How to

Hire a Ukrainian Developer For Startups – Complex Guide

May 12, 2022•4 min read

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In the 21st century, several of the world's most renowned companies evolved from startups. We believe many people know fantastic breakthrough stories of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. There is no point repeating it a hundred times. No single formula exists for the success of startups on their way to thriving corporations. However, according to serial founder and investor Tanya Prive, a successful startup has to work carefully and master the skills of budgeting.

How does the economy for new firms relate to programmers from Ukraine? When you hire a Ukrainian developer for startups, it's a golden opportunity to allocate your budget wisely while getting the highest quality work. Those are not just words. Ukraine has had the most beneficial environment for the IT industry over the past few years.

Why should you hire a Ukrainian developer for startups?

One crucial detail needs to be mentioned to understand why this country in Eastern Europe has become so business and startup-friendly. In the 2020s, Ukraine put a series of reforms allowing the government to move towards the growth of local IT business, improving work conditions for technical and non-technical specialists in the IT sector.

Apart from updating several laws on internet technologies, other necessary business development laws were adopted in Ukraine. For this reason, the country has risen from 71 to 64 positions in the report of WBDB (World Bank Doing Business). Such growth has become a positive signal for investors and entrepreneurs to start a business here.

Some might not think the 64th position in the ranking is high enough. The WBDB report always considers the data of 190 countries; however, these are promising results.

One more critical point for startups is the knowledge of English among programmers. Ukrainian developers speak this business language quite well. In the EF EPI rating, which displays English language skills among adults in 112 countries, specialists from Ukraine rank 40th.

The three main economic pillars of the Ukrainian economy are the metallurgical, agricultural, and IT sectors. Ukraine is one of the top 3 exporters of IT services to other countries. In 2020 PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) published a forecast where they predicted the growth of the Ukrainian IT market to $8,4 billion in 2025. We hope that the country will be able to achieve such goals by this period.

Other reasons why you should hire a Ukrainian developer for startups:

There are many excellent technical schools in this country. Like the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, or Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. All of them give solid knowledge to their graduates.
Many regions of Ukraine have become home to excellent IT specialists. Every part of Ukraine has an area where this sector is developed at the highest level. Not only in Kyiv, you can find top devs for a startup, but also in Lviv, Dnipro, and other regions.
Every year, the number of IT services exports from Ukraine is growing. According to PwC reports, in 2016, the figure reached almost $2 billion, and already in 2020, it crossed the mark of $5,03 billion.
The pool of technical talents in the country is growing due to the local and foreign market development. IT Ukraine Association reports Ukrainian tech talent increased from 244,000 to 285,000 between 2020 and 2021. Altogether, they boosted the industry's profit by 36% in 12 months.
The rate for a Ukrainian developer for startups and large companies is reasonable. Of course, the final bill is highly dependent on the programmer's experience, the niche in which they work, and the complexity of the project. A software developer from North America or Australia takes $100 per hour on average. A specialist with similar experience and the same pool of work in Eastern Europe often takes almost two times less.

In the last point, The Frontend Company team mentioned the hourly rate issue for specialists. With all that said, we forgot to touch on the incredibly high talent gap of specialists in the IT industry worldwide, which affects startups, medium and large businesses. Because of the slow speed of training specialists with the necessary skills, for many business people, the only solution is to cooperate with programmers from other countries. You can take it a different way, though.

Besides hiring a Ukrainian developer for startups, it is okay to consider the option of reskilling and upskilling. According to Unleash, a global digital media for HR, technology, learning, and recruitment leaders, by 2025, the global workforce will need reskilling.

SHRM also tends to assume that it will not be as easy to recruit and keep qualified technicians in the current era. On the one hand, it provides more teamwork and makes employers value their people more, but on the other hand, it brings some challenges to employers. For example, they have to think about cybersecurity in a hybrid business model (remote/outsourcing and in-house), and how to provide such working conditions so that specialists do not think about quitting for a long time.

What are the benefits of hiring a Ukrainian developer for startups?

Pros and cons of hiring a Ukrainian developer for startups

A Ukrainian developer for startups and where to find them

Our team often hears the same question from startups «Where can I find a developer in Ukraine?». There is no single place in the country where programmers would be located. Since Ukraine has a decentralized form of governance, it is equally profitable for local IT companies to work in different parts of the land. But there are many cities with the highest concentration of technical and non-technical IT experts.

Where can you hire a Ukrainian developer for startups?

