When founders hear Team-as-a-Service, a common reaction is: “So… do I need to pay for an entire team?”

That question usually comes from the assumption that hiring individuals is cheaper, safer, and more flexible.

In practice, we’ve seen the opposite.

👉 A cross-functional squad often works within the same budget as a single experienced hire — and delivers far more value.

Here’s why.

The Myth of “Full-Time” Work

Many organisations still believe:

“If I pay someone, I want them full-time.”

But full-time is mostly a psychological comfort — not a productivity guarantee.

Anyone who has worked independently knows this:

• admin work exists

• meetings consume time

• context switching kills focus

• deep work is limited

Even at a country level, the myth breaks down:

• In the Netherlands, the average work week is closer to 30 hours

• Four-day work weeks are common

• Productivity does not drop — it improves

The real question is not:
“How many hours am I buying?”

The real question is:
“How much progress am I getting?”

Why Hiring a Squad Can Sometimes Cost the Same as Hiring One Person

We’ve repeatedly seen projects where a full cross-functional squad delivered within the same budget as a single experienced hire.

Why?

• A squad is hired for end-to-end outcomes, not for isolated skills like “frontend” or “backend.”

• Real product work needs slices of different skills at different moments, not full-time capacity from each role.

• Squads operate in WYSIWYG delivery mode:
  you pay only for what actually gets worked on in a sprint.

No idle time. 

No role padding. 

No “keep them busy” work.

👉 The result: maximum progress per euro, without paying for unused capacity.

The Hidden Cost of Hiring Individuals: Meetings

Here’s something founders rarely calculate.

Many clients already run:

• daily standups

• planning meetings

• refinement sessions

• alignment calls

• status check-ins

If a freelancer works 10–15 hours a week and a significant amount of percentage goes into meetings: "What’s left for actual delivery?"

This is why people insist on full-time hires: “Otherwise everything goes into meetings.”

But that’s not a staffing problem.

That’s a process problem.

What Changes When You Hire a Squad

When you hire a squad, the working model shifts.

Instead of managing availability and hours, you move to:

• clear expectations upfront

• weekly delivery goals

• weekly demos

• weekly retrospectives

The question becomes: “What can you show us in one week?”

Not: “How many hours did you work?”

This shift alone removes a huge amount of waste.

Why Squads Are Not the Same as Offshoring Teams

Offshoring companies have sold “teams” for decades.

But most offshore teams are:

• assembled after the contract is signed

• made of people who haven’t worked together

• forced through forming and storming phases

• optimized for utilization

• managed through hierarchy

Squads work differently.

Squads are:

• pre-formed teams

• made of self-selected freelancers

• people who have shipped together before

• already aligned on how they work

• optimized for delivery, not billable hours

You’re not buying capacity.
👉 You’re buying a working system.

From Hours to Outcomes: The Real Shift

Most hiring conversations still revolve around:

• hourly rates

• full-time availability

• utilization

• cost per person

Squads force a better question:

“What value do we want delivered next week?”

Once teams start thinking in outcomes instead of hours, hiring individuals starts to feel like the inefficient option.

In Summary

• Full-time is a myth

• Hours don’t equal productivity

• Meetings destroy individual efficiency

• Squads reduce coordination overhead

• Freelance squads are implicitly high-performing

• Outcomes matter more than presence

Hiring individuals feels familiar.
Hiring a squad feels different.

But in practice, squads are often:

• faster

• cheaper

• safer

• more predictable

That’s why more founders are quietly choosing them.

If you want to explore what it looks like to work with a ready-to-perform cross-functional squad — without paying for unused capacity — we’d be happy to talk.

Stop hiring roles. Start hiring outcomes.

📩 hello@squads.com or schedule a virtual discovery call.