
Startup world’s little secret: Everyone’s using TaskUs but no one is talking - protomyth
http://pandodaily.com/2013/07/17/the-startup-worlds-little-secret-everyones-using-taskus-but-no-one-is-talking-about-it/
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smacktoward
It must be nice to get Pando to give your company a big sloppy wet French kiss
like this. If you're the company, that is. If you're Pando it's just
embarrassing. (But then you're Pando, you're probably used to embarrassment by
now.)

 _> Maddock claims his employees get paid “above average” salaries in the
Philippines for business process outsourcing (known as BPO in the Philippines)
work, but he didn’t want to reveal exact numbers. He’s concerned TaskUs
employees might get disgruntled to see where their salary fits in the pecking
order._

This is a weirdly written paragraph. I can't tell if he means that TaskUs
doesn't want to reveal salary figures because he's afraid his employees would
be mad if they found out what they were paid _relative to each other_ , or
_relative to other workers in BPO in the Philippines._ But either way, it's
not encouraging -- if he was paying fair wages, you'd expect him to be
trumpeting that fact, not hiding it. So he probably isn't...

 _> Without the numbers there’s no way to fact-check how these outsourced
employees’ paychecks compare to cost of living. But the success of TaskUs
seems to require that its employees are happy and fulfilled enough to do good
work._

...Oh! So it turns out the numbers don't matter after all -- we can just
_assume from the fact the company exists_ that it pays its employees well.

I guess that's Journalism 2.0™.

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awwstn
This is a clever PR move by TaskUs. Rather than emailing Pando and saying
"Look how popular we are", like everyone does, they said "Look how few of our
many happy customers want to talk publicly about us."

Anytime you can give them something more interesting than a story about users
or funding, it's more likely to be covered and more likely to resonate with
readers, [edit: I think].

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cpursley
No surprise here. I have two part-time Filipino VAs who are very competent and
a pleasure to work with via oDesk. I'm not sure why companies are hiding this
- it's a competitive advantage. Also, to take it further, I'm not sure why
more tech startups aren't utilizing the large number of very skilled Eastern
European developers to complement their home team. The world is flat.

~~~
dclusin
A lot of startups don't use offshore workers because it's a logistical
nightmare. My company (not a startup) has our QA office based out of
Bangalore. As an engineer who delivers things to be verified by said team this
is a real pain in the ass. Sunday through thursday my evenings are basically
fucked. Every night at 9pm from Sunday to Thursday we have a synch-up call so
I never get the chance to make any plans during the week.

Over the years this gets really bothersome. It's usually the number one reason
why people I've known at my job have found employment elsewhere. Every time I
think about changing jobs, I think about the reasons why I would like to, and
this is almost always the number one reason.

~~~
cpursley
I obviously can't speak for your company and it's unique situation, but I'm
sure there's ways to mitigate and better manage this process.

~~~
dclusin
From an engineering standpoint you are correct. From a business standpoint
none of these problems have quantifiable numbers attached to them (my lost
enthusiasm per fort night?) so they basically don't exist. Ascertaining my
opinion on how I believe management is running things will be left as an
exercise to the reader :)

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taylodl
_Outsourcing, of course, always saves money,_

Um, no it doesn't. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Your mileage may
vary. It was this thinking that led to all sorts of idiotic outsourcing deals
in the early 2000s where businesses discovered there are many scenarios where
outsourcing _increases_ costs.

We've gotten a lot smarter since then but statements like this make me
bristle.

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ohashi
This is one of the fluffiest articles I've seen on here in a while.

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bradleyland
This is tangential to the point, but TaskUs has _the best_ website of any
"outsourcing" company I've ever encountered. Understanding (pardon) what in
the _fuck_ an outsourcing company actually does is often absurdly difficult. I
don't know why it's so hard to be direct about what you do on a company
website.

While the article might appear to be an obvious PR play, it really does
underscore that TaskUs is taking a different messaging tack from their
competitors. How many outsourcing companies eschew language like "leveraging
strategic opportunities for enhanced efficiencies", and in place, cite
specific examples of jobs that are being done? It's refreshing.

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jpdoctor
> _We thought about raising funding [from family and friends] to get press.
> Then once the stories were done, we would just give it all back because we
> don’t need it._

People (and the press) need to stop printing nonsense like this. You don't
need money? Then don't take it. Any other path screams: We needed money and
we're gonna insult your intelligence with a press statement.

To his specific point: The cost of funding would buy a whole lotta press. So
cut the crap.

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simonw
If nothing else, this story is a fantastic example of great startup PR.

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jib
I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but it sounds like a small outsourcing
company like any other outsourcing company?

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georgebonnr
Counting the seconds until a scathing, sarcastic piece on this is written on
Valleywag.

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iblaine
Apparently payola is alive & well at pandodaily.com.

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colinm
Useless article is useless.

