I am a web developer from APAC region and have worked for clients in LATAM/US regions in past.

But I want to scale it now and have at least 3-4 clients on $3k/month retainer where I and some people I hire from my local community would work on building their MVPs, maintaining their codebase and scaling their product.

I would oversee the quality of work and work alongside the people I hire so that I can provide the best possible quality work to my clients.

The only struggle I have right now is to find those clients and close deals with them.

Not many people trust developers from 3rd tier countries, but fortunately I have past experience and portfolio of work to show them so that might help.

But where should I be looking for these potential clients and what should be the optimal way to approach them?

  • founderscurveBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    typically i see lots of cold emails and linkedin messages for this kind of service. so i think given the kind of clients you want (early stage startups) - networking in person with startup communities, providing relevant advice and being a source of reliable information might actually work better to getting clients.

    • ifeelanimeOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      yea thought about networking in person, but not a lot of events happen where i live. my best bet would be to join online communities i guess as i want to work with international clients anyway because pay is higher for the same amount of work

  • thisisnahamedBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have tried both Upwork and Word-of-mouth (personal network).

    These have been my best channels.

    Cold outreach has not worked for me at all.

  • hola_jeremyBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    As others have said, you’re trying to break into a saturated market. You’re underestimating the hardest part of the business.

    I recently launched a nearshore (LatAm) dev shop focused on startups. I’m just expanding my network, writing articles, and trying to provide value in every interaction so people see us as being a cut above the rest. I get emails and LinkedIn messages every day selling me on developers and I delete immediately. Just garbage effort from people trying to sell.

    I’d say on the one hand, very crowded space. On the other hand, with more effort and insight and playing the long game, you can stand out over time because 95% of the “competition” doesn’t even try.

    Just keep in mind the extraordinary effort required to work on the business, not work in the business doing web dev.