This article was written by Ken Leaver who comes from a product & commercial background. He has founded multiple companies and held senior product positions at SEA tech companies like Lazada and Pomelo Fashion.
Ken runs his own agency that helps early stage companies execute faster and cheaper. Check out his linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenleaver/
Guest Author: Ken Leaver
A few thoughts on the explosion of global offshoring models like SupportShepherd
A few weeks ago SupportShepherd announced a pretty big raise of ~$30m at a $50m+ valuation. And they also changed their name to Somewhere.com.
I’ve also seen at least 10 other similar offshoring co’s in the past few weeks/months that have more or less the same model.
It is always some mix of:
– Find offshore talent in places like Philippines, Pakistan, etc.
– Offer them to companies in developed markets like the US for markups that tend to range from 20 – 30% of their salary.
They tend to position themselves as being ‘recruiters’.
Now for Ken’s 2 cents.. 🙂
1- I’ve used probably well over 200+ offshore freelancers over the past 4 years. Mainly from Upwork/Fiverr but not always.
I manage everyone direct (ie. I oversee every task they do in clickup) and have had them do tons of stuff from building apps, to design, to QA to making content, etc.
2- Given this… i honestly don’t think there is gonna be many folks in these offshoring co’s that have more direct experience managing offshore talent
They might have more experience ‘recruiting’ them.. but I doubt there are more than a handful that can stand up and say “i’ve managed 200+ offshore folks directly” like i can.
So in my book.. i understand how this market works as well… or prob better than they do.
3- With this context, I put pretty much zero value in anyone else recruiting and hiring offshore labor for me.
I don’t care how many interviews they say they did. I don’t care how many recruiters they say they have.
Why? B/c its easier/better to test several folks with actual work and then keep the best one(s). This has proven time and again to me that it is by far the best way of getting the best people.
4- They are not tapping a different talent pool than the one i am.
Some of these co’s say… “oh with us you get folks that are not on Upwork”
When I hear this… i just think they don’t understand how things actually work in these countries… people hop b/w Upwork and working for some offshore service co all the time.
Sometimes they’re doing both at the same time.
To them.. it’s more or less the same thing except if the offshoring company gives them a steady salary.
But its more or less the same pool of talent. Non-upworkers are not better/smarter than Upworkers.
5- Where do i see this going?
This is where i think the true game is to be played… and one that i’ve spent the last 4 years honing my skills on.
The game is in reducing the frictions…
– how do you vet who’s good quickly?
– how to make sure that the tasks you give them are clear and they clarify them promptly when they’re not?
– how do you ensure the tasks they work on are done on time?
– how do you make them as efficient as possible in how they coordinate with your team?
I predict that these ‘frictions’ are the next level of this offshoring game where everyone is gonna compete. Let’s see.
