How to Find Developers for Startups in Ukraine

According to Stack Overflow, there are over 166,000 developers in Ukraine, which is the second largest number after Poland in the CEE region. Ukraine offers a large pool of exceptional specialists with great coding skills, a high level of culture, and excellent soft skills. If you are thinking about building a solid digital product for your startup, Ukraine is a perfect destination. You have probably heard about GitLab, Grammarly, Jooble, and Petcube. All of these startups were created by Ukrainians. Thus, developers in Ukraine have the practical experience and extensive knowledge in creating cool projects from scratch. Yojji also collaborates with startups in many verticals. Do you want to create a financial app or a healthcare-related project? No problem. We can do that and more.

In this article, we decided to share our tips on why you should find a developer for startups in Ukraine and describe the hiring procedure.

Why You Should Cooperate with Ukrainian Developers

Outsourcing to Ukraine is definitely gaining momentum, learn why.

• Favorable time zone

The time in Kyiv is 7 hours ahead of the time in New York. For a conference call or a meeting, the most convenient time for all parties would be between 16:00 and 18:00. As for Europe, the time in Ukraine is 1-2 hours ahead of the time in European countries, which is also an acceptable difference.

• Reasonable prices

This factor is one of the key ones for any startup because Ukrainians do their job well, but the rates are lower than in the USA or the EU. The average rate for programmers per hour is $25-80.

• High-quality work

Ukrainians have a high literacy rate as the country offers free access to education in various fields. Also, IT companies often grant their employees free language courses and advanced training courses. Besides, more than 70% of Ukrainians have a secondary or higher education. On top of that, due to a high level of education and high motivation for self-development, a majority of devs have the Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels of English. A minority speaks English at the Advanced level.

• Ukraine has a large outsourcing market

According to a PWC report, Ukraine is ranked 5th among the top 25 IT service exporters. The number of employees in Ukraine is over 200,000. You can easily find a specialist who meets your requirements.

• European mentality and great soft skills

According to statistics, 72% of employees are under 30 years old. It means that professionals are progressive, and have independent thinking, and mental agility. Besides, Ukrainian software engineers are great to work with due to their advanced soft skills. At Yojji, developers have empathy, that is why they make sure a project will work for everyone. Our developers are creative, prone to multitasking, can listen and speak clearly without conviction, are willing to accept new concepts, and are always dedicated to teamwork.

• Ukrainian developers gain their experience faster

In Ukraine, there are many outsourcing companies, which means that their employees have hands-on experience in various business verticals and with different technologies. They earn a high level of expertise in a short time. Usually, a junior programmer has 2 years of experience, a middle tech specialist has 3 years of experience, and senior programmers can boast over 5 years of experience.

How to Hire Ukrainian Developers

Hiring a professional software engineer can be a daunting task, but if you entrust to professionals, your journey will be pleasant. Below, Yojji shares tips on how to hire a developer.

• Select service type

  You will need to decide on the type of service your company needs to achieve all of its business goals. You can choose to fully outsource the project work, opt for IT outstaffing, or hire a dedicated team.

• Choose a vendor

  At this stage, it is crucial to find a reliable vendor with extensive experience and an impeccable reputation. You can search for companies on websites that offer a variety of reviews (e.g. Clutch), look at ratings of award-winning IT companies, or contact a company recommended by your peers. Besides, you can contact Yojji directly with your questions. We offer a wide range of services that may interest you.

• Research the selected supplier or suppliers

  To make the final choice, carefully analyze the supplier. Pay attention to the following parameters:

  • Company experience and practical experience of developers in launching startups in your niche or neighboring niches.
  • Analyze the technologies that the vendor offers.
  • Carefully study the vendor’s portfolio.
  • Pay attention to the company website - it should work flawlessly and provide all the necessary information. The company’s website is the calling card of the site, by which you can understand how responsibly the employees approach their work and how meticulously they carry it out.

• Prepare a list of necessary questions for the supplier

  Prepare an email to vendors to clarify the information you are interested in. You can find out more about rates, and development teams, and ask about their handling of confidential information (if they comply with GDPR, for example).

• Outline the specifics of your future project

  Organize a conference with your vendor to talk more about your project goals and specifics. It is also very important to discuss your values and vision for the project.

• Request a preliminary project evaluation

  After the initial discussions, discuss the budget issue carefully. Some startups have limited budgets and need to be aware of all costs, including those that may arise in the future. The service provider is required to prepare a preliminary estimate of the project.

• Choose a model of cooperation

  After all the details have been discussed, you need to choose a model of interaction. You have several options. A fixed-price model means that the project has a clear goal and a fixed budget. A time and the material model involves hourly pay for developers, regardless of the requirements of the project and its duration. In a dedicated team model, ​​the client and the provider agree on the workload, personnel requirements, and working hours. The IT team of the service provider works only on the tasks set by the client. Below, you will find all the pros and cons of the various models.

• Select a vendor

  Carefully analyze all the information you’ve gathered (experience, estimations, cooperation models) and make your choice. Once the choice is made, proceed to the next step.

• Sign a contract

  Remember that all reputable companies always work legally. Sign the contract and agree on payment terms.

• Meet the team

  Get to know your team, outline your main job objectives and priorities, and agree on a meeting schedule and workflow. Yojji adheres to Agile principles in its work - we divide the project work into several modules, send the results to the customer after each sprint, and are always ready to make the required changes.

• Start a partnership

  The most interesting phase of the project begins. Monitor the team’s work, take into account the professional’s advice, and make decisions to create a great product with killer features.

Bottom Line

So, working on a project can be thrilling if you partner with a reliable and professional vendor. Yojji has extensive experience in creating various startups, and our professional team would be happy to work on a new, exciting project. You can contact our managers and ask any questions that interest you.