I’m a Ukrainian CTO with 5 years of experience, leading a $24M developers marketplace. We keep growing despite everything. AMA 🔥

So this is just an ad? Do people think Ukraine is not functioning?

Why would we talk to you about startups? Or “cto mindset”.

Sorry, I did not get your comment. What exactly are you looking to learn with your questions? I'm happy to answer if you add more details.

Why http and not https?

oh, thanks, updated!

Do you have parties, and would you agree it's not a Lemon party without old Dick ?

As a company, we don't have parties now. We do have:

• informal chats to support each other
• 1:1
• calls with founders

Are you an outsourcing company?

No, we're a marketplace. Outsourcing companies have huge markups, and developers are receiving a small portion of what paying them. At lemon.io, clients work with the developer directly, with no project managers or anyone else.

Are U helping developers to find full-time job or it’s a project-to-project engagement?

It’s contract work, mostly full-time for 6+ months.

What’s with that logo?

Apparently it has to do with benevolent lemons.

I, for one, welcome our new tangy overlords.

I prefer Lemon Demons

ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny

I will send a design request to my team to change the font. I will add this video as references :)

I hope, you liked it :)

If life gives you lemons ...

Take it!

... make a lemonade

Our logo has this masonic eye vibe, so it’s like a cult of good work, but an ironic one. It also means we’re keeping an eye on the development process.

Why are you called “lemon”? This is a bit weird name for an outsourcing marketplace.

Actually, we started out as Coding Ninjas. My co-founder was testing the assumptions, and we started out with a descriptive name because, frankly, we weren’t sure it would work. Four years later we switched to a more fun brand name Lemon.io, punks in the world of freelance work.

It all started with building our brand persona, a guy who quit MIT to build his startup, so he’s mocking the success attributes. One of the final brand names was Space Lemon, and we kind of liked it, but it lacked simplicity, so we left Lemon, which plays into our role as startup sidekicks. Our logo has this masonic eye vibe, so it’s like a cult of good work, but an ironic one. It also means we’re keeping an eye on the development process.

hey Anvar That comment was fair. Probably you should consider rebranding - i'm not a native speaker, but clearly lemons are often associated with business-wise bad things. Despite many downvoted comments, I appreciate your attitude with answering all of them

Thank you so much for your support!

I have a question, what’s with the weird occult logo you chose?

Our logo has this masonic eye vibe, so it’s like a cult of good work, but an ironic one. It also means we’re keeping an eye on the development process.

How is your marketplace better than established platforms like Upwork.com which give access to freelancers from all over the world, including Ukraine?

Unlike other freelance platforms, we hire only seniors with proven experience. Candidates set rates they want to be paid and receive relevant offers only.

Unlike other vetted talent platforms, we don't exhaust candidates with multiple screening stages and extensive test tasks. We learned to qualify candidates with two friendly and humane calls.

Unlike big outstaff and outsourcing companies, we mainly work with startups on the early stages. For developers, this means access to new perspective projects with minimum legacy code and the opportunity to work in small self-organized teams with minimum bureaucracy.

Unlike remote job boards, we qualify companies too. We evaluate if the client's idea is viable and prospective, if the business has a good traction, and if the project would be attractive for our contractors to work on.

Unlike self-application to remote jobs, working through our platform lets developers never think about "selling themselves", reading contracts, and signing agreements with clients. Sales and ongoing projects support is fully on us.

I hope, it adds clarity!

Hey, what do you read (newsletters, blogs, twitter) to keep an eye on what's going on in Tech?

Thanks for asking. Please give me 15-30 min to get all my reading together

Nothing?

I'm very sorry. Here are the newsletters that I read (those are cool ones for senior tech leads):

• https://levelup.patkua.com/

• https://lethain.com/

• https://blog.bytebytego.com/

• https://refactoring.fm/

• https://enjoyneering.substack.com/

• https://softwareleadweekly.com/

• https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/

• https://www.techmanagerweekly.com/

• https://fs.blog/newsletter/

Tomorrow I'll make a list of podcasts and books.

