How Crypton Studio creates the best outstaffing

We have talked about outstaff, its benefits and the company's plans to create a community of web3 experts with Elena Sindiryakova, Deputy CEO of Crypton Studio. Why has outstaff become so popular? How is this format fundamentally different from other types of cooperation? There are a lot of start-ups in the IT market and in the blockchain industry. It is not always profitable for such companies to take on staff immediately. It is especially difficult if the startup does not yet have organizational processes in place, such as formal employment procedures. Then it is easier to hire an employee on loan from another company. In this case, the startup will not have to employ the employee officially, it will not have to draw up papers and pay taxes. This format is very convenient for solving specific tasks for a certain period of time.  The growth in the number of start-ups has made outstaff so popular.  Or another frequent example: non-core blockchain development web2 companies find it convenient to take web3 clients and outstaff developers from us. This, too, is for specific tasks per project without having to keep people on staff, and also the web2 company gets the opportunity to expand the business. There are also many advantages for the developer. He doesn't need to waste time looking for customers, and there are always interesting projects to take over, which stimulates his professional development. He is on our staff and we have an employment contract with him, which guarantees him security in the form of a salary. And access to our team, which interacts with him, supports him.  That is why outstaffing is different from the classic form of work, when a person comes to the office and works for years in the same company, performing the same tasks, as if he were in a company vacuum.  Outstaffing gives you the opportunity to interact with different customers. This is the main difference between outstaffing and other forms of interaction. This is a new interesting and mutually beneficial model of cooperation for all parties.   What is the main benefit and attractiveness of outstaff?   - A company does not need to spend time on recruitment and HR support . We will select candidates on client's request. They do not need HR specialists and recruiters to search for developers - we take care of that.    - If a developer for any reason leaves the contract, we are obligated by the terms of the contract to provide a replacement. We provide an employee with the same level of knowledge and experience. This gives the client the security of not being left without an employee at a crucial time.   - An opportunity to have a closer look at the employee. If a company is looking for a permanent staff member, it can temporarily hire an employee to avoid having to take all the risks, and not employ him/her immediately. They will be on our books the whole time, they will pay for them, and then they can buy them back if they are sure they are a good fit. What sets us apart from other companies in the outstaff market? Unlike other outstaff agencies that only do recruitment, we do custom and product development ourselves. We are well versed in this area, so we understand the needs of our clients perfectly. This allows us to find developers who are best suited to a client's needs. We can also offer an expert solution which would strengthen the customer's product, and provide developers who can implement it.  There are not many companies in the market with such expertise as we have. We have been in the blockchain development segment for 7 years, which is a long time. We have shown ourselves to be a stable company in the market, we are flexible in adapting to changes, and this certainly generates a high level of trust. Not least of all, we have a large staff. And we do our best to become leaders of the industry. We contribute to the development of this market. For example, we have built a network of partners , and we have created and support a community of web3 startup owners . All of this has been made possible by our expert position in the market.  Tell us about the path the company has taken in this direction - how did you start, how did you set up the processes, and what do you have now? When we first started out, we were not ready for anything, we made mistakes, but in the end we gained the experience that allows us to build processes efficiently today.  In the beginning, we did a lot of things manually. I corresponded with the developers myself, looking for an approach to them. Our sales department built up communication and searched for customers, finding out their needs. In the beginning, we worked with a limited number of people.  When we understood exactly how to build a competent system of work, we started to expand the team. We looked for more recruiters, more sales managers and project managers, so that these employees would only deal with the outstaffing.  Now we don't just lend the customer a developer, but attach our PM to him. We run full project activities. We resolve issues, monitor the mental health and productivity of the developers.  Additionally, we built a model where junior graduates of our Academy (now Crypton Factory) came to work for the outstaff. At that time, there was a demand for juniors on the market, but the industry was changing rapidly, and at some point juniors were no longer particularly in demand. We had to change the educational track so that our graduates would have job security. Although all the processes are aligned, we continue to improve the system. We are revising our approach, becoming more flexible. We are constantly in a state of start-up, in the sense that we test the hypothesis, see whether it is convenient to work this way and what the customer's reaction is, we follow trends and are ready to change. Share your future plans for the development of Crypton Studio's outstaffing division We want to continue to develop the industry further. Now we have plans to make a name for ourselves as experts in the outstaffing market, and to do this we have made a unique product - an app for finding outstaff developers with a huge database of specialists. We want it to be not just a mobile app, but a real community of web3 experts. We will add there not only developers, but marketing specialists, product managers, and anyone who has experience in the web3 industry. Such specialists will know where to go to get a guaranteed job.  For customers, this app can be a key tool in their search for developers. They will know what to do: just download the app, look and choose. They won't need a recruiter, and the time to find the right employee will be enormously reduced.  