Benefits of hiring an Extended Development Team for startups

Many startup founders will tell you that the hardest part of their journey was the start. Limited budget, unfamiliarity with business practices, inexperienced team members, and no work-life balance are some of the common problems faced by almost all grassroots startups. Launching a startup is exciting and a step into a new space, but it comes with serious challenges, which are most apparent when assembling a tech team. This is where extended development teams come in. This practice is undertaken not just to cut costs but also to accelerate growth, scale efficiently, and gain access to specialized expertise.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about extended development teams, from what an extended development team is, the benefits of hiring an extended development team for startups and much more.

What is an extended development team?

As the name suggests, an extended development team is a group of skilled professionals brought together and temporarily added to an existing development team within your company. This eliminates the hassle and costs associated with hiring and laying off. What separates this from outsourcing is that, unlike outsourcing, where a team is given a project or tasks to work on, an extended development team works as an extension of a startup.

Basically, this allows your core team or the team that is already responsible for development in your startup to focus on important company objectives like product vision, strategy, and key features. Simultaneously, the extended development team is made in charge of tasks like execution, support, and scaling. This team follows your protocols, adheres to your controls, and follows your established processes.

Individuals in a team might have more than one role, and these typically include:

• Developers
• UI/UX Designers
• QA Engineers
• DevOps
• Project Managers
• Business Analysts

Benefits of an extended development team for startups 

Now, let’s get into the most important part of this article, the benefits of hiring an extended development team for startups. Some, if not all, of these advantages can be very game-changing, especially for smaller startups.

Access to Top Global Talent

For startups, hiring is a tedious and complex process. They have to hire good and capable professionals at affordable rates. Hiring locally may be a challenge, as you’re limited to your local region, and this region may be too expensive or lack capable professionals. An extended team allows you to gain access to pools of talented professionals from regions like South Asia, Eastern Europe, or even Latin America, where developers are highly skilled and offer their services at rates affordable for startups.

This allows startups to find specialists from any field, including AI, blockchain, or cloud computing, without having to overpay or wait long periods of time.

Cost Efficiency

For startups in modernized regions like the US, UK, or Western Europe, hiring full-time engineers is very costly, especially when you’re on a budget or have limited funds. The costs associated with hiring include salaries, benefits, recruitment fees, and office space. Most of these costs are avoided when hiring an extended team, and this is because:

• You only pay for the talent you require.
• Since teams aren’t part of your company, costs associated with infrastructure, HR, and administration are avoided.
• There aren’t any hiring risks involved in the long term. Scaling can be done depending on your startup’s needs.

This affordability and flexibility in spending means startups can focus more of their funds on core processes like product development and growth.

Time to Market

Speed matters significantly for any business idea, but it becomes even more crucial for startups. The faster a startup launches its product, whether that’s an MVP or a full product, the quicker you can validate your idea and attract more investors.

Hiring an extended team accelerates this process, and this comes in the shape of the extended team temporarily adding more members to their team in case of any emergency work or tasks that require immediate attention. Instead of having to wait months until you hire the right individual and then onboard them, you can add skilled professionals to do your work within weeks.

Flexibility and Scalability

A startup may have differing needs at different times. Sometimes, there might be more developers needed, like before an MVP launch or when scaling your startup’s infrastructure. At other normal times, developers aren’t required as much and so are not needed in that capacity.

An extended team allows this flexibility, and you can scale your resources up or down depending on what you require at a certain time. This ensures that your startup is never overspending, but is always adequately staffed at all times.

Control and Alignment

Hiring an extended development team means you still retain all ownership and remain in control of your product. This differs from outsourcing, where the team that the project is outsourced to makes the decisions. The hired team of developers follows your management style, tools, and processes, ensuring seamless collaboration.

Core Functions

As a startup founder, you want to focus on core business processes like strategy, fundraising, customer acquisition, and retention. This isn’t possible if all the time is spent on other functions like hiring processes, server maintenance, bug fixing, etc. An extended team helps with this by taking care of such tasks and freeing you and your core team to focus on innovation and the product roadmap.

