Managing Tech, Developers & AI in Business – with Vadim Peskov of Diffco

In this episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast, Derek Gallimore talks with Vadim Peskov, co-founder of Diffco, about the nature of managing staffing, projects, and AI for their clients.

Established in 2008, Diffco provides a mix of models for clients, including full teams, project work, and staff augmentation.

How Diffco came to fruition

Diffco started as a web development company but now focuses on computer vision and machine learning. 

While the tech landscape has changed since Diffco’s inception in 2008, the company was able to adapt its services to the evolving market demands.

They “[moved to] enterprise development, as well as mobile side, and for the last six years, [was] pushing a lot of things in a computer vision and general [transformation] models

Currently, they provide staffing services, project-based work, and internal AI-driven projects.

According to Vadim, the key to their success is to “anticipate which technology will be needed tomorrow [so they can start correctly] and push forward.”

Vadim noted that this process could take “a year, sometimes one-half year long.”

The facets of managing projects

Technology

Vadim underscored the distinction between “professional” and “non-professional” clients.

He highlighted that working with tech businesses is often smoother due to shared language and understanding. According to him, tech companies “actually understand [their] language, what [they’re] doing… how bugs work, and everything.”

This aligned with the perspective of a staffing augmentation company that strategically deploys tech teams only into businesses with established technical infrastructures.

On the other hand, the approach can be adapted for companies outside the tech realm.

These clients require a well-honed communication strategy when finding out “an actual need for the business and understanding, ‘Oh, you need to do this, how we can get to this using technology.”

As the market evolved, “clients ask for things that [were] not necessarily was there before.”

Vadim advised, “The key is to really anticipate which technology will be needed tomorrow, so you can start [with] this technology in a correct way and really push forward, this is nice for the clients.” 

Sourcing staff

Diffco hires globally, including Europe, Georgia, Armenia, and the US, for compliance work. 

Vadim explained the strategic rationale for tapping into different talent pools. He mentioned that clients “like to see the price in terms of what’s not like a local employee rate” when providing services in an agency model.

Their offering utilizes local and global resources based on project requirements and client preferences.

Vadim also underscored the balance between cost savings and the necessity of specific expertise. He iterated that Diffco can be “ready to pay almost any price at this point because clients ask to find specific [skills].”

Vadim acknowledged that while clients can decide on talent allocation for more common skills, factors like timezone and language barriers often influence the choice. This is where “clients will be fine to have this outsourced outside of states.”

Diffco’s approach to AI in project management

Vadim emphasized the multifaceted nature of AI services, explaining, “Different things will work better for different clients.”

He underscored the challenges of staffing data scientists and machine learning engineers due to their specialized skills and preferences. The project-based approach tends to shine in this instance, allowing task-based flexible pricing rather than billing by hours worked.

This approach is particularly effective for tasks with potential multimillion-dollar outcomes.

Furthermore, Vadim acknowledged the role of outsourcing and outstaffing, especially for tasks like data cleaning and labeling. He advocated a hybrid approach, stating that “mixing project-based and staffing solutions is the key to success.”

The fast trajectory of AI in creating software products

Vadim acknowledged that AI is changing rapidly, with new tools and models every day. As clients prefer using AI in their businesses, finding workers who know AI has also become challenging because so many companies want them.

Diffco gives a similar approach to AI projects. They either provide a whole AI team or start with a short project and allow them for an increase in staffing as their process expands.

Visit Diffco’s website at https://diffco.us/ to get in touch.