Toptal Blog

One of the most important and challenging aspects of forecasting is handling the uncertainty inherent in examining the future. Every CEO, CFO, board member, investor, or investment committee member brings their own experience and approach to financial projections and uncertainty, influenced by different incentives. Oftentimes, comparing actual outcomes against projections underscores the need to explicitly recognize uncertainty.

Monte Carlo simulations are an extremely effective tool for handling risks and probabilities, used for everything from constructing DCF valuations, valuing call options in M&A, and discussing risks with lenders to seeking financing and guiding the allocation of VC funding for startups. This article provides a step-by-step tutorial on using Monte Carlo simulations in practice.

Shopify merchants have achieved more than $40 billion in sales, but with poorly executed UX design being one of the biggest contributors to abandoned checkouts, it’s clear that superior UX can boost this statistic even further.

In the current low interest rate environment, investors have been increasingly moving towards alternative asset classes, particularly private equity which continues to attract the lion’s share of investor capital. But could a relatively unknown, niche new asset class hold the key for outsized market performance?

In this article, Toptal Finance Expert Toby Clarence-Smith uncovers the world of search fund investing, reviewing some of the key aspects of the asset class from the investor standpoint as well as running through the main benefits of putting money to work in this space.

The modern, cross-platform programming language Haxe is well-known in some circles, yet many developers have never heard of it. Since it first appeared in 2005, it’s been battle-tested by its loyal—if rather quiet—following.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Kevin Bloch explores the Haxe ecosystem and how to transpile some sample code.

UX designers often need to persuade executives on the ROI of a UX initiative. In this example scenario, the UX team presented the projected ROI of a UX redesign to make a convincing case.

Despite its age, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) remains a widely used standard in adaptive bitrate video and a de-facto Apple alternative to MPEG-DASH.

In this tutorial, Toptal Java Developer Tomo Krajina explains what makes HLS tick and demonstrates how to create an HLS player in Android.

Elite talent has plenty of options. This article explores some of the key lessons Toptal and its clients have learned in how to best attract, retain, and motivate top talent.

The development of cross-platform mobile applications has always been a source of many challenges. Although tools like Apache Cordova and Haxe do solve some of the associated issues, they are still not the ideal solution in many cases. React Native changes that by providing the power of React.js for mobile platforms and a promise of consistent developer experience across multiple platforms.

The microservices architectural pattern is an architectural style that is growing in popularity, given its flexibility and resilience.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Python Developer Guilherme Caminha will focus on building a proof of concept microservices application in Python using Nameko, a microservices framework.