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Startups and SMEs

Offshore development for UK startups and SMEs

In short

For UK startups and SMEs, a small dedicated offshore team is often the fastest way to ship an MVP or clear a product backlog without burning runway. For roughly the employment cost of one mid-level UK developer (about £5,700 a month), TalentDock can provide three dedicated developers in Sri Lanka (from £1,695 each), working in your repo and sprints with you as product owner.

Runway

More engineering per pound of runway

Illustrative monthly engineering spend
Set-up	UK employment cost	TalentDock offshore
1 full-stack developer	≈ £5,700	from £1,695
2 developers + 1 QA	≈ £15,500	from £5,085
4 developers + QA + DevOps	≈ £33,500	from £10,770

UK figures use Robert Half 2026 salary midpoints plus employer NICs and minimum pension (QA from CV-Library benchmarks), before recruitment and equipment. See the full cost model.

By stage

What to build offshore at each stage

Pre-seed and MVP

Two full-stack developers with a founder or fractional CTO as product owner.

Seed to Series A

A product squad: tech lead, 3-4 developers, QA, shared DevOps.

Established SME

Maintain and modernise core systems, add integrations, automate operations; often PHP or Python.

Avoiding mistakes

How startups avoid the classic offshore mistakes

Own your repo and cloud

Code and infrastructure live in your accounts from day one.

Hire people, not a project

Dedicated engineers build product knowledge; fixed-price agencies do not.

Keep a product owner in the UK

Someone must own priorities and acceptance.

Write it down

Short specs, acceptance criteria and recorded demos beat long calls.

Structure guidance: offshore development team structure.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is offshore development a good idea for a startup?

Yes, if you keep product ownership in-house, own your code and hire dedicated engineers rather than a fixed-price agency.

How much does an offshore MVP team cost?

Two dedicated full-stack developers start from about £3,390 a month with TalentDock.

Can I start with one developer?

Yes, and add engineers as funding and roadmap grow.

Do I need a CTO?

You need someone to own technical decisions: a CTO, a fractional CTO or a senior tech lead in the team.

Who owns the IP?

You do. IP is assigned in every contract, which matters for investor due diligence.

Keep reading

Offshore development UK

How the model works.

SaaS development

Offshore teams for SaaS.

Hire offshore developers

All engineering roles.

Build your startup's engineering team

Tell us about your product and runway. We will propose a lean team and an all-in monthly cost.