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Build a team in India: the playbook for your first twenty hires.

This is the page for SMBs and scaleups making their first Indian hires, not for thousand-person captives. The playbook is short: define the roles, let us shortlist in nine days, employ everyone on our Bengaluru entity at $149 a month each, and grow one hire at a time until an entity of your own makes sense. If you are planning a full GCC, our GCC in India page covers that road instead.

For SMBs and scaleups hiring their first two to twenty people in India: shortlist in nine days, employ at $149 a month, grow hire by hire.

Speak to sales EOR vs entity, in detail

G2 4.8 / 5 on G2, from companies employing teams in India through us.

Teams building in India. First hire to full team.

Piecemeal hiring versus a planned team build.

Small companies rarely fail in India by choosing badly; they fail by improvising six separate decisions that should have been one plan.

Improvised hiring

Versatile team build

First hire
A contractor found on a platform
An employee, benchmarked and screened
Paperwork
A different template per person
One compliant contract standard
Payroll
Wise transfers and spreadsheets
One payroll cycle, payslips, filings
Benefits
None, until someone quits over it
Insurance and gratuity from day one
Hire number five
Repeat the improvisation
Same system, one more row
Hire number twenty
A cleanup project nobody wants
A volume discount and a transfer path

Improvised hiring
First hire A contractor found on a platform
Paperwork A different template per person
Payroll Wise transfers and spreadsheets
Benefits None, until someone quits over it
Hire number five Repeat the improvisation
Hire number twenty A cleanup project nobody wants

Versatile team build
First hire An employee, benchmarked and screened
Paperwork One compliant contract standard
Payroll One payroll cycle, payslips, filings
Benefits Insurance and gratuity from day one
Hire number five Same system, one more row
Hire number twenty A volume discount and a transfer path
Week 1
Role plan: the first three to five positions
Week 2
Nine-day shortlists arrive with salary bands
Week 3
Interviews run; first offers go out
Week 4
First hires employed and onboarded in 5 days
Month 2
First payroll done; next roles open
Month 12
Ten to twenty heads, entity decision on data

What improvised setups cost to clean up later.

The improvised route feels cheap until diligence, an audit or a key resignation exposes it: misclassified contractors, missing PF registrations, offer letters that promise the unenforceable.

Fixing three years of improvisation costs multiples of running it properly from hire one. Structure is cheapest at the start, which is exactly when it feels least necessary.

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Illustrative cleanup cost of an improvised ten-person setup Cumulative remediation spend once problems surface
$18,000 Reclassification
$38,000 Back statutory
$56,000 Legal and penalties
$73,000 Re-papering all
Illustration of remediating a ten-person improvised setup with contractor misclassification. Actual exposure varies with duration and salaries involved.
Who pays when the improvisation surfaces
Contractors who were employees You, retroactively
Employed properly from hire one Nothing to remediate

The teams that scale cleanly in India made one structural decision before hire one. The teams that stall made twenty small decisions instead. See what your first five roles cost as a system with the EOR versus entity calculator before you improvise the first offer.

The division of work while your team grows.

You build the team's culture and output. We keep the employment machinery invisible underneath it.

You run

  • Role priorities and growth sequencing
  • Interviews, culture and standards
  • Raises and promotions as the team matures

We handle

  • Shortlists for every new role
  • Employment on our Bengaluru entity
  • Payroll, filings, insurance, exits
  • The eventual transfer to your entity

You run
  • Pick the roles
  • Interview finalists
  • Lead the team
  • Grow on your pace

We handle
  • Shortlist in nine days
  • Employ compliantly
  • Run the payroll
  • File everything
  • Insure the team
  • Handle departures

When something happens in India, it is ours.
Team design and growth order Yours, hire by hire
Employment and statutory duties Foo Falcon Technologies
The team's work and loyalty Yours, visibly

A named compliance manager owns your account. Not a queue, not a chatbot, one person who already knows your headcount and your last filing.

Account managerMedian first reply 4 to 6 hours
Recruitment coordinatorBrief to shortlist 9 days
Finance associateFilings on time 8 / 8

Built for two hires, not two hundred

There is no minimum headcount, no platform fee and no implementation project. Your first Indian hire gets the same contract quality and payroll rigour a fifty-person team would, at $149 for exactly one head.

Each hire teaches the next

Every search returns market data: what the role paid, what candidates asked, where talent clustered. By hire five you are making India decisions on evidence instead of guesswork.

A growth path with numbers on it

At twenty-one heads your fee drops to $129. Around thirty to forty heads, our own advice is usually to open your entity, and the team transfers to it whole. The economics of every stage are published before you start.

The GCC road, signposted

If your plan is a large captive centre rather than a first team, that is a different playbook with different economics, and our GCC in India page walks that road properly.

Built for two hires, not two hundred

There is no minimum headcount, no platform fee and no implementation project. Your first Indian hire gets the same contract quality and payroll rigour a fifty-person team would, at $149 for exactly one head.

Small teams deserve infrastructure too.

Each hire teaches the next

Every search returns market data: what the role paid, what candidates asked, where talent clustered. By hire five you are making India decisions on evidence instead of guesswork.

The playbook improves as your team compounds.

A growth path with numbers on it

At twenty-one heads your fee drops to $129. Around thirty to forty heads, our own advice is usually to open your entity, and the team transfers to it whole. The economics of every stage are published before you start.

You always know what the next stage costs.

