Outvesting: For gods sake don’t spend it in Ireland
October 7th, 2009 | Published in geoarbitrage, outvesting | 8 Comments
For the last 3 months I’ve been living and breathing in Argentina and I can tell you, when it comes to education these guys are good. Argentine’s spend at least 5 years in college and free education means that all the young up and comers are continually enrolling for courses and diplomas to further their skills. I’m not writing this to beat ourselves up – I’m writing it to get across just how many talented, educated people there are in this country. There is a particularly good design aesthetic. There is also a whopping 40% unemployment rate which means that many of those educated young up and comers are eager for work.
With that in mind – here is my proposal on one way to spend the Outvesting €5,000 award. I guess this would only suit a brilliant marketeer that had identified a market and figured out a marketing plan but couldn’t afford the fees charged by Dublin based programmers. God knows I tried to be as exhorbitant as possible while I was back there. So here is the plan:
Fly down to Argentina and hole up in a small apartment with 1 or 2 devs and get your app out the door. It’ll be hot sweaty and hard work but you put a lot of hard work in over that time and have a good product ready to roll by the time you get back on the flight back to Dublin.
- Flights: €800 admittedly you can’t get this rate all year around but you can get down here for about that amount if you look. Air France seems to have the best rates right now.
- 3 months accomodation: €900 this will get you a small one bed apartment in Buenos Aires or something a good bit roomier a little father out. You would need to find something big enough for 2 of you to work in reasonable comfort for the duration.
- Food €600: I won’t go on about the food, or as my aunt says “I’m glad the steaks are still that good” but you can eat pretty cheaply. Just don’t get too fussy. You’ll be eating more than noodles but down here there is a dead cow equivelant.
- €50 travel: The underground in BsAs is about 60c a trip.
- 50 days development time €2,400: This will comfortably buy you good freelance web developers. My point here is that you could afford to pay a little over the odds and actually get someone good rather than paying through the nose for someone average.
Of course I’m ignoring pesky things like tax etc (not sure if you have to pay tax on the award) but on this end you wouldn’t have to worry too much. There are down sides. You will have to find someone you are comfortable enough with and are happy enough to support the project remotely for you. The good news is, as long as they don’t end up under a bus, the support cost is bound to be a lot less than it is in Europe. In fact, there may be some wisdom is budgeting to throw one effort away. Interview a few people and if it isn’t working out – just hire again until you do find the right person for the job. Better still, cut them in. Earning a few euros and spending pesos is a very attractive proposition down here.
Isn’t this just like outsourcing? Well – not really. By coming down you here you actually get to build up a relationship with your team. You are real to them and they are real to you. It makes a huge difference. Being in the same room solidly might not be a walk in the park but it should improve communication a lot.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:25 am (#)
Very interesting post James, and advice worth considering on my own project at the moment. Can you advise how I might go about pinpointing people down there with skills in C#, Second Life scripting, 3D design, server administration?
October 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pm (#)
I haven’t used any online tools to find people down here. Although they are pretty jacked up – it is still a very word of mouth place. I’ll do a little digging for you.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm (#)
Okay. I’ve been doing some digging on this one. It turns out that finding people who aren’t engaged in full time work won’t exactly be a walk in the park. Its also worth considering that you would want to get someone pretty good and identifying them before you arrive might be tricky. That said, where there is a will there is a way. Fabio Maulo at http://fabiomaulo.blogspot.com/ was recommended to me. I’m going to keep looking around.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:15 pm (#)
Talent will never be cheap. However, I can see some real merits to this approach other than just the cost ones. Getting away from the distractions of everyday life and being able to concentrate solely on a task is one of them is one of them. People that you work with are going to have very different perspectives than you, this can be good.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:42 pm (#)
I think you are spot on there. Its standard practice to head off to China for 2 months to work with manufacturers to create a physical product. Slaving away in a factory somewhere means there is not much time for distraction. Software seems to be a lot more buggy however. I’ve met a good few people over the last while who are locked into outsourced developers (both onshore and offshore) and are frustrated with getting updates implemented. There is always going to be an implicit tension between a customer who generates income from product performance and development teams that make their money by selling hours.
Many people leave Argentina to go and earn some hard currency. Perhaps recruiting the right person and allowing them to ‘earn euro and spend pesos’ could have strong appeal down here.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm (#)
Hi James
good blog piece.
Argentina looks like a good place to live, you can live cheaply.
what are the main job industries that are popular down there right now?
November 5th, 2009 at 4:06 pm (#)
@shane
As far as I can make out, the place is about 70% agricultural. The scale is something else however. 50 odd million people and it takes 2 days straight to drive from one end to the other. I have to admit that I haven´t plugged in to the local economy much except when it comes to buying red steak and wine but there is definatly a lot of wealth here. Argentina is described as a middle class country and except for some parts it is generally very well off. Labour costs are low and their tech infrastructure is generally good. Corruption is supposedly a problem at higher levels and bueurocracy can clog things up. For my part I havne´t had much interaction with the system however and a very permissive constitution means you can work only pretty much unhindered.
James
November 29th, 2009 at 7:13 pm (#)
I’m just posting a link to Brian’s recent meetup in BsAs which seems relevant. There is a listing of web2.0 type startups there as well as some developer resources..
http://www.startbreakingfree.com/1274/entrepreneurhacker-meetup-in-buenos-aires/