FAQ | December Labs

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Expertise & Capabilities

General Approach

  • How should I approach outsourcing versus hiring in-house FTE’s?

    While this depends on numerous individual factors, such as your specific needs, your companies’ growth stage, budget and location, there are key advantages of bringing us on board as your nearshore partner

    • Quality: We offer an extensive portfolio of design and development work at the highest level. You will know what you get, no surprises.
    • Strategic partnership: In addition to your assigned team, our Senior Leadership will provide you with strategic support, technology advice and guidance from day 1. This added value has converted us into strong technical partners for non-technical founders and partner in crime’s for CTO’s.
    • Cost: A top-notch FTE will be significantly more expensive than what we charge. By outsourcing, you’ll also save on equipment, office space, benefits and the like.
    • Flexible commitment: While a project span can last for months or years, and most clients actually enter a long-term relationship with us, your commitment with us is weekly/ bi-weekly - no strings attached. This flexibility gives you the opportunity to e.g.
      • get a jump-start on prototyping while figuring out your options for a long-term in-house staff
      • build the prototype you need to convince local talent to join your startup
      • or efficiently validate your concept to evaluate a larger investment
    • HR: Instead of spending weeks and months on talent search, we have a team ready to work with you in as little as two weeks.
    • Scale: While with one FTE you will be able to cover certain needs only, we have a top-notch team of 150+ vetted and carefully selected PHD's, Architects, Researchers, Strategists, Developers and Designers at your disposal and can easily scale up or down as needed.
    • 360 services: We provide expertise in several areas of product development, including UX/UI, Mobile and Web development and can easily expand team and scope.
  • Is it possible to get references from any of your clients?

    Yes, we are happy to introduce you to select clients with similar scopes or backgrounds to yours who can give you a first-hand idea of it is working with us.

  • I have been burned by my previous developers and am weary of empty promises and lack of transparency and quality. How do you approach my case?

    It actually happens quite often that clients call us in as rescue team. We salvage what we can, fix what can be fixed and work out a plan to bring your project back on track. Our keys to building a trustful relationship are communication, transparency, quality and on-time delivery. We are also happy to provide client introductions to give you a first-hand idea of how it is to work with us.

  • Can you sign my NDA instead of your standard NDA?

    Yes, we are happy to do that.

Your Project

  • How quickly will my project start upon contacting December Labs?

    Once a project scope has been agreed upon and we’ve signed a contract, your assigned Project Manager will schedule a kick-off call. Usually, within 1-2 weeks, sometimes sooner, your PM will have a team ready to start.

  • How do you approach project management? Can we use my preferred tools?

    In our experience, fluent and transparent communication is key for a trustful partnership. We work with Agile and Scrum methodologies as appropriate, are happy to use Slack for day-to-day communication and manage workflows with weekly deliverables through Trello, JIRA or your preferred project management tool.

  • How will I interact with my assigned team once the project starts? Will I have to manage everyone myself?

    You will not have to, unless you request otherwise. Our highly experienced PMs will work with the POC you provide us with and guide you through our Milestone-based development process. That said, we fully disclose who will be working on your project and you’ll have access to your entire team via slack and video calls.

  • Where will my designer and developers be based?

    Our operative base is located in nearshore destination Montevideo, Uruguay. Our timezone (UTC - 3) is especially convenient for US-based and Latam clients, though we’ve also successfully catered clients based in Europe. In case you are interested in US-based talent, please specify this need when reaching out to our growth strategists at hello@decemberlabs.com and we’ll be happy to provide you with options.

  • Tell me more about Uruguay as nearshore opportunity
    • Temporal: Uruguay has a convenient time zone (GMT-3) (1 hour ahead of EST) to work with the US market (vs. India, Eastern Europe, etc). Most of our staff at December Labs actually works on Pacific Time.
    • Culture & Language: Having above the average communication capabilities & qualified people and occidental culture, the country has the highest literacy rate of South America and most Uruguayans are perfectly able to communicate in English, being taught by free in public education. In addition, at December Labs, we provide our team with free English lessons so no-one gets lost in translation.

      Because of its low crime rate, transparent business climate and high quality of life, Uruguay presents itself as a safe and reliable market. The country ranks first in the Political Stability Index in Latin American and 27th globally.
    • Economic & Political: The Uruguayan government has defined IT as a priority sector which it constantly tries to promote and develop by providing:
      • every child in school with a free laptop.
      • 99% of the population with broadband access (best internet connection in Latin America and above the world average).
      • tax exemptions to Uruguayan software companies that export their services which makes it more affordable to produce software and export to other countries.
    • Geographical: While not close to the US mainland, the country is well known for not having natural disasters which means fewer unexpected business disruptions.
    • While some of the above might also apply to other South Latam countries, Uruguay is Latam Leader in the Tech Sector:
      • One of the latest Harvard University studies has identified Uruguay as one of the most advanced software development centers in Latin America.
      • Uruguay ranks first in the "Technology Index in Latin America", according to Latin Business Chronicle.
      • Despite only 3.5 million residents, there are over 700 IT companies, serving over 50 international markets.
      • Big players like Eric Ries’ New Context, NetSuite, Microsoft, PedidosYa, Mercado Libre, Tata Consultancy Services from India and Sabre Holdings have partnered with Uruguayan companies or opened offices in the country in the past years.
  • Would you be willing to work out of our offices?

    We’re happy to approach your needs in an out-of-the box way, discuss on-the-ground sprints, project-kick offs and more, if it facilitates workflow for a specific project.

  • I’m based in the US, what kind of on-the-ground support can I expect?

    We frequently plan for facetime with our partners and future partners and are happy to meet in person to discuss your project, get to know your team and give continuous support. We have offices in San Francisco and Houston and regularly fly out to the East Coast as well - get in touch to schedule a face-to-face meeting with our growth strategists at hello@decemberlabs.com.

Timing & Budget

  • How fast can you build out my product?

    It depends on the level of complexity, type and scale of the project. The average app or website takes 2-4 months to build. Our process is Milestone-based and we have a proven track-record in realistic estimates and on-time delivery.

  • What is your price point and how do you charge?

    We offer weekly rates per resource assigned to your project. For our transparent cost estimates, we simply apply our rates to milestone-based time estimates, giving you a compelling cost-benefit ratio with no extra charges. It’s our philosophy to not offer fixed pricing which oftentimes leads to overcharges at the cost of transparency and flexibility. That said, with no significant changes in scope, we have a proven track record of staying within scope and in case we do foresee a significant change throughout a project, we discuss the situation and potential solutions in advance. Connect with our growth strategists to get a quote at hello@decemberlabs.com.

  • I don’t have a budget for my project. Can we partner for equity?

    No, we cannot.

Partnerships

Let's work together

Ready to rocket-fuel your product? Get in touch with our growth strategists to vet your idea or product and discuss options for approach and solutions.

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