become more important recently, which is that it’s possible to find developers and it’s quite quick.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There are a few different parts of outsourcing business models. Some guys do fixed cost. Some guys do hourly, etc. I’m not sure about everything that VILMATE does. What their task has been primarily is to handle the recruitment process, and not just putting bodies in the chair but actually finding individuals, setting up a team, and thinking about the team dynamic for a more long-term commitment. They have been looking for a good mix. At the previous place, we were a Microsoft shop, so we searched for talent in .NET, C#, full stack developers - of course modern HTML, JavaScript, CSS, REST API, SQL, SQL Server. They also worked with iOS and Android development. In my new job, we are open source. We are using Python, Django, Postgres, Amazon AWS hosting, Linux server, and also modern frontend JavaScript and modern HTML/CSS. I know they also work on PHP there. I don’t know about what else, but for these skills, the recruiting has been a good fit. Our team is oseven people.

How did you come to work with VILMATE?

My previous employer was already a client at VILMATE when I started there, and that was about two years ago. That’s how I got to know VILMATE and worked with the team there. Then, I moved companies and it was just natural for me to contact VILMATE for the new recruiting opportunity because I had a positive experience with them previously.

How much have you invested with VILMATE?

There’s a monthly cost. It has two aspects. They have a transparent business model and cost model. They have a fixed fee that goes to VILMATE; it’s their cut. Then there’s a variable salary part that is negotiated on an individual basis with each developer. VILMATE’s fee covers the recruiting phase. Of course, they don’t start invoicing until the first working day, but then it covers office space, equipment, your regular developer PC stuff, and also testing equipment, iPhones and iPads, and some team activities, etc. Then, there’s a range for the developers. Usually, the developer will have a salary request. Usually, I will acknowledge it but it depends on their seniority. They have a 5% markup. Other than that, the salary part goes pretty much straight to the individual developer and those prices range from between $1,000 and $3,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started with them at my current company in April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I gave them the task of setting up a developer team of six people completely from scratch. They did so in two months. This is not just grabbing six people from the street. This is a real long-term team that works well for me. It was a crucial situation for our company and they came through. I needed them previously for C# but for this company we needed Python. It was a little bit different, but they pulled through and did it. I am running my team at VILMATE closely myself. We don’t have another team or an internal team - I’m the technical guy in our company. They are delivering according to expectations.

How did VILMATE perform from a project management standpoint?

I know other clients that have dedicated project managers from VILMATE. I’ve chosen not to do so because I want to have a more hands-on role myself. I take most of the project management part of it. I have daily communication with my team. I come from a developer background myself, and I want to work with these guys as a team, not just a project. VILMATE's management is not involved on a daily basis. That said, whenever it’s been needed I feel that they’re there. I know they’re there in the background making sure that things go smoothly. If I don’t talk to VILMATE directly in a month, it means everything’s good. If I have an issue, I can contact their senior people there and they’ll straighten it out in a few days. We use modern communication tools.

Again, I handle the project management part of it myself, meaning I set up the tools that I will use like project management for scrum planning, etc. I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to, they could help me set it up. It wasn’t a need I felt. They handle human resources and they report on a monthly basis. As I have worked with them for quite some time, the trust is already there.

What did you find most impressive about VILMATE?

I trust them. It sounds easy, but it’s very important. I think a big part of working remotely like this is trust. I’ve heard many people that have been less experienced with this type of offshoring and had a bad experience because they didn’t really do it fully; they didn’t understand what would be required of them from a management perspective. But it also could be that those vendors were maybe a little bit shady or it was difficult to understand who your individual developer was. For instance, as soon as someone went from junior to mid-level, they would disappear or people would come and go on a project, etc. I felt nothing like this from VILMATE. I feel like they take my needs as a customer very seriously and work hard to make sure there’s a good fit with the coders. That said, they also understand that in order to attract young and skilled people, they have to make sure that they’re happy as well. In conclusion, I like the recruiting process. It’s not only done professionally but also with passion. And then I like the pricing model. It’s very transparent.

Are there any areas VILMATE could improve?

My recommendation with anyone that is outsourcing is that it is work. You can’t just assume a body (resource) is a body (like an employee). Building with people is difficult; it involves the water cooler talk, etc. That’s part of a general reflection not specific to VILMATE. Of course, there have been issues. I’ve worked with them for quite some time and I’ve gotten to know them on a personal level. It also means that conflicts can arise. But I don’t have a specific negative I can mention. We’ve always figured it out when there have been issues.