Terminal accelerates Bluescape’s team growth by 50% in 10 months

Terminal had partnered with Bluescape before, building out a team in Vancouver that ultimately took full ownership of one of the company’s product lines. Chanda decided to build on this success and tap into a new market in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Not even a year later, Bluescape more than doubled the engineering team, without sacrificing quality or product excellence. “If I had done it from scratch — building a new office — we probably wouldn’t have been this far along in 10 months,” Chanda says. “Terminal took care of all the operational details so I could focus on finding the right talent for the team and getting them up-to-speed quickly. We probably wouldn’t have been able to hire 30 happy people who are this productive by now, maybe less than half that — that’s a 50% ROI on speed alone.”

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> how it began

Bluescape’s Vancouver team scales to become a mobile development powerhouse

In 2018, Founder & CTO Demian Entrekin set out to build a remote development team: “We were looking to build a new product, something that would complement the product we already had, and we wanted to do it outside the bubble of day-to-day development. It made sense to work with Terminal – doing it in Canada seemed really useful from a language and timezone standpoint. And they had a strong development community there already.”

Terminal’s recruiting team quickly brought on a team of five to support Bluescape, which over time morphed into the main mobile development team.

“Terminal offered the benefit of being able to quickly build a team without having to worry about building the organizational rubric to support it in Canada. It can be a lot of work to set up to run internationally and you guys took that off our plate.”

I had an extensive network in Waterloo, Canada, so the question eventually became ‘how do we hire those people?

Rupen Chanda
CTO AND SVP of Engineering, Bluescape

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> moving into new markets

Bluescape accesses a new talent pool

When Rupen Chanda joined the team and began hiring, he saw an opportunity to expand upon the Terminal relationship, while tapping into his personal network.

“I had an extensive network in Waterloo, Canada, so the question eventually became ‘how do we hire those people?’” Chanda says.

Time was of the essence, and the Terminal team moved quickly to find top talent. “In March 2019, we onboarded our first Terminal team members. Now, not even a year later, we have 28 people working on the project.”

These people are some of the very best engineers. We are fortunate to have them! Terminal, acting as a facilitator, created the right environment to make this work. Over the past eight months, we’ve seen significant progress with the product, and believe the team’s contribution to that is immeasurable.

Rupen Chanda
VP of Engineering, Bluescape

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> the remote teams engine fires up

Terminal acquires and retains top talent

Rupen needed an agile partner to manage a high-velocity recruitment process, and to get offer letters out quickly to secure in-demand talent.

“I was impressed that Terminal could get an offer letter out within an hour,” he says. “Terminal’s facilities and HR team worked splendidly. In a single day, we even sent out two offer letters.”

He credits the positive, engaging workspace the Terminal Waterloo office provides as a critical factor in their success. “We are in the business of human capital for this kind of technology business. That means it’s important our employees are very happy.”

Unlike the sterile, interchangeable corporate outsourcing offices Rupen had seen throughout his career, he was impressed with how Terminal set-up its offices. In addition to being designed to encourage collaboration and foster team building and collaboration, the office felt like a startup—not like a cube farm.

“My team in Waterloo came in, and the initial setup made them feel at ease, at home, and with a trusting environment,” he says. “Terminal helped me create a positive vibe—and a new team must have a positive vibe to make the difference.”