Let’s be direct. The tech industry has a bias: we claim to be global, but would you honestly hire a developer with experience only from local businesses in a developing country? The immediate answer for most is “no.”
Why? Because we can’t easily quantify their skill level, and we worry about cultural integration. It’s a calculated risk most leaders won’t take, even when it’s a clear path to cost savings and a life-changing opportunity for the individual. I’ve spent years building teams and have seen this firsthand, from sourcing talent in Eastern Europe to navigating complex tech ecosystems in Africa. The knee-jerk reaction is to stick with what you know.
But this thinking is short-sighted and misses the bigger picture.
I’ve watched how a truly international hiring strategy can unlock immense value. Yes, there are immediate downsides to consider—most notably, the risk of creating a “developer elite” that prices local companies out of their own market.
This is already a reality in places like Nigeria and Kenya, where top local talent is constantly being pulled into high-paying, foreign-currency contracts. It can stifle the growth of a sustainable, local tech industry.
However, the upside is too powerful to ignore. The only way to mature these ecosystems is to create a generation of world-class developers. A great job with international exposure isn’t just a paycheck; it’s a mentorship, a bootcamp, and a career ladder. It inspires others to enter the field, learn advanced techniques, and eventually build their own local businesses.
This creates a net benefit for everyone involved, from the resource-strapped startup getting top-tier talent to the local economy gaining an engine for sustainable growth.
The real challenge isn’t whether the talent exists—it does, in abundance across continents—but how to effectively screen it. Weeding out the noise—candidates who are culturally incompatible, have poor communication skills, or are juggling a dozen contracts—requires a new approach. This is where real experience in these markets becomes a strategic asset.
It’s a clear-eyed business decision: to tap into a massive, underutilized talent pool, we need to apply trusted expertise to locate, test, and manage resources in a way that’s impossible with a standard job board.
We then combine these resources into existing teams with clear development culture and experience to provide a world-class arena for them to develop and hone their skills. This means creating truly international teams—not just a team from any specific country or region, but from the same or similar timezones.
The secret to a truly inclusive global tech industry?
Letting them develop
