Friends first. Placements second.
We connect specialists from Serbia and the Balkans with companies abroad, and we stand behind every single match with our name on it.
Why we exist
The talent was always here. The bridge was not.
The Friends started with a frustration. We watched brilliant developers, marketers and designers around us do world-class work for a fraction of what the same work earned a few borders away. Not because they were worth less, but because nobody had built the bridge.
So we built it. We vet hard, we employ properly, and we treat specialists like the professionals they are. When a company hires a Friend, they are not taking a chance on Serbia. They are hiring a person we would stake our name on.
Why the name
Friend is not a cute word. It is a standard.
Think about what it takes to call someone a friend. You know their work, you know their character, and you are willing to put your own name behind them. That is exactly the bar we hold before anyone enters the pool.
So the slogan is not marketing. It is the mechanism. Specialists become a Friend by earning our vouch. Companies hire a Friend because that vouch means something. Both sides borrow our trust until they build their own.
The story so far
From one favor to a platform.
The Friends did not start as a company. It started as something we kept doing for people we believed in.
1
The frustration
Years of watching brilliant people around us do world-class work for local rates, while companies abroad overpaid for the same skills a few borders away.
2
The first placement
We connected a friend, literally a friend, with a company abroad and handled everything in between. It worked so well that both sides asked who else we knew.
3
The system
Favors do not scale, standards do. We turned the vouch into a process: three-gate vetting, private client pages, real employment and a guarantee we put our name on.
4
Two entities, one team
A US company for contracts clients trust, a Serbian company that employs specialists properly at home. The bridge got legal foundations on both banks.
5
Today
A pool 500+ specialists strong, clients across the US, UK and EU, and the same rule as day one: nobody gets in unless we would vouch for them personally.
What we believe
Built on three beliefs.
People over placements
A match only counts if both sides are better off a year later. We optimize for that, not for volume.
No fine print
Tailor-made pricing, a 14-day guarantee, invoiced only on placement. Everything stated up front.
Serbia, first
We are from Serbia. Proving what this talent can do is not our angle, it is the whole point.
How we work
Four rules we do not break.
We vouch, personally
Nobody enters the pool because an algorithm liked their CV. A person here puts their name behind every specialist.
Both sides are our client
The specialist is not the product. We answer to them the same way we answer to the company that hires them.
Small by design
We would rather do fewer placements perfectly than many placements adequately. Quality is the growth strategy.
Skin in the game
The 14-day guarantee and pay on placement mean we lose when a match fails. We built our incentives to match yours.
Leadership
The two names behind every vouch.
Tomislav Živković
Co-founder
Tomislav spent years on the commercial side of digital, selling and delivering work for companies across the US and Europe. The same scene kept repeating: clients surprised by the quality coming out of the region, and specialists paid a fraction of what that quality was worth. The Friends is his answer to both sides of that gap.
Today he leads sales and partnerships. He takes the brief on every discovery call, sets the standard for how a shortlist is built, and reads every shortlist before a client does. If you book a call, it is him you will meet, and his name that backs your top 3.
Why he built The Friends:
“Because the best people I knew kept getting overlooked for one reason only: geography. That felt like a solvable problem.”
Ognjen Varađanin
Co-founder
Ognjen comes from the operations and growth side, years of building processes, running teams and making remote work hold up between the region and clients abroad. He designed the system behind the vouch: three-gate vetting, local employment on proper contracts, payroll between the 1st and 5th, equipment at the door.
Today he runs operations and marketing. He owns how The Friends works as a company, from the standards every placement is held to, to how the brand shows up in front of clients and specialists. When a Friend needs a decision fast, he is one message away.
Why he built The Friends:
“The talent was always here. What the region lacked was the machine around it, so we built the machine.”
Where we are
Two addresses. One bridge.
Belgrade, Serbia
THE FRIENDS D.O.O.
Home of the pool. Where sourcing, vetting and employment happen, and where every specialist has a real contract, in their own country.
United States
THE FRIENDS LLC, WYOMING
The side clients sign with. US contracts, USD or EUR invoicing, and paperwork your legal team recognizes on sight.
500+
Specialists in the pool
Top 3%
Pass our vetting
US + RS
Two entities, one team
14 days
Guarantee on every placement
Testimonials
From the people on both sides.
Not hiring? Need it done for you?
Don't need a hire, need an agency?
If you'd rather hand the work over than bring someone in-house, our sister agency runs marketing, web, design and growth as a full service, done for you, end to end.
Work with us, or work through us.
Hire a Friend for your team, or become one and let the work find you.
