Recently, David spoke at Legacy Club, one of our partnership communities. We’re the official tech partner, running a series on the ins and outs of technical things entrepreneurs need to think about. His most recent talk explored transitioning from using an agency to building a team in-house.
It may seem slightly strange that an agency would openly talk about how you move on from using us. However, part of our promise is being fully invested in the growth of your company. This includes building your own teams.
Why should you work with a digital agency?
When working with an agency, there’s already a curation of talented people. If you’re hiring a whole team you would be looking at hiring a minimum of a UX designer, backend developer, frontend developer and a CTO. If you’re a new company, you likely won’t need your whole team working full time for a year.
Using an agency won’t always save you money but you can get further with their in-house team of experts. They will get your company to where it needs to be before hiring internally.
When you offload your tech to knowledgeable people, you are freeing up time to work on your strengths. Having an in-house tech team means you need to spend time hiring and managing them. This can be difficult if you are not personally knowledgeable on tech to lead the way.
When is it time to move in-house?
There are several ways that you can tell it’s time to build your own team.
Are your customers settled?
If you have a working product that just needs to be maintained and updated, now could be a good time to go in-house.
When you have a clear road map for your business.
This will give you the understanding of the skills required to maintain the product and develop it.
“Where does the knowledge in your business come from”?
If you are strategising to sell your company, having a team in-house appeals to buyers more than them having to also befriend an agency. Having your own team adds financial value to your company.
Order of hiring.
When hiring your team, you should always start with a developer before introducing a CTO. A CTO needs people to manage and strategise with. When moving away from an agency, you don’t have to cut all ties, you can slowly ease up how much you lean on them. Lots of agencies, ourselves included, offer a fractional CTO service, saving you large salary costs to fill this role.
If you are starting out on a tech venture or you’re trying to digitalise your business and you still aren’t sure on what you should do, please do reach out!
