Parvessh Agarwal
Founder & CEO
An entrepreneur at heart. He links business analysis, strategy, clear goals and ROI to practical technology.
LinkedIn →Hire software developers
with one contact from brief to delivery.
PixelCrayons is your point of contact for hiring software developers. We scope the role and write the proposal. Our sister company ValueCoders finds and supplies the developer, or a small team, under that one proposal and account team. You meet the engineer who would work in your codebase, and sign just once.
Interview before signing · One contact throughout
Tell us about the role
Start Your Enquiry
Send a short brief. Once we have a complete brief, we confirm the date you will receive your itemised proposal.
What you get
PixelCrayons is your point of contact for hiring software developers, and our sister company ValueCoders supplies the engineer. You brief us on your tech stack and the gap. ValueCoders proposes the developer or small team whose track record fits. You interview them before anything is signed. PixelCrayons handles escalation, billing and status, so you never manage two suppliers.
- Vetted on real software deliveryEvery engineer we propose has shipped live software, vetted against ValueCoders' delivery standards.
- One point of contact for everythingPixelCrayons handles escalation, billing and status, while ValueCoders' engineers write the code.
- Interview before you signYou meet the actual engineer and can ask for another before any commitment.
Our work
See what we've built
and the results it brought.
Real projects for real clients, with results we can show.
2004
Established
500+
Agencies served
4,500+
Projects delivered
340%
Revenue growth · 7 months
eCommerce
+127%
Organic traffic · 5 months
SaaS
85%
Faster delivery · backlog cleared
via agency partner
Where the work happens
What they cover
Software developer skills
for code your team can keep building on.
Engineers are vetted on their track record with real codebases, not a whiteboard puzzle. They come from ValueCoders' team and are matched to your gap.
Core software skills
- Modern back-end and front-end tech stacks, matched to what your codebase already uses
- API design: REST and GraphQL, versioned and documented as the product grows
- Database design and query speed across relational and NoSQL databases
- Testing at unit, integration and full-flow level, with coverage that holds up in review
- CI/CD pipelines and careful releases, including the rollback plan
Cloud, connections and security
- Cloud setup on AWS, Azure or GCP, sized to real load, not a demo
- Message queues and background jobs for work that shouldn't hold up a request
- Connections to outside and internal APIs
- Secure coding: input checks, dependency audits and properly built sign-in
- Working across mobile, web or back-end work as the project really needs
Working well in your team
- Working carefully inside an existing codebase, not jumping to a rewrite
- Code review as a habit, held to a written standard
- Owning a service from ticket to live, including the boring parts
- Estimates that hold, and saying early when they won't
- Reports that a non-technical colleague can actually follow
In practice
Beyond the ticket count,
what a software developer really does.
Plain notes on the work, the interview and the first fortnight. They help the hire start on the problem, not the paperwork.
What the week actually looks like
A software developer working in your team spends less of the week on new features than most briefs assume. There is reading: existing code, open tickets, and the reasons behind decisions nobody wrote down. There is review, both giving and receiving it. There is the quiet work too. That could be fixing a flaky test or updating a package with a security notice. Or it could be chasing a bug that only appears with real data. Then there is the feature itself. A healthy week has all of these. If you only ever see new features, ask what is being put off, and who will pay later.
Signals worth listening for in an interview
Skip the algorithm puzzle. Bring a real problem from your backlog, with anything confidential removed. Ask how they would approach it and what they need to know first. Ask what they would check before calling it done. Good candidates ask about your users and your existing code before suggesting a solution. Ask about a time an estimate slipped, what they said, and when they said it. Ask what they changed after a recent code review, and why. Listen for specifics: named tools, named trade-offs, a mistake they own. Vague answers about "best practices" tell you very little.
Have these ready before day one
Give code access and a working local setup guide, or an honest note that there isn't one. Provide logins for a staging environment close enough to the live one to trust. List the systems the code talks to, and who owns each. Write down your branching and release process, even if it lives in someone's head today. Choose the first piece of work with care. It should be small enough to ship in the first fortnight, but real enough to touch the codebase properly. And name one person who answers questions quickly. Slow starts usually come from waiting on access, not from the developer.
