In the past months, thousands of talented IT professionals have been laid off - not because of their skills, work ethic, or performance. These layoffs often from shifting strategies, internal restructuring, or acquisitions gone wrong - decisions that even senior executives sometimes struggle to explain or fix, or cause more damage every time they try to fix it.
It's almost like the old joke we used to tell about IT support for internet routers: "Turn it off and on again after 5 minutes." Sometimes it works, but more often, it doesn’t. Still, the support agent closes the ticket quickly, and after 5 minutes, it’s someone else’s problem.With so many highly skilled people now free to explore new opportunities, we hope to see a wave of entrepreneurship and a new generation of innovative companies. For these new ideas, time to market will be critical. Building a strong team quickly, with clear communication and cultural alignment, will make all the difference.
Whenever possible, local resources are best: face-to-face collaboration, shared time zones, common language, and cultural alignment reduce friction in the critical early stages. And with all these layoffs, resources are available.
But when you need to scale fast, and cost matters, outsourcing is often the smartest path to augment your team with more hands. It allows you to ramp up quickly, bring in specialized expertise, and stay focused on your core business without the delays and overhead of traditional hiring - and Egypt is an outstanding choice as I was suggesting to a previous employer many years ago, and advice still valid.
Egypt offers more than just affordable talent - it offers serious value.
- Skilled Talent: A strong pipeline of engineers, developers, and IT professionals, fluent in English and aligned with international standards.
- Cost Efficiency: Significant cost savings compared to Europe and surprisingly almost the same range as India, without sacrificing quality.
- Time Zone Advantage: Overlapping working hours with Europe, the Middle East, and parts of the U.S. and beside that Cairo is known as a city that never sleeps.
- Cultural Compatibility: Professional communication and work ethics aligned with Western business practices. With lower turnover and strong loyalty culture.
- Proven Success: Egypt already hosts global R&D centers for companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Dell.
- Regional Experience & Market Insight: Many Egyptian professionals have Gulf-region experience where advanced technologies are commonplace. This offers not only deep technical know-how but also potential access to new markets in the Middle East.
If you’re looking for a reliable, cost-effective destination to develop your next product or idea, Egypt deserves a closer look.
