“If you want to scale up, the first thing you have to do is to expand your own team.”
- Ruth Simmons (President of Prairie View A&M University)
Have you achieved the product-market fit? If your answer to that is a “Yes,” congratulations on your big milestone. From humble beginnings, you have proven the worthiness of your products & services to investors. And now, it’s time to scale up - unlock new opportunities, expand your team & build upon its strengths, and explore new markets. This part of the journey isn’t as simple as it may sound; however, there are positives that you can carry forward from your experiences of working with a smaller team.
Approximately 30 percent of startups generally fail at the end of the second year, ideally a few months after receiving the Series B funding. The rate of failure is the highest for the Information Technology sector.
An important thing to keep in mind while scaling up is, unnecessary changes may derail a previously successful business. So you must get the following points right:
Your current team shares the same vision as yours
The team is stable and capable of accommodating rapid changes
You have a long-term plan and not just for the next 10 people you’ll be hiring.
Once you have the above things in place, it will be a bit easier for you to scale up! Most startups make these common mistakes while scaling up:
Not hiring the perfect candidates before your competitor hires them
Compromising talent quality to keep up with project deadlines
Missing project deadlines while searching for the right talent.
All this may result in product failures, rework, and, eventually, financial losses.
Scenario 1
Scaling is the hardest thing we’ve ever done,” said Alex Turnbull, the CEO and Founder of Groove.
Groove successfully built a product that people loved; however, the company had to fight through several setbacks and near-death experiences. Finding the right talent in a highly competitive market and investing in them was a crucial aspect of scaling up, according to Alex.
Scenario 2
Atrium, a legal software enterprise backed by mighty investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, shut down operations in March 2020.
The company had to lay off over 100 employees and return some of its $75.5 million funding in its quest to deliver better operational efficiency, which went haywire. The series B funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. That’s how disastrous it could be if you don’t hire the right talent and scale up at the right time.
So, how can you successfully scale up with minimum risk
Building your own team in India is one of the smartest ways to expand your workforce and scale up. It offers several advantages, including cost-saving, round-the-clock operations, enhanced quality of products & services, reduced time-to- market, and high customer satisfaction. India is among the most preferred offshore destinations in the world, owing to its large talent pool. Channelizing funds to build an offshore team with the right partner in India reduces hiring efforts. It ensures that you get the best talent without exceeding your budget. This further eliminates the need to compromise on skills and expertise altogether. Another significant advantage of offshoring to India is that the time zone difference empowers you to provide technical support to customers worldwide.
The salary of a software engineer in the U.S. typically ranges from
US$82,000 to US$120,000.
While, the software engineer’s salary in India is between
US$12,083 and US$14,768.
How can Braves help you to scale up your engineering team successfully?
With Braves, you can scale up by having a dedicated team in India at half of what you would end up spending in the U.S. We build offshore teams that match our clients’ exact requirements and provide them with the best infrastructure. This dedicated team will enable you to achieve round-the-clock operations and faster time-to-market, along with the ability to serve a global customer base.
With 15+ years of experience in technology recruitment, Braves helps you to hire the best talent available in the market. We let you directly collaborate with your team in India to have the clarity on deliverable and output goals. To ensure that you can focus on the core productivity, Braves takes charge of HR, infrastructure, management and operations – until the time you are ready to establish and scale up your organization in India.
Without legal, management and operational responsibilities, we help you to leverage the best talent, cost-saving, time-zone difference with a team in India. Sounds good? Then what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us to find out more.