Hiring Risks

By hiring an extended development team, you eliminate any risks associated with hiring full-time employees. Employing individuals full-time as part of your startup is a commitment that can come back to bite you if the startup pivots or funding is reduced. Laying off these full-time employees can then be a painful process. An extended development team reduces this risk, as previously discussed, you can scale resources up and down depending on the level of activity, without having to make any long-term obligations.

When should a startup choose the extended development team model?

Hiring an extended team may not be the right move for every startup. Here are some situations where this model would be of the most use:

MVP

In situations where you need to launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) quickly, specifically in weeks or months, an extended development team can provide additional developers and designers who can help keep up with this fast project timeline.

Local Talent

Startups based in areas where talent is scarce or expensive locally may find that extending their team globally is the best solution.

Scaling

Once you’ve launched your MVP, and your idea is validated and you’ve raised a seed or series of funding, you need to grow fast. Extended teams allow you to use skilled developers and engineers without having to go through traditional onboarding processes.

Short-term Projects

If a need for a blockchain developer pops up, this may not necessarily be for a long time. You may need a blockchain developer for a couple of months, and not in a full-time capacity. With an extended team, you’d be able to bring in such experts on demand with no long-term obligation.

How to Hire an Extended Development Team?

When hiring an extended development team, several options may be on the table, and here’s how to choose the right one.

The very first and crucial step is to define your needs and requirements clearly. Do you need a frontend developer, a backend developer, a DevOps specialist, designers, or other professionals? And what skills should these professionals possess, if any? You should also clearly state your budget and timeline, i.e., how soon you expect your project to be completed. Only after clearly defining all these things should you start looking for the right team, and the people who fit all these boxes should be hired. The next step is choosing a vendor, which is very crucial, and you should look for companies that have previously worked on extensive projects with startups.

Furthermore, you should look for companies that clearly offer extended team services, rather than outsourcing, because, as previously discussed, there are several major differences between the two. Time zone alignment and cultural differences should also be taken into account, so that there’s compatibility with the team, and work is performed seamlessly. After you have shortlisted potential vendors, conduct interviews and treat the hiring process as if you were hiring full-time employees. Communication skills as well as technical skills should be properly assessed in the interview. After all this, when you’ve successfully hired an extended team, the next step is to introduce and integrate them into your workflows. Collaboration tools like Slack, Jira, or Trello etc. should be used to remain in contact and keep track of work objectives and progress. Weekly or biweekly meetings should be held to gain an understanding of what’s happening and to address any queries that may arise. The main aim here is to make the extended team feel like a part of the group, to integrate them into the existing workforce seamlessly, and not to make them feel like just a group on the side. Progress and objectives should be regularly monitored, and steps should be taken to achieve optimal productivity as your startup evolves over time.

Why Coding Crafts is the right extended development team for you?

As promised, we have gone through everything you need to know about extended development teams, their benefits, and so on. Hiring an extended development team as a startup is not just about cutting costs; its benefits go way beyond just saving money. For startups in their initial stages, an extended development team means access to skillful professionals without having to pay extravagantly, faster time to market, flexibility, and reduced risk.

There are plenty of companies and teams offering extended team services, and it may be hard to differentiate between them and choose the right option for you. Startups require more than just developers; they need people who have been through this process and understand the journey. This is where Coding Crafts stands out. Coding Crafts’ experience of having worked with many startups and early-stage companies means they understand and think like a startup owner. They provide access to developers, designers, and DevOps Engineers across multiple technologies. They possess the right skill set for any and every project, from developing mobile apps to platforms for enterprises; they have the skill set to do it all.

To conclude, there are many, if not too many, options available, and choosing the right one can be a painstaking process. The best extended team depends on your specific needs, and if you think your needs align with what we offer here at Coding Crafts, give us a call today!