Our Vision Toward the Future
Since Karumi's inception, we tried to bet on a way of working and market trends with which we felt identified. In 2013, when the idea of Karumi emerged, there were no "boutique" consultancies in Spain, only some freelancers but nothing like what we intended to do. For example, from the beginning we were "remote first" or what is now called "full remote", and over the years we made other bets, such as seeking perks and care for our employees that took into account their mental health and that they could disconnect from work.
Some companies have told us that they took us as a reference and certainly some have followed in our footsteps allowing us, in turn, to learn from them. In addition to teaching what we did and always re-evaluating ourselves as a company, one of Karumi's pillars is honesty. Both towards our clients, not lying to them or hiding truths, and with our employees, explaining to them what we do and why we do it, as well as with people in general who follow us. We have always been sincere when speaking in blog posts and at events about those things we do and not about what we say we do.
For some time now we have found ourselves with the need to be honest with ourselves, to think about the things we believe in and how we should do them. In recent years some coworkers have sought new challenges outside of Karumi and from Karumi we have opened new job offers. But since last year we have a hard time finding profiles that fit what we are looking for, not because they don't exist but because we can't pay them what they deserve. We have seen how in the last two years the salary we were paying those people has doubled. This is not a bad thing at all, nor a criticism that this is happening, it is simply a reflection of reality and as such we have told those people who left Karumi: "You are doing very well and you have to take advantage of the 'opportunities'. If we could, we would also pay you that money because you deserve it".
Faced with this situation we had two options: the first is to try to increase our rates to clients, something we have been working on for years and that we have been achieving thanks to our effort and work. Sadly, this increase is not even close to being able to increase salaries to competitive prices for the level of people who work at Karumi today.
The other option is to start hiring people with more junior profiles, with potential to become those workers we are looking for. The challenge of this is that it would change the figure of the company: as a small group of people who offer senior and quality work, we can afford to have a couple of more junior people who help and learn, who grow with us, but by the nature of Karumi we cannot be a group of juniors led by Davide and Jorge. We are also perceiving that the permanence cycle in companies is being very low, almost around a year. This would not allow us to be able to train seniors who would help us teach new juniors, so the medium-long term plan would be unfeasible.
We believe that all these factors are something that will last over time, since the globalization of companies and the increase in remote work will make hiring easier for many companies, opening a larger range of possibilities. This is a great benefit for the industry, but it also poses a challenge as to how we are going to face it in the coming years.
At this point we had to be honest with ourselves. We don't want to change Karumi's principles, become a type of company we are not, or see how what we built is gradually degraded.
On the other hand, this lack of hiring was causing us to have internal problems with our clients, such as having to delay times or unnecessary workloads to do efficient work that followed our quality standards, being something we don't like and with which we don't feel comfortable.
With all this we came to the conclusion that it made no sense to continue with Karumi as a consultancy. This translates into this eight-year adventure coming to an end. It has been a very difficult decision to make but we are convinced that it is the right decision.
We spoke with the workers at the end of September and communicated the situation to them. Next we spoke with our clients: we were going to stop working with them at the end of November.
What we have done with clients has been to close with them all the fronts we had open and try to find and recommend other companies with which they could work and that were of the same quality as Karumi. In some cases we also trained their employees so they could maintain or expand our work.
Regarding Karumi workers, who are the ones who were really going to suffer this situation the most, we proposed the following actions: the main thing was to talk to them with enough time so they knew how the situation was. A month before this communication we were talking to friendly companies in the sector to which we explained the situation and sent them our people's CVs. With this we wanted them to have some work alternative without having to look for it themselves. The next thing was that, although the projects would end in November, in December all employees would receive their payroll with the idea that they could dedicate that month to whatever they preferred, whether it was resting or actively searching for employment. We also told them that if someone wanted to leave earlier there would be no problem, since the important thing was that they looked out for themselves above all. Our biggest concern in recent months is that the Karumis were well and we have done what has been in our power to achieve it.
Regarding us, Davide and Jorge, we still don't know what we're going to do. The first thing is to rest from this excellent eight-year adventure that life has given us and where we have met fascinating people and we have shown ourselves that things can be done well, with love and treating workers and clients with honesty. We fervently believe that an honest, different consultancy can be done and that we must think that software companies are made up of people and that we must be 'employee first'.
With Karumi we still have things to say. It will remain as a brand, since we want to continue giving some courses, although with a different model. We also have some idea that we want to develop behind the brand that we hope will be sooner rather than later and we hope you like it!
And above all thanks to Alberto Gragera, Miguel Lara, Irene Herranz, Pedro Vicente Gómez, Sergio Gutiérrez, Fran Fernández, Laura Perandones, Antonio López, Elena Mateos, Beatriz Hernández, Antonio Estévez and Sergio Arroyo. For being part of this small family, for supporting us, helping us grow and for being the best people with whom to share these wonderful eight years. We love you!