We have big plans for this product. We are now actively preparing to raise an investment round with this app, we are considering investors and funds to raise investments for this project.  App is available in Google Play and App Store . Tell us which companies would be suited to the outstaff model of cooperation.  Outstaff is suitable for web2 studios who want to develop in a new direction, strengthen their company and keep up with the industry. For example, they took on a one-off web3 project, they don't need people with blockchain expertise on staff all the time. The project will run out, and there is a risk that they will be idle if the web2 company is not going to move completely to web3. And this is where outstaffing is ideal: you can temporarily recruit developers with the right expertise to the project to cover these tasks. Or supplement your team with a developer with a specific skill that is needed right now. Outstaff would definitely suit startup teams. It is very profitable and convenient for them. Or it would suit start-up companies which have been in the market for less than three years and are still setting up their business model. It does not matter whether such a company is engaged in custom or product development.  Or another situation: the company has been in the market for a long time, but is launching a spin-off product. They cannot put people from the core team on the internal product, and it is easier to hire someone for a while. But I would single out product startups in the first place.  And who are our main customers? We have the following customer segments clearly defined. These are web3 companies and startups that need help with blockchain issues. And these are web2 companies that have attracted a web3 customer, but because they have no expertise in this area, we help them solve problems. Who can become an outstaff developer at Crypton Studio. Describe our ideal candidate. There's a high demand for middle and middle+ developers right now.  On the other hand, we have seen many examples of juniors growing up quickly while working for us. Very well "sorted" by guys who are expertly strong as developers, have good communication skills and understand what teamwork is all about. They can present themselves well at a job interview.  Our ideal candidate is someone who loves his job. In this case, he or she constantly upgrades their skills. After all, things change rapidly in the industry; improvement is essential here. Standards are regularly updated, new tools appear, and there is a constant need to learn and brush up on skills.  New customers with new demands come in, and if a developer adapts flexibly, he will always get a job. Their hard work and willingness to develop gives them value, both in the sense that they will always be in demand, and in the sense that we are sure to find an interesting project and client for them.  How exactly are developers selected? Why can clients be confident in the skills of our specialists? The selection process consists of several stages. In the first stage the recruiter gets acquainted with the developer. Here we evaluate their soft skills and communication skills. Then we have a mandatory technical interview with the tech-led developer to check his hard skills. After that, he gets an assessment of how strong he is and confirms his declared skills. We understand how to write code intelligently and correctly, so our techleaders will do a quality review of this developer.  We do technical interviews in different ways. We may give a task to see how the candidate handles it, and ask questions. Sometimes we ask very difficult questions and a person handles them well explaining the logic of the code and how he/she will work it out. Then there is no sense in giving him/her the task. Sometimes the opposite situation occurs: a candidate answers uncertainly, and then we will definitely give him or her a task to see if he or she is up to the task.  Every six months all our developers are graded. Let's say a developer's resume has come into our database at some point, but he hasn't worked anywhere for a long time. And before we give it to a customer, we make sure to update his information and check whether he has grown as a specialist or not. We understand how development works, so we are sure to be able to select a good candidate for the client.  And a developer doesn't just come to some outstaff recruitment agency, which will hand him over to the project and forget about him. We put resources into our developers. We always take care of them and find out what they need to work on, the technicians are in touch with them. Thanks to our expert support, a developer can get up to speed.  We had junior developers who started out as outstaffers, and now they have grown a lot. In addition to working on the project, which helped them improve their skills, our leads have been in touch with them as mentors. Developers always have someone to turn to for advice. And all this is good both for the client - he can be sure that we do our work well, and for the developer. They know they are not left alone to tackle the project, but are supported.  What is the most valuable thing about your work? What are you most proud of?  I'm very happy to see when a developer - no matter where he is, where in the world or how old he is - gets access to a large-scale project and an interesting experience through us.  I'm happy when the benefits for the customer, us and the developer converge.  I am proud of several projects. One of them is our cooperation case with red_mad_robot . It was our very first outstaffing deal, and it still lasts. The very first contract turned out to be the longest. We have developed a friendly relationship with this customer. We also cooperate with them on outsourcing. I am very proud of this cooperation. All the more so because it's a web2 company that we helped develop a web3 product and open up a new industry. A project with our participation has become one of their key projects and is generating a lot of revenue. I am pleased that we were able to help them. I am proud that we have developers on our team who we have managed to nurture. They came to us as juniors, yesterday's students, but now they are confident middles who are in demand in the market. We are now forming a new team and creating a new product - an application for finding developers for outstaff, and this motivates us to develop even more. The great value for me in the work is that we can constantly experiment, change, and be useful. Contact Elena via social media to explore our outstaff opportunities for your business. LinkedIn - @Elena Sindiryakova Telegram - https://t.me/shhhsindi