How these hires usually go wrong
The brief says "full-stack, any language" when the real need is someone who knows your framework's quirks. Or the developer gets a vague project with no product owner, and builds what they think you meant. Or code review is skipped to go faster, and months later nobody understands the module. Another common failure is treating the developer as a ticket-closer and leaving them out of estimates. Then the estimates are wrong and nobody owns them. Name the tech stack precisely, and name the person who makes product decisions. Keep code review a must from the first pull request.
Working with the rest of your team
A developer's work lands on other people's desks. Designers need to hear early when a layout is costly to build, not when it is half done. Testers need to know what changed and what might have broken around it. So ask for clear pull request descriptions as a habit. Whoever runs your servers needs warning before a change touches settings, queues or database migrations. Product owners need estimates with their assumptions stated. Agree where these conversations happen, such as a channel, a stand-up or a ticket comment. Then decisions don't vanish in private messages when someone leaves.
When a generalist is the wrong fit
Your problem may sit deep in one framework, such as a slow Laravel queue or a React display issue. A specialist in that stack will get there faster. The real gap may be architecture: the database design and API contracts under several services. Then start with a back-end or data specialist. Need a defined product built to a fixed scope and date? A project team fits better than a hire. And if the bottleneck is unclear priorities, not engineering capacity, another developer adds work nobody asked for. Fix the backlog first, then decide who to hire.
How it works
How hiring works,
with one contact throughout.
Start
Brief and a call
You describe your tech stack and the gap to PixelCrayons. ValueCoders proposes the developer, or small team, whose track record fits.
Once the brief is complete
Proposal and interview
We confirm the date your proposal will arrive. You interview the ValueCoders developer yourself before anything is signed. If the fit isn't right, we propose another.
Your decision
You sign off
You confirm the scope, the payment and the access we need. Nothing starts before this.
Typically 2 to 3 business days later
Inside your codebase
They get code access, review your habits and join your stand-ups.
Every month
Scale up or down
Add another developer as tickets pile up, and scale back when they don't. The same PixelCrayons account team arranges each change.
You make requests, give approvals and see the weekly review in your Prism workspace. Each decision is written down with the result it was meant to bring. See how Prism runs the work →
Get a Proposal
Meet the people who will do the work before you sign
Why through us
Why hire through us:
one contact and the right engineer.
PixelCrayons scopes the developer hire and manages your account. ValueCoders supplies the engineer. You have one contact and the right engineer for your tech stack. It is always clear who answers for what.
Vetted on real software delivery
Every engineer we propose has shipped live software before yours. They are vetted against ValueCoders' own delivery standards. A track record on real codebases tells you more than a whiteboard session. It shows how they handled a real dependency conflict, not how they solve a puzzle.
One point of contact for everything
PixelCrayons scopes the developer role and writes the proposal. One PixelCrayons team handles escalation, billing and status. ValueCoders' engineers write the code. You never manage two suppliers yourself.
Interview before you sign
You meet the actual engineer and can ask them anything technical. If the fit isn't right, you can ask for a different proposal before committing to anything.
ValueCoders named openly
This page, and every stage of the work, names ValueCoders as the team delivering your developers. Once the proposal is signed, it stays clear whose engineers are changing your code.
Side by side
Hiring on your own,
compared with hiring through us.
An in-house developer is still right when the role is permanently full-time and central to how you build software. We'll say so when that's true. This is for every other case.
| Hiring it yourself | Through PixelCrayons | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to a working developer | A full recruiting cycle: sourcing, interviews, notice periods, onboarding | Eligible work can typically start two to three business days after scope, payment and required access are confirmed |
| Vetting | CV screening and a take-home exercise: you find out the truth on the job | A track record on real codebases, checked against ValueCoders' own standards |
| Management work | All yours: sourcing, screening, onboarding and ongoing management | PixelCrayons' account team handles day-to-day contact; you review the work and set priorities |
| Number of suppliers | However many agencies or freelancers it takes to cover the gap | One proposal and one point of contact, whichever engineer is assigned |
| Risk when it doesn't work | A poor hire slows you down until it's noticed, then a difficult exit | If the fit is wrong, we propose someone else, who gets the handover notes, not a blank repo |
Who is accountable
The people responsible
for your work.
