Building High-Performing Engineering Teams for a Cross-Border Fintech Startup
Create a Core Java, Angular & Flutter Pod.
With a focused talent search engine, Hiwi partnered with Swabhav Techlabs to build its first product engineering pod in Java, Angular and Flutter.
KEY SERVICES
Tech Talent Search
Talent Consulting 
Early-Stage Pod Building INDUSTRY & COMPANY
- FinTech · Cross-border remittance for students
- Startup · 10+ team strength
- High-growth, product-led
TECH STACK
Languages
- Java
- JavaScript
- Flutter
- Angular JS
Databases
- MySQL
Frameworks & Libraries
- Hibernate
- Spring Boot
- JDBC
- React JS
DevOps
- CI/CD
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Git
- Jenkins
Practices
- TDD
- Refactoring
- Agile
- OOAD
- SOLID
THE VISION
Build a core engineering pod that can keep product and business growth in sync—and stop losing opportunities to talent gaps.
Hiwi’s product vision was clear: remove friction from cross-border remittances for students, while staying fully compliant and cost-efficient. But internally, three challenges were slowing everything down:
- Daily productivity drain – around 50% of leadership and senior engineers’ time was going into interviewing instead of development.
- Opportunity loss – delays and lack of talent led to late deliveries and missed business opportunities.
- Hiring friction – interview completion times increased due to scheduling challenges, and high drop-off rates meant many candidates never finished the process.
- Brand & vendor fatigue – top candidates chose unicorns and MNCs over a lesser-known startup brand, and over $50K had already been spent across 5+ sourcing vendors with unsatisfactory results.
“Working with Swabhav Techlabs was a game-changer for our talent acquisition needs. They demonstrated an exceptional understanding of our tech stack, resulting in a diverse talent pipeline from their thriving community. Their swift turnaround time, coupled with a rigorous screening process, delivered top-tier candidates who perfectly fit our company culture. Their professionalism and enthusiasm made them an invaluable partner in building our team. Highly recommended!”
— Ujwal Tamminedi, Chief Technical Officer, Hiwi
BUSINESS IMPACT
Metric tiles
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TAT to onboard 3 Java and 3 Angular developers for the product team.
0%
Offer-to-joining rate—over half of offers converted into productive team members.
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Total hires across Java and Angular, forming Hiwi’s core engineering pod.
0%
Savings on cost per hire compared to the earlier multi-vendor approach.
These outcomes meant Hiwi could get critical product work moving again, with new engineers contributing quickly and leadership reclaiming time for roadmap and strategy.
THE SOLUTION
A market-mapped, candidate-friendly hiring engine that built Hiwi’s product pod without burning founder and tech time.
Addressing the core challenges
Instead of just “trying more vendors,” Swabhav built a structured approach around Hiwi’s context:
Deep discovery on company, culture & roles
- Understood Hiwi’s product, team culture and specific hiring requirements for Senior Java, Senior Flutter and Junior Angular developers.
- Captured what “success” looked like in the first 90 days—technically and culturally.
Stakeholder collaboration & process mapping
- Collaborated with all stakeholders to understand existing processes, bottlenecks and challenges in the hiring funnel.
- Identified where time was being lost—interview rounds, scheduling, unclear criteria.
Recreate JD + understand the talent market (TAM–SAM–SOM)
- Rewrote JDs where needed to better reflect the role, impact and growth story.
- Used TAM–SAM–SOM style thinking to map the Java and Angular talent market in Mumbai—finding 343 qualified Angular and 521 qualified Java candidates locally.
Targeted hiring strategy using market insights
- Prepared a sourcing strategy for each role, based on market data and competition.
- Prioritised candidates more open to startup contexts over purely brand-driven moves to unicorns/MNCs.
Leverage the right channels
- Used Swabhav’s network of 1000+ talents, campus drives and job portals to create a strong but focused funnel.
- Combined community reach with direct outreach to reduce dependence on generic job postings.
Improve candidate experience & interview design
- Revamped the interview process—reducing rounds from 5 to 2 and tightening scheduling to keep momentum.
- Sent each shortlisted candidate to Hiwi with a Deep Profile: 20+ data points plus Talent Manager comments on technical and cultural fit, so hiring managers could make faster, more confident decisions.
Shortlisting, offers & onboarding
- Managed shortlisting, expectation-setting and offer discussions to reduce mismatches and last-minute drop-offs.
- Coordinated onboarding to hit the 21-day TAT target for ramping up Java and Angular hires.
HOW IT FELT ON THE GROUND :
For Hiwi’s leadership and existing engineers, the experience shifted from chaotic to deliberate:
- Instead of spending half their week on interviews, they received small, curated shortlists with detailed Deep Profiles.
- Conversations moved from “Can this person do the basics?” to “How will they own this part of the product?”
- New hires joined with clear expectations and context, fitting both the tech stack and the company’s culture of speed and ownership.
By combining market insights, structured process design and a strong tech community, Hiwi turned hiring from a distraction into a growth lever. Their new Java and Angular pod gave them enough engineering depth to keep shipping on time—so the product could finally grow at the same pace as user demand.