How Wonderschool Rebuilt Its Engineering Team for High Velocity with Remotely

About Wonderschool: Wonderschool is a fast-growing EdTech startup (founded in 2012) transforming access to high-quality early childhood care and education. The company has raised nearly $50M from top VCs like First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Goldman Sachs. By connecting families with tailored childcare options and supporting educators with tools for program creation, management and professional development, Wonderschool drives innovation and accessibility in early education.

The Challenge: A Misaligned Offshore Model Slowed Progress

Naga Vadrevu joined Wonderschool as Chief Technology Officer in May 2024, bringing a wealth of experience from Bay Area technology leaders like Block, Adobe, and Autodesk. When he joined, he inherited an engineering team of ~20 developers based offshore. What he found was a misaligned model — and a growing gap between engineering output and business needs. 

"There was a talent disparity. Our engineers were demotivated working with an offshore partner. The talent bar was not as high as we expected; we were not getting the level of engineer we were promised."

The root issues included:

• Low talent bar: The offshore partner had a fixed, pre-defined pool of engineers lacking the quality Wonderschool needed, so options were limited.

• Poor alignment: Incentives between the offshore vendor and Wonderschool were fundamentally at odds. The vendor was incentivized to place low-cost, junior talent at a high markup to optimize their revenue. “We want good engineers; our partner wanted to make the most money…so they would give us the junior engineers”

• Cultural disconnect: Low ownership and embeddedness led to productivity and quality issues.

While time zone challenges existed, Naga emphasized that quality — not geography — was the primary blocker.

The Turning Point: A Seed of Trust from a Previous Acquisition

Wonderschool had acquired a startup called Early Day, which had sourced some of its engineers through Remotely. Naga reviewed their code, spoke with their managers, and began to see a new path forward.

"The transparency was refreshing. The incentives were finally aligned — we could pay market rates and control who we hired, just like we would in the Bay Area. That gave me confidence."

The Model Shift: Control and Transparency

With Remotely, Wonderschool adopted a new team-building model:

• Cost-plus pricing: Define and negotiate engineers’ pay directly and transparently, with a flat Remotely management fee.
• No middlemen, no markups: Full control over who was hired, how much they earned, and how they were supported.
• Startup-caliber talent: Engineers who were not only technically excellent, but mission-aligned, communicative, and comfortable in high-ownership environments.

Execution: A Phased Rollout with Immediate Wins

The Wonderschool team approached the transition with a 6-month plan. They ran hiring in parallel — testing Remotely candidates against U.S./Canada candidates — and quickly realized there was no drop-off in quality.

"You could close your eyes and not tell the difference between a candidate from LATAM and one from the U.S. or Canada. The quality was the same."

Interview Process (Iterated for Speed & Precision):

1. Hiring Manager screen

2. Technical pairing interview

3. System design round (highly emphasized)

4. Final exec-level interview

The emphasis on the System Design interview paid off really well. With LLMs and OpenAI, shipping code isn’t the differentiator nowadays. It’s more critical to pressure test people’s ability to think in systems, build in systems and communicate well around why they’ve made certain decisions and what tradeoffs have been considered.

Results: Better Engineers, Faster Output — With Fewer People

Over the course of 6 months:

• Wonderschool phased out their entire offshore vendor team (20+ engineers).
• Replaced them with 10 engineers via Remotely.
• Reported zero productivity drop — in fact, they gained velocity.

"We had more productivity with fewer engineers. Our DORA metrics improved; our deployment frequency increased by 30% and our PR throughput increased by 30%— and we saw tighter feedback loops and better product outcomes."

Cost Efficiency

Remotely engineers delivered significantly more value per person — leading to better cost per unit of output. By moving to Remotely, Wonderschool:

• Lower all-in costs. 
• Gained control over talent quality and retention.
• Eliminated vendor markups and misaligned incentives.

Cultural Impact

"These engineers are strong communicators, technically curious, and culturally aligned. They’re opinionated in a good way. It wasn’t hard — just different. Once we adjusted, it was a huge unlock."

The LATAM engineers weren’t just fitting in — they were pushing the team forward. Wonderschool is now in the process of leveling all engineers (including Remotely hires) on the same framework, with clear growth paths and impact expectations.

The Future of Engineering: Fewer Product Engineers, More Platform Thinkers

Looking ahead, Naga shared a broader thesis:

• Product engineers will be fewer, more strategic, and often closer to customers.
• Platform engineers — in areas like infra, data, DevOps — will be increasingly critical, and can be anywhere. “I would invest more in platform engineers and less in product engineers because the packages, the modules and libraries are increasing.”

Remotely’s model fits this shift perfectly, allowing teams to scale systems-focused talent while preserving agility.

Final Word

Naga Vadrevu shared his final thoughts on Wonderschool's partnership with Remotely:

"I genuinely had a lot of success with Remotely. It’s rare to find a partner where the incentives align so cleanly. This wasn’t just a staffing decision — it was a strategic transformation."

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