Saundaraya Gupta
Technical Manager
Brings technical work, client updates and project management together, so work moves smoothly from brief to launch.
LinkedIn →Every engagement
A named coordinator and escalation contact
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Before you sign
Our commitments
Each one says where it applies and links to its full terms.
Time-zone overlap
At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast.
Managed specialists only; not a staffing promise for project teams.
Full termsClear IP & Ownership Terms
Your materials remain yours. Bespoke deliverable rights, licences and handover are agreed before work starts.
All engagements.
Full termsClear Delivery & Escalation Ownership
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Full termsWhy not just hire a freelancer?
A freelancer can be the right choice for a single, well-defined task. We are set up for work that needs an accountable team: a named coordinator, delivery reviewed by QA and a senior lead before release, and continuity arrangements written into the engagement. Confidentiality, ownership and escalation terms are agreed in writing before work starts.
How does time-zone overlap work?
Your engineers work at least four hours a day inside your core working hours. We set the window with you before the engagement starts and hold it for as long as the engagement runs. For the US West Coast the live overlap is two hours each morning, with a written handover at the end of every Indian day. We do not run night shifts: engineers who work nights leave quickly, and keeping the same people on your team matters more to us than a longer overlap.
Can we try you before we commit?
For eligible managed specialists, yes: up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. Stop within it and eligible trial hours are free; continue and they're billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work stays ours. Project work and other roles get a paid pilot with scope, acceptance criteria, duration and fee agreed first.
What if we want to stop?
Cancellation, notice and any renewal terms are written into your proposal or statement of work before you accept it. If an engagement ends early, we hand over completed, paid-for work and list any unfinished work separately. For an eligible specialist trial, you can stop within the trial window and pay nothing for eligible trial hours.
How we handle claims, credentials and your data: group credentials, dated ratings, how case figures are signed off, client permissions and data handling.
How we vet
How we vet a software developer
and what to ask them.
An algorithm puzzle says little about how a developer works in your codebase. ValueCoders vets against its own delivery standards before anyone is proposed. These are the tests to bring to your interview.
| What to test | Bring this to the interview | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | A real problem from your backlog, with anything confidential removed. Ask how they would approach it, and what they would check before calling it done. | A solution before any question about your users or your existing code. |
| Estimates | A time an estimate slipped: what they said, and when they said it. | A slip they only raised once it had happened. |
| Review | What they changed after a recent code review, and why. | Vague talk of best practices. Listen for named tools, named trade-offs and a mistake they own. |
| A healthy week | What filled a recent week of theirs besides new features. | Only features. Reading, review, flaky tests and package updates belong in the week too. |
| Working with your team | A pull request description they wrote recently: what changed, and what might have broken around it. | Nothing on what might break. Nothing on who needs warning before a change touches settings, queues or migrations. |
No trial on this role. If the problem sits deep in one framework, a specialist in that stack gets there faster. If the gap is architecture, start with a back-end or data specialist.
Questions
Frequently
asked.
ValueCoders, our sister company, employs them. The developer you interview and work with each day is on ValueCoders' team. PixelCrayons scopes the role, writes the one proposal and stays your contact from start to finish. We say so openly here and throughout the work. We never pass their developers off under our name.
Once we have a complete brief, we confirm when your proposal will arrive. You interview the developer before anything is signed. Eligible work can typically start two to three business days after scope, payment and required access are confirmed.
One account team handles the whole relationship. ValueCoders is named in the proposal and throughout the work as the company supplying your developers. Escalation, billing and status reports stay with the PixelCrayons account team you signed with.
One developer is the normal starting point. A second developer joins only when the work really needs it. Monthly resizing goes up or down, arranged by the same account team each time.
Tell PixelCrayons early, and ValueCoders puts forward a replacement. That is a normal part of how this works. The new developer picks up the first one's handover notes, so switching takes days, not a fresh start.
Get one proposal
with the right engineer for the work.
Tell PixelCrayons about your tech stack and the gap. We scope the role and stay your point of contact throughout. Our sister company ValueCoders delivers the engineer under a written proposal. You interview the actual person before anything is signed.
Interview before signing · One account team
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