You don't need to hire a CTO, recruit 5 engineers, and wait 4 months. Get a dedicated crew with a tech lead shipping production code by day five - from $20/hr.
Solo engineers from $20/hr · 3-person crew from $90/hr
Every month you spend building a team is a month your competitor ships.
The average time to hire a senior engineer is 58-71 days. In startup time, that's an entire pivot cycle - burned while you're still posting job ads.
Most MVP quotes come back at $80K-$150K with a 3-6 month timeline. For pre-seed founders, that's most of your raise before you've validated anything.
You need a technical co-founder or CTO for traction, but talented engineers won't join until you have traction. You can't get traction without a product.
You don't get a freelancer to manage. You get a self-managed crew with a tech lead who owns architecture, code review, and shipping. You own the vision.
Every engineer comes from our 120-person bench. If someone's not a fit, we replace them in 48 hours from the same bench. Zero context loss.
Production code by day five, with CI/CD from the start. No 'fix it later' shortcuts. Your codebase stays fundable and maintainable.
One dedicated engineer, fully integrated into your tools, shipping daily to your repos. Or scale up to a 3-person self-managed crew with an embedded tech lead.
Not shared, not fractional. 100% dedicated to your product, your codebase, your goals.
React, Next.js, Node, Python, Flutter - whatever you need. They work in your GitHub, your Jira, your Slack.
Production-quality code shipped to your repos daily. Not weekly status reports - actual commits.
Upgrade to a 3-person crew and get an embedded tech lead who owns architecture. You own the vision.
Every engineer is approved by you before they write a line of code. Non-negotiable.
3 months recruiting. Job posts, interviews, offers, rejections, counter-offers. Meanwhile your runway burns at $50K/month and your competitors are shipping features weekly.
Avg. time to hire a senior engineer: 58-71 days.
That's 2-3 months before your first commit.
Monday: discovery call. Wednesday: you interview the engineers. Friday: first code commit in your repos. Week 3: paid pilot milestone delivered. You pay only after delivery.
5 business days from call to code.
2-week paid pilot. Pay after milestone.
30-min call. Your stack, your timeline, your requirements.
Engineers matched from our bench to your exact stack.
You approve every engineer. Non-negotiable.
Your Slack, GitHub, Jira. They feel like your team.
Production code by day 5. Paid pilot by week 3.
Every engineer is matched to your exact stack from our 120-person bench. No retraining, no ramp-up.
I've led delivery on 100+ engineering engagements at HestaBit. I built Crewlane because I kept seeing the same pattern - great companies held back by the speed of hiring.
On our call, I'll tell you honestly whether a Crewlane crew is the right fit - or if you should go a different direction. No pitch deck. No pressure.
Book a call with Surbhit
That's what the discovery call is for. We'll help you scope your MVP, define a first milestone, and recommend the right startup engineering team size. 30 minutes, no sales deck.
Start with a solo dedicated developer for startup work at $20/hr (~$3,200/month). Scale up to a 3-person engineering crew for MVP delivery when you're ready. No pressure to buy more than you need.
Yes. Your tech lead gives you weekly demos and plain-English progress updates. You don't need to read code - you see working features every sprint. Most founders who ship MVP without CTO use exactly this setup.
48-hour replacement guarantee. We swap them out, no questions asked. Because every engineer comes from our 120-person bench - not a marketplace - we have vetted replacements ready. Your MVP development team for startups never skips a sprint.
Pivots are normal for startups. Your crew adapts with you - same startup engineering team, new direction. Month-to-month after the initial 3-month commitment means you're never locked into a scope that no longer makes sense.
You own 100% of the code, IP, and everything we build. It's in your repos from day one. Investors see a real product with a clean, auditable codebase - not a prototype or mockup. Exactly what you need when you hire engineers for startup fundraising.
With most agency engagements, you get a deliverable at the end of a contract. When you hire engineers for startup work through Crewlane, your crew embeds in your workflow - your Slack, your GitHub, your Jira - and ships continuously alongside you. You interview every engineer. And at $90/hr for a 3-person engineering crew for MVP delivery with tech lead, your budget goes further.
30-minute discovery call. Tell us what you're building, and we'll recommend the right crew - or tell you honestly if we're not the right fit.
Book a strategy callSolo engineers from $20/hr · Crews from $90/hr