Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders S12 Bonus: Dmytro Ovcharenko, Alcor
Jan 29, 2026
Dmytro Ovcharenko, Founder and CEO of Alcor, built a transparent employer-of-record and recruiting firm to pay engineers more and cut hidden fees. He tells the origin story, how a 50-engineer MVP proved the model, and why Alcor doubled down on recruiting to scale to 600 engineers. Expansion plans across Eastern Europe, LATAM and Asia and the focus on hiring top performers round out the conversation.
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Origin Story: From Luxoft To Alcor
- Dmytro left Luxoft frustrated by opaque outsourcing margins and built Alcor to be fully transparent.
- He and two ex-colleagues started by hiring Silicon Valley-caliber engineers in Ukraine for one U.S. client and proved the model.
Transparent Plus-Plus Model Wins
- Alcor's model returns roughly 85% of client payments to engineers, making it three times more cost-efficient than some providers.
- That transparency positioned Alcor to scale quickly after proving it with early hires.
MVP Was A 50-Engineer Win
- The MVP for Alcor was landing and staffing a unicorn client with 50 engineers in Ukraine in the first year.
- That rapid hire validated their ability to jump from zero to a sizable team quickly.