It is a lot of comments today, and it is an evening in Kyiv now, so it's quite hard to respond to everything.

Sorry, guys!

good things come to those who wait

As a Ukrainian what's your pov of Poland as whole rn?

Poland is our biggest and one of our best allies and friends. I liked Poland before, but now much more good feelings about this country and the Polish people.

I think no one understands Ukrainians better than the Polish people and people of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as we all suffered from Russian imperialism. Ukraine still suffers.

Sorry for the invasion n all, fuck war; why do you think people have forgotten about the total lack of any laws regarding the net and the haven of hackers that Ukraine embraces?

Edit: forgot the /s keep on hackin

Nothing new. People have likely forgotten about the lack of laws regarding the internet and the presence of hackers in Ukraine because it has been a long-standing issue. Additionally, the lack of legal protection has allowed hackers to operate with relative impunity, making it an attractive destination for those looking to carry out malicious activities.

If I got right your question.

How often do you train BJJ and what's the scene like in Ukraine?

Unfortunately, I don't train at the time, but thinking to come back to it after the war. But the scene is pretty active despite the war. I follow some clubs online in Kyiv city and I can share it with you if you are interested.

How do you feel with recent layoffs? What do you think can be made better? Saw a guy getting laid off after 21 years, does anyone ever should be loyal to their organization?

I didn't have much time to think about layoffs. In Ukraine top challenge is war. Anyway, organizations should strive to create a culture of loyalty and appreciation for their employees, recognizing their hard work and dedication. They should ensure that employees are treated fairly and with respect, regardless of their tenure with the organization. To help foster loyalty, organizations should provide employees with job security, fair wages, and other benefits that will help them feel valued and appreciated.

And one more thing - sometimes, the problem with remote devs is that they work on numerous side projects, and it may result in a mess with a certain customer. How do you handle this?

I’d say it’s the opposite. A dev with a side project is usually someone who does a little extra, like learning a new language or figuring out how to do stuff instead of just sticking to what they already know. As a client, you can see what the dev is capable of much faster than with going through their resume. Plus, there are so many companies that started out as a side project, so it might be a good idea to keep an eye on ideas your devs are building.

Anvar, hi there👋

How do you vet devs? What does the process look like from the inside?

Vetting is a must, as we work on longish projects and provide senior developers with not less than 3 years of experience. This way we’re sure that the developer can handle the responsibility and project tasks. On average, we accept only 5-10% of the candidates.

The vetting process is fairly straightforward. Once the developer signs up, we perform a background check. If we like the CV and such, we arrange a call where we check English language proficiency and basic soft skills. The ones who pass, get to meet our full-time devs for a coding skills check with a live coding session. Then it’s all in the hands of our matching gurus.

Do you rely on Leetcode for hiring?

Nope, no Leetcode. Do you like it?

What areas of innovation and/or technology do you see as having the greatest potential for growth over the next decade?

AI is one of the most talked-about and rapidly growing tech trends. We are still only in the early days of the development of AI, but it has the potential to drastically transform how we live and work.

What’s with your crappy logo?

What's with it?

How long did it take you guys to find pmf? Anything that was a big factor in growing for you guys? Tia!

So it was not like you read in the articles: you suddenly saw magic growth in traction and just "felt the product-market-fit". For us, it was a long process of testing and iterating. One of the iterations (with rebranding and focusing on the startup persona) actually worked out. Then we saw our numbers going up. As a piece of advice for those who are looking for PMF: try iterating all the parts of your business model. Your messaging may be wrong, or you don't have market & channels fit.

We started in 2015 with a different business model. It grew very slowly, after 5 years only $200k GMV/month. In April 2020 we pivoted to Lemon.io and within 2 years grew 8x.

What is the most precious advice you can give to a beginner developer?

What is the most precious advice you can give to a beginner developer?

