We have been meeting with several founders and mentors and one question that usually comes up is "Are there really good engineers in Latin America?"
Quick answer: Yes.
Deep answer: Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable.
Quality is one of the main concerns founders have, nobody wants a sh%!ty product that eventually will need to be re-built. Also, we all hate to be working with incompetent people that require tons of energy and time from our side to get things done. When we heard about nearshore development, especially from the Latin America region, these two problems come to mind. There is a common perception that developing countries are repellent to technology and therefore unable to generate good talent. This perception comes from decades of news and lack of previous experiences.
But things are changing now.
Latin America has become one of the fastest growing tech regions in the world and a hub for software companies with specialized talent. According to Crunchbase it passed from $500M USD of VC investments in 2016 to $4.9B USD in 2019. With this fuel injected tech startups started to pop-up on every country across the region, and with them more software engineers. Now Stack Overflow mentions that they are over 1 million software engineers in this region, with most of them concentrated on top tech countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
These software engineers learned how to work on remote projects since the beginning, given the lack of opportunities that forced them to look for jobs outside their hometowns. They have experience working with tech teams in the United Sates, following agile frameworks; are fluent in english, have great communication skills and work under your same time-zone meaning that it possible to communicate with them in real time. After the recent tech boom, all the infrastructure this region developed over the years is now ready for being employed by companies looking for the best cost-effective approach for building their product.
There are many specialized software development companies, or as we use to call them: partners, providing the office space and equipment these engineers require for developing an outstanding job in every project. They have created this working atmosphere where everyone can help each other solving technical problems, sharing tips and learning from the newest technologies. With them you are not dealing with freelancers, you are hiring a clan member.
Simbiosis aims to make this "merging the Americas" process more efficient and easy for everyone. As a US company you will be able to access this community, compare your options and decide; with all the benefits of having another US company by your side.
