How Developer-On-Rent’s unique rent-based model helps you hire the right talent
One of the biggest challenges most early-stage startups face is finding the right talent, especially where developers are concerned. Many cannot spare the resources required for a full-time developer, and in some situations, interns or freelancers are simply not enough. It was to solve this problem that Developer-On-Rent, a platform that allows you to hire a developer for your upcoming or existing business, was born.
Speaking of how they got the idea for this platform, 33-year-old Kapil Mehta says:
We thought of Developer-On-Rent when we initially planned to build our own e-commerce product. We went and met with various companies and all of them submitted their quotes. Across the quotes pricing was different with almost similar timelines, processes, deliverables but yet no confirmation as guaranteed towards launch of our platform.
The working model
The platform provides renting models for developers, which gives one the freedom to work in collaboration with a developer who knows exactly what you need. The platform works on a three-step model of click, rent, and work.
Kapil adds that they have a team of developers who come from varied fields, thus giving them the ability to handle any form of business or domain. The specialisations include web development, mobility, analytics, and others.
A computer science engineer and an MBA with 13 years of IT experience working with Honeywell and IBM across IT application, mobility, infrastructure, and IT transformation, Kapil bounced the DeveloperOn-Rent idea off Jitesh, a friend who had years of experience working on various technologies at Infosys. They started in Bengaluru in January 2014.
The duo then identified five resources who could deliver full stack development with hands-on experience on various technologies. Kapil says:
We brought them in and spent lot of time putting various business scenarios and applications that a customer may ask. After several deep-dive sessions towards technologies, processes, procedures, re-usability, trends, what can make us deliver fast, learning new concepts, and various behavioural aspects, the team was ready to go.
Working along challenges
The platform works on a pay-per-use model, with no long-term contracts. They claim to have a low turnaround time and the expertise of developers across platforms in-house. However, the team took some time to get the process right.
Defining differentiation with staffing and contracting from other HR organisations was tough. The next challenge was getting the right talent on board with regard to technology, business domain, spirit of delivery, communication, and other related factors. Explaining the other challenges, Kapil says:
“It was challenging to get the right team in place to manage this lifecycle with multiple parallel layers. Then there was a need to build infrastructure where a customer gets seamless experience while leveraging services. Then there are a host of other cash-related issues like payments, salaries on time, office expenditure. The cash crunch also made it difficult to scale.”
However, the team claims to have onboarded close to 100 developers across different technologies. Apart from getting the opportunity to work on three to four different products in a year, developers are exposed to different business models, stakeholders, technology stacks, customers, and tech teams. Most importantly, there is immense scope for learning and growth.
Working on a different scale
“We started with three customers and today we are delivering services successfully to over 40 customers in seven countries. We have built and deployed almost over 30 products across various domains such as marketing, retail, e-commerce, healthcare, automobiles, mythology, education, and others,” says Kapil.
According to a recently published report by ManpowerGroup, 58 percent of Indian employers find it difficult to get the right kind of technical talent. According to reports by the Wall Street Journal published last year, the cost of hires is increasing drastically in India.
Apart from that, there also is a demand-and-supply gap. While there are traditional online job portals like Naukri and Monster, and consultancy firms, many believe that hiring technical talent is very challenging.
Although startups like HackerEarth, HackerRank and Stockroom also help companies find technical talent, DeveloperOnRent follows a unique model. A customer can rent a developer from 10 days to a year or more. All developers are Developer-On-Rent employees. A non-disclosure agreement precedes any discussion of the scope of work.
The pricing model therefore depends on the duration. The team claims to have a revenue of Rs 2 crore on a yearly basis and are growing. The team claims to have cost benefits of over 38 percent.
Speaking of their future plans, Kapil says:
We want to focus, have attention to details, double the revenue, increase client base and ensure we remain focused on innovation as a tech platform. We also hope to take this platform to a global level, and are looking at other locations.