It is a bit general and technology-agnostic answer, but from my experience, the main advice should be – write code every day, make as many mistakes as you can, learn the basics of the programming language of your choice and basic concepts (OOP, MVC, etc.).

Try to create your app or website on your favorite topic and improve it as you grow as a programmer. I like languages, so the first year of my career I was creating dictionaries. It was a lot of fun and pleasure for me despite all hurdles.

UPD: I was writing it in Objective-C for iOS.

How you decided after being an engineer for multiple years it was the right time for be a founder?

It never feels right. It was a scary and venturesome step for me. My co-founders Vasyl and Oleksandr tried to convince me to join them during 7-8 meetings. I was very skeptical at first and one of the reasons was that I was an iOS developer, but they called me to become a CTO of a web product, so I have to program in Javascript.

But finally, I was ignited with the idea and decided to try JS! :) I had a lot of doubts first year, but now I'm happy with the decision.

Didn't lemon.io originally branch off from the "Lemon Party" protocol?

I am on the move, so I can't check if it's still open source, maybe someone can have a look for me real quick?

Answering the first question:

Didn't lemon.io originally branch off from the "Lemon Party" protocol?

Nope, Lemon.io has no relationship & correlation with "Lemon Party" protocol. But your sense of humor is hilarious.

What do you look for in successful PM’s?

Thanks for asking! I actually was hiring PMs some time ago. For me, a successful PM is someone who:

• has a passion for experimentation and testing
• loves getting hands-on with analytics
• knows how to run user research and competitors' research
• loves building relationships with people and influencing others without direct authority

How do you help your country in war?

It’s a tough time to make these decisions, being both in recession and at war. We kind of try to cut down expenses, get scrappy and at the same time donate where we can. During war we donated USD $500k to Ukrainian charity, including 182k to KOLOUA.com, and I’m extremely proud of that. Which helped purchase one advanced fighting drone Leleka, four anti-missile complexes, 10 FLIRs (Forward looking infrared cameras), 14 quadcopters, and 28 radio sets for our brave defenders.

How do you attract top talent now?

Pretty much as before, we offer a transparent system for the developers, and a quick project matching process, compared to the standard hiring route that can take up to 4 months, so the new applications keep coming. The top part is brought by our thorough vetting process.

When do you think you’ll do a ‘Show HN:’ post?

When do you think you’ll do a ‘Show HN:’ post?

Tell me more

As a founder, how did you built your dream team?

Also would like to know about what does it take to be a CTO?

What it takes to be a CTO.

It depends on the company size and type, but for me, it is to be a Jack of all trades, master of none :) You have to combine in yourself a lot of roles and skills:  - hard skills to be able to create your product at the first stage - soft skills and management skills to be able to create and manage a good team - vision or strategic view to be able to plan the technological future of your company

So, you have to juggle with al of this and also you have to improve your knowledge all the time.

As one of the founders, I built my dream team by carefully vetting developers and creating a culture of trust and collaboration. I also focused on creating a positive work environment, where everyone is encouraged to take the initiative and work together to achieve our goals. Additionally, I made sure to provide the necessary resources and support to help our team reach their full potential.

Did you study computer science at university?

No, I’ve learned it by myself starting from 2012. You didn’t ask, but my first interest was a creative coding and Processing language.

There's videos of the military driving around cities and handing out notices to unsuspecting guys on streets. Are you concerned your (male) coders will get drafted in to the conflict?

First, not a “conflict”, it’s a war caused by russia.

Second, we support the decisions of our government. We have 2 team members who are on the frontline. We keep paying them salaries and support with needed ammunition

Do you know krikzz?

no

It is an amazing Ukranian company of tech for retro video games

Oh, thanks, good to know. I'm not into gaming, so I don't know about it.

What is your opinion on UFOs?

I didn't have time to think about UFOs & Aliens :)

Ever heard of Tezos?

Tezos?

To be honest, no.

The Tezos Foundation is a Swiss foundation, supervised by the Swiss Federal Foundation Supervisory Authority. Our purpose is the promotion of the Tezos protocol through grants and other capital deployment vehicles.

