Offshore Developers with a Purpose – with Pablo Velasquez of Betterway Devs

In this podcast episode, Derek talked with Pablo Velasquez, the Founder of Betterway Devs. 

Derek and Pablo discussed the company’s business model, investing in Latin American talent, and the web development job market.

Pablo’s dev background: Founding Betterway Devs

Pablo started Betterway Devs 15 years ago after completing his studies in the United States.

“Betterway Devs is based on a transparent model where we can help people find very good US companies, and the same US companies unlock South American talent – which provides many benefits [like] the time zone [compatibility] and cultural affinity,” said Pablo.

The company mainly works with US- and Canada-based companies. Pablo recalled, “The pandemic made a shift on many companies in the US that were not ready to hire [remotely].

When they figured out they were able to work remotely, they looked into Latin talent in the US.”

Betterway Devs’ business model

Betterway Devs started hiring software developers in Colombia, but over the years, they now have employees in Brazil, Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

“We are tackling all Latin America.”

Pablo added, “When we talk about tech talent, the requirements are so specific that we really need to have a bigger pool. By having Latin America, we almost get to a billion people population pool.

The only way to compete in terms of numbers with India, for example, is to tackle all of Latin America.”

To meet client demands, Betterway Devs expanded to include SpeedUpTech for no-code projects and Shark Helpers for professional virtual assistant roles.

Investing in education: Training software developers

Training for future developers is an investment, but it doesn’t seem like a problem for Pablo.

“We start [by] going to very poor places because we are doing this as a social way of changing people’s lives and getting people out of poverty.

We go and start with the students who are 16, 17, and 18 years old, and we show them that there are different things that they can do with technology.”

Pablo added, “We teach them basic software development so they can see if they like it, and if they decide to start studying after that, we get into a technical program. We [work with one] of the Colombian government entities, SENA.”

Pablo explains that within three to five years, these students can gain enough experience to work with US companies.

“In the end, we make sure they can work in the industry, get experience, and then graduate [so they can] work with US companies. It’s a process that works, and we repeat it.”

He added, “We have a shortage of talent in tech, but there are so many people out there whot could fill that gap.”

The demand for developers

Pablo admitted that the demand for developers in 2023 was slow, but “it has started picking up again.” 

“Now we see more companies requesting talent. They’re more cautious now. They hire 1-2 people at a time. They don’t come for five or ten people at a time like they did before. They really take their time making sure they hire the right person.”

There’s also more demand for AI developers, according to Pablo.

“We’re seeing demand start to go up mainly in the data science and the machine learning industry.

Data science is growing and growing more every day… More companies are now requesting developers to know how to use AI to be more productive.

[Learning how to use AI] is becoming an essential skill for a software developer to get positioned and find a job.”

Learn more about Betterway Devs

To learn more about Betterway Devs, you may visit their website. You can also email Pablo at [email protected].