What Inspired Us to Start Outsourcify in Thailand?
Choosing where to start a business is often influenced by a mix of personal circumstances, professional experience, and strategic considerations. For Outsourcify, our decision to establish the company in Thailand was deeply rooted in both personal journeys and the professional insights of my partner, Kwanruedee and myself, Benoit Schneider.
The Personal and Professional Journey
My career began back in France, where I spent several years in software engineering, basically a coder. After my Master degree (we call it an engineer degree in France) at the UTBM, a technology university in Eastern France, close Switzerland, I started working in a famous and large consulting firm in Paris. This firm sent me out to work for large corporations in which I would usually work for a year or so. I have good memories of these first years of work, I had a good salary and nice colleagues, I didn’t have anything to complain about, but when I got an opportunity to move to Thailand, I didn’t hesitate for long, it was time for a change. I had been hired a few years before by a much smaller consulting firm, Oceane Consulting, and had a good relationship with its owners, after discussing with them and finishing my current mission in good terms, I resigned, created a “solo entrepreneur” company in Paris and transitioned to freelancing as a digital nomad.
I had only spent a single 3-weeks holiday in Thailand a few months before, but I knew it was an opportunity not to miss.
Armed with a few freelance projects from my previous professional network, I arrived in Thailand in 2010. Soon after my arrival, I began working with local companies, most notably creating websites or custom CRM systems, including one for a property developer in Pattaya/Jomtien. It was through this work that I met Kwanruedee.
Kwanruedee, my co-founder had just returned to Thailand after four years in Australia, where she pursued studies in English language and business, building on her prior software engineering education and experience in Thailand. We briefly worked together at the property development company, and as we began a personal relationship, we both realized the potential for combining our strengths in technology, business, and international experience.
Recognizing the Outsourcing Opportunity
My early career in France involved managing outsourced teams in India, Poland, and Tunisia—an experience that taught me both the potential and pitfalls of remote collaboration. Eventually my own position was moved to Poland when I finished my last consulting job in Paris. While cost efficiency and talent scalability were clear advantages, time zone misalignments, cultural gaps, and inconsistent communication often eroded those gains. Sometimes projects stalled over misunderstood requirements and linguistic nuances sometimes led to costly rework.
With Outsourcify, we set out to solve these pain points head-on. By basing our team in Thailand, we combined technical expertise with a Western-friendly work culture, overlapping hours with European clients, and a fluency in both English and the “language” of global business, while aiming at offering lower costs than in Western countries. We prioritized transparency and proactive communication—embedding it into our processes rather than treating it as an afterthought. The result? A outsourcing model that delivers reliability with the human touch often missing in traditional offshoring.
Thus, our initial business strategy involved directly contacting Western digital agencies to propose collaboration. Our focus was to position Outsourcify as a reliable outsourcing partner capable of delivering high-quality and cost-effective development work while effectively bridging cultural and language barriers. This strategy quickly proved successful, with early partnerships established in France, Australia, Germany, and Sweden, some that still last to this day.
Early Vision and How It Evolved
Initially, Outsourcify focused on web development services leveraging technologies like PHP and WordPress. However, our vision and offerings expanded significantly over time, and the technology in general greatly evolved in 15 years. As our client base diversified, we recognized the need to provide a more comprehensive set of services, leading to our hiring UX/UI designers and later expanding into mobile app development.
Furthermore, obtaining Board of Investment (BOI) certification in Thailand marked a significant evolution in our company’s journey. The BOI certification not only provided financial incentives and simplified processes for hiring international talent but also reinforced our long-term commitment to operating in Thailand. You need a clear business plan that involves numbers of employees to recruit, and you must stick to it if you want to keep the approval. Work permits and visas are also quite complicated and time consuming to handle in Thailand, you get a specific office for these with the BOI, and you have less restrictions regarding the ratio between Thai nationals and foreigners in the company. We wrote a specific article on the subject of the Board of Investment (BOI) certification.
Today, Outsourcify proudly combines local talent and one third of international hires, serving both Thai and global clients. Our initial vision—building a professional, reliable, and culturally fluent outsourcing company—has matured into a broader ambition to provide innovative digital solutions across various industries.
Why Thailand? The Strategic Advantages
Thailand—and Bangkok in particular—offered the perfect equilibrium for building a tech business:
- A Melting Pot of Tech Talent
– Cost vs. Quality: Bangkok’s tech scene sits in the sweet spot between high-cost Western markets and low-cost but high-friction outsourcing destinations. Compared to India or Vietnam, where communication barriers and output misalignments often hinder collaboration, Thailand offers more international business practices and usually a strong English proficiency.
– Growing Tech Ecosystem: Over the past 15 years, Bangkok has attracted startups, digital nomads, and agencies like ours, creating a virtuous cycle of talent retention and innovation. - A Lifestyle That Attracts and Retains Talent
– Thailand’s undeniable quality of life—great weather, world-class food, welcoming culture— and low cost of life makes it easier to recruit and retain international talent. Bangkok’s vibrant expat communities (from Japanese to European) create a cosmopolitan environment where diverse teams thrive.
– For clients, this means working with a stable team, not a revolving door of contractors. - Infrastructure and Accessibility
– Bangkok is a regional hub with direct flights to major cities, reliable internet, and amenities that rival Singapore or Hong Kong—but at a fraction of the cost.
– The BOI certification we secured further streamlined operations, offering tax benefits and simplifying international hiring.
Learning from Outsourcing’s Pain Points
My experience managing teams in India, Poland, and Tunisia had exposed the cracks in traditional outsourcing: cultural misunderstandings and inconsistent quality. With Outsourcify, we designed a model to fix this:
- Cultural Fluency: A team fluent in both English (and French) and the unspoken norms of Western business.
- Hybrid Teams: Blending Thai talent’s technical skills with international perspectives for sharper problem-solving.
Looking Forward
Reflecting on our origins highlights how the fusion of personal decisions, professional insights, and strategic market recognition shaped Outsourcify. Our story exemplifies the importance of adaptability, cultural understanding, and strategic partnerships in building a successful international business.
In the next article, we’ll dive deeper into the early challenges we faced as a young web agency and how overcoming them set the stage for sustained growth.
The Outsourcify Story #3: Overcoming Early Challenges