For me, it sounds close to the Near Foundation.

Why delete your post? :(

It is moderating. Bot said I'm slow answering

Fixed now.

How to improve communication skills?

To improve communication skills, you can practice active listening, ask questions, and be open to feedback. Additionally, you can work on your public speaking skills by joining or taking a class. You can also practice having conversations with colleagues and friends to become more comfortable speaking in a group setting.

would’ve you started a dev marketplace in 2023, given the competition?

Starting all over? Not sure I would put myself through that again. It was as competitive back then. We compete not only with marketplaces, but with everyone who resolves the same problem: outsourcing companies, Angellist, LinkedIn, and even recommendations.

Are you Tatar by any chance?

No. I'm half Uzbek, half Ukrainian.

How has your job changed since you started?

I’d divide my work into three roles: maker, manager, and founder. In the first years, I was 80% maker, 10% manager, and 10% founder. For the last two years, it has changed a lot. At first, I started to be a manager more, and now when the development team has grown and become an independent organism, I continue to be a manager, but finally, I’ve started to be a founder as I feel at least 30-40%. Sure, it is a subjective number, but still.

So now the distribution is: - 40% – founder - 55% – manager - 5% – maker (mostly DevOps and Data Analytics tasks)

How did you come up with the idea to start your marketplace and why?

We initially worked on a different business Coding Ninjas, that was an Uber for small web dev tasks, but pivoted to this one, as here we saw more demand and opportunity. We switched to working on mid- and long term projects, and instead of picking up quick projects moved on to building a support community for startups.

Funny story, our CEO never chose this business. He moved to Israel – a very expensive country, where you take any chance to make extra money. Someone asked him to help find freelance developers. They were happy with the results and referred their friends, who brought more customers, who brought even more customers…

We initially worked on a different business Coding Ninjas, that was an Uber for small web dev tasks, but pivoted to this one, as here we saw more demand and opportunity. We switched to working on mid- and long term projects, and instead of picking up quick projects moved on to building a support community for startups.

Funny story, my co-founder Oleksandr never chose this business. He moved to Israel – a very expensive country, where you take any chance to make extra money. Someone asked him to help find freelance developers. They were happy with the results and referred their friends, who brought more customers, who brought even more customers…

TY for AMA. What do you consider your biggest success?

Thank you for the clarification.

I am most proud of learning programming by myself at an adult age. I remember how hard it was first several years. All the time, I just felt stupid and even got used to this feeling :) And finally, at some point, I realized that it became pretty easy for me. And almost all the new concepts I learned were also not so hard. It was the moment of eureka.

Do you mean my biggest success as a professional?

As a Ukrainian company, do you support Ukraine during war?

Copying from the similar question:

It’s a tough time to make these decisions, being both in recession and at war. We kind of try to cut down expenses, get scrappy and at the same time donate where we can. During war we donated USD $500k to Ukrainian charity, including 182k to KOLOUA.com, and I’m extremely proud of that. Which helped purchase one advanced fighting drone Leleka, four anti-missile complexes, 10 FLIRs (Forward looking infrared cameras), 14 quadcopters, and 28 radio sets for our brave defenders.

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Thank you for the question.

Everyone physically can't be on the frontline. Someone has to to be in the rear and help supply the army and to run country economy.

And as I already answered, if I'll be drafted to the army, I'll help to kick invaders out with weapons in hand.

[deleted]

Everyone fights on their own dimension. I help my country to keep the economy alive.

I'm in Ukraine. We as a company donate a LOT. All our employees pay taxes in Ukraine. I believe this is powerful and helpful. I feel proud to support my country in the way I do it right now.

As described in your question It feels surreal.

It is a bit like this in reality, but, unfortunately, I don't do BJJ at the time. And also I'm ready to be drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine when they call me.

For now, I and my colleagues working hard to help the army with the needed means. Some of our colleagues are in the Armed Forces since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Almost everyone in Ukraine now works for victory.