Kyiv – the most important indicator for companies, is that many world-renowned companies have appeared in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv is home to Grammarly, Preply, Ajax System, and others. In addition, the founder and CEO of Ahrefs is also a Kyiv resident. It seems to us that having startups that have managed to prove their value to the world is the best sign of the high qualification of Kyiv developers. By the way, The Frontend Company is also based here;
Odessa – a few years ago, there were 150+ IT companies and up to 10,000 developers in the city. During this time, the number of firms engaged in developing applications, software, and other projects has increased dramatically. Some of them focused on outsourcing and exporting their services abroad. One of Looksery's divisions is located in Odessa;
Dnipro – according to Tech Ukraine, this city ranks 4th in the country by the number of Ukrainian developers for startups. Dnipro's specialists have impressive professional skills and are competent in many industries. Most often, programmers are involved in e-learning, finance, and gaming projects;
Lviv – is not just one of the largest cities in Western Ukraine. It's also a place where many IT specialists of different levels are based. When writing this article, it is where almost 500 Ukrainian companies are based. The city has an impressive pool of technically savvy specialists. There are 35 devs per thousand locals. Many companies in Lviv are focused on IT outsourcing, so here one can find a great Ukrainian developer for startups.

Except for the cities listed above, there are many good programmers in Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and others. However, there are much fewer companies in smaller Ukrainian towns, which significantly limits the choice of programmers with a suitable tech stack.

The most popular programming languages, frameworks, and libraries in the country

Before you dive into the process of recruiting specialists, you should first familiarize yourself with the most in-demand technologies. The technical interests of Ukrainian developers are wide enough. Nevertheless, individual specialists and outsourcing companies have their list of favorites.

What technology do Ukrainian developers prefer most?

JavaScript;
ReactJS;
Java;
NodeJS;
C#;
Angular;
Python, and more.

Our team did not run our survey. We used the information from Beetroot's 2021 Tech Market Report.

A brief how-to guide for hiring a Ukrainian developer for startups

Above, we have already dealt with the fact that Ukraine currently is one of the best countries for outsourcing. There are many reputable higher education institutions for technical specialists and beneficial business conditions for developing the internal and external market of IT services. In addition, the country has several centers of programmers' concentration, who are involved in projects for different industries.

The hourly rate of experts in Ukraine is noticeably lower than the rate of in-house specialists from other European countries with the same expertise. It makes cooperation with a Ukrainian developer for startups incredibly profitable and promising. The only thing left is to employ a programmer or a team of programmers with the necessary tech stack and skills.

Ten steps on how to hire a Ukrainian developer for startups:

Create a playbook with the responsibilities of the new team member or development team. Also, at this stage, prepare a list of questions that will allow you to evaluate the technical background of coders.
Calculate and set the required budget to limit the possible candidates for the position.
Do some research on the average hourly rates in the four IT cities of Ukraine.
Choose the most appropriate method of payment for coders.
Make a list of the best Ukrainian developers for startups with whom you would like to cooperate.
Contact the selected companies or individual experts to learn more details and terms of the partnership.
Check the testimonials and CVs of the programmers. Choose those coders who have experience in your industry or with similar projects.
Ensure the selected devs share your culture, values and adhere to open communication.
Research company reviews and conduct a few initial interviews. Ask as many questions as you can about the organization of the workflow, find out what the experts think about your product or service, ask for details about the tools used, etc.
If the company or the team of programmers fit all your parameters, try to perform a test assignment. It will allow you to check practically how the specialists approach the work and demonstrate their level of knowledge.

Do not rush to sign a contract until you are sure of the high skills of the coders and that the process of interaction with the team will not be flawless. It does not mean our recommendations on selecting a Ukrainian developer for startups will save you from any risks or mistakes. However, it will allow you to feel confident when hiring a crew and finding the perfect partner for cooperation.

TFC is a small Ukrainian company with experience in different niches. With us, you can hire the best programmers for startups working with ReactJS, Angular, React Native, HTML, and CSS technologies. For more information, please get in touch with our Managing Partner or email info@thefrontendcompany.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Vasylenko

CEO at The Frontend Company, Founder of Digital Business Card

Alex Vasylenko is the founder of The Frontend Company, DBC and several other successful startups. A dynamic tech entrepreneur, he began his career as a frontend developer at Deloitte and Scandinavia's largest banking company. In 2023, Alex was honored as one of 'Top 10 Emerging Entrepreneurs' by USA Today.

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