A Ukrainian startup is now helping global companies find and hire Ukrainian programmers to work for them.
Called YouTeam, the startup “bridges” tech people from Eastern Europe with the rest of the world, giving access to a pool of programmers who are ready to jump on a tech project.
The list of the firms that have worked with programmers available on YouTeam is impressive, and includes Marvel, Amazon, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Nokia and hundreds of other big names from around the globe.
“There are a lot of good companies in London, in Silicon Valley, and we want to enable them to find good tech specialists. Good local specialists in turn will get access to big projects,” said YouTeam CEO Anton Mishchenko, speaking on a podcast called Made in Ukraine Tech Startup Edition.
As it understood the local market, YouTeam started with Ukraine. The startup handpicked software development agencies that had programmers available for work, and then advertised them on its website.
That went well, and now the company partners with about 100 agencies. They are not only from Ukraine now, but from Estonia, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, and Macedonia as well.
“We saw a global demand for engineering resources, knew there were many talented engineers from Eastern Europe, and wanted to give the world access to this supply,” Mishchenko said.
Although the company boasts big companies in their portfolio, their core audience is startups, small- and medium-sized enterprises.
YouTeam CEO Anton Mishchenko (C), company’s Chief Technology Officer Nikita Voloshyn (R), and Chief Product Officer Yurij Riphyak (L) pose for a picture.
YouTeam serves as a payment medium, and after his company matchmakes clients and programmers, it charges commission on every fee paid, which is adjusted depending on a scale and amount of money involved.
The company was founded in 2016 in London, but in 2018 it set up its headquarters in Mountain View, California. The main office, however, is in Lviv, some 500 kilometers west of Kyiv.
Mishchenko says if it hadn’t been for bright Ukrainians, the idea might not have worked at all.
But the move wasn’t accidental. YouTeam has chosen to relocate their headquarters to the United States after it got a boost from the U.S. business accelerator Y Combinator, which, according to Mishchenko, gave his team access to a greater network of investors and mentors in the U.S.
Besides, it will now be easier for the company to communicate with its U.S. clients, which “boosts the (company’s) chances of growing a successful business in the U.S.,” the entrepreneur said.
“Talent is global but opportunities are local,” Mishchenko added.
Mishchenko and two other Ukrainian co-founders, Yura Riphyak and Nikita Voloshin, developed YouTeam without any external investment. Only now has the company taken $120,000 from Y Combinator in exchange for 7 percent of its shares. Currently, the company is fundraising, as it is looking to expand.
Summing up the aim of his business, Mishchenko said it seeks “to democratize the process of finding international talent.”
The Kyiv Post’s technology coverage is sponsored by Ciklum and NIX Solutions. The content is independent of the donors.