Moving someone across

From first team to your own subsidiary.

The build ends, if you want it to, with your own Indian entity absorbing the team we grew together. Continuity of service carries gratuity and leave across.

The team you built Kept
Salaries and history Kept
Statutory records Continuous
Hiring pause at transfer 0 days

Teams built this way arrive at their entity already functioning.

Supporting evidence

The entity your first hires would join.

Your team builds on Foo Falcon Technologies Pvt Ltd, our Bengaluru company held on the MCA register since 2022 with filings anyone can inspect. We show the statutory record before your first offer goes out.

  • Incorporation
  • GST
  • EPFO code
  • ESIC
  • Shops and Establishments
  • PAN and TAN
  • Udyam MSME
What we verify
  • Incorporation Ministry of Corporate Affairs
  • GST Goods and Services Tax
  • EPFO code Employees Provident Fund Organisation
  • ESIC Ministry of Labour and Employment
  • Shops and Establishments Government of Karnataka
  • PAN and TAN Income Tax Department
  • Udyam MSME Government of India

Full compliance evidence available from hire number one.

200

employees taken on in our single biggest intake

33

growing teams whose payroll we close monthly

5 days

to onboard each new hire as your team grows

G2 4.8 / 5 on G2, from companies employing teams in India through us.

G2 4.8 / 5 on G2, from companies employing through us.

Small teams that grew up in India with us.

Founders on going from hire one to a real Indian team without an entity, an office or a compliance headache.

Video
Bharath Rasoi KS Rajeshwari Founder, Bharath Rasoi
Video
Open Theatre Anand Raj Founder, Open Theatre
Abid Hassan Verified client
Sensibull
“They moved fast and took the whole compliance side off my plate. For a founder making an early India hire, that is exactly what you want.”
Abid Hassan Founder and CEO, Sensibull
Via G2
Moonshot
“Every option was either 'set up your own entity' or a platform that quotes a great price then hits you with add-ons. Versatile was the one that actually made it simple. First payroll ran on time. No scramble.”
Angad S. Co-Founder, Moonshot
Via G2
Digital Marketing Agency
“Contracts, PF, ESI, TDS and payroll all in one place. Invoicing in USD meant zero exchange rate surprises. The compliance rigour is genuinely reassuring.”
Vedant T. Founder, Digital Marketing Agency
Via G2
Design Studio
“Setting up in a new country can get messy fast, but their India EOR made onboarding feel easy. The team is responsive, clear, and great to work with.”
Setu C. Studio Owner, Design Studio
Via G2
US Startup
“We used Versatile to hire our first employee in India after months of putting it off because the compliance side seemed like a mess. They walked us through it and now we don't think about it.”
Verified US Founder First-time Founder, US Startup
Via G2
Mid-Market Tech Co.
“Versatile consistently delivered work that was both strategically sharp and execution-ready. Their turnaround times are impressive, and they think about problems the way an in-house team would.”
Shivani K. Senior Manager, Tech TA
Via G2
Growth-stage Startup
“Their team was highly responsive, professional, and easy to work with. They made a complex process feel simple.”
Mukul S. Core Team, Growth-stage Startup

Case studies.

Largest food delivery app in India, decacorn View case study The world's largest professional network, part of Microsoft View case study Legacy US software company, publishing platforms View case study

Team building priced by the hire.

Two flat fees scale with you from the first hire to the twentieth. No platform minimums, no setup charges.

Recruitment

Each new role on the plan
12% of annual CTC

12% of annual CTC for junior and mid roles, 15% senior, leadership scoped. Invoiced only at day 90 of tenure.

Plan my first roles
  • Role planning for first hires
  • Nine-day shortlists
  • Salary bands per role and city
  • Interview scheduling
  • Offer negotiation help
  • Day-90 invoicing
  • Free replacement search
  • Flow into five-day onboarding
  • Role planning for first hires
  • Nine-day shortlists
  • Salary bands per role and city
  • Interview scheduling
Plus four more inclusions
  • Offer negotiation help
  • Day-90 invoicing
  • Free replacement search
  • Flow into five-day onboarding

Sourced your own candidate? That hire is fee-free.

Employer of Record

Every head on the team
$149 /employee/mo

$129 per head from the twenty-first employee. Salaries and statutory costs at actuals, itemised monthly.

Price my team plan
  • Compliant employment contracts
  • Monthly payroll and payslips
  • PF, ESIC, PT, TDS filings
  • Group health insurance
  • Gratuity from day one
  • Leave and attendance
  • Exit settlements
  • Entity transfer at any scale
  • Compliant employment contracts
  • Monthly payroll and payslips
  • PF, ESIC, PT, TDS filings
  • Group health insurance
Plus four more inclusions
  • Gratuity from day one
  • Leave and attendance
  • Exit settlements
  • Entity transfer at any scale

The same fee at one head as at nineteen.

When the team passes twenty

$149 $129 /employee/mo

The step-down lands exactly when scaleups feel it: head twenty-one. Recruitment rates never change with team size.

Inside the monthly fee

  • Payroll and payslips
  • Statutory filings
  • Insurance administration
  • Offer and HR letters
  • Leave management
  • Expense processing
  • Compliance deadlines
  • A named account manager

Volume pricing

$149 $129 /employee/mo

Head twenty-one onwards costs $129 monthly.

Inside the monthly fee

  • Payroll and payslips
  • Statutory filings
  • Insurance administration
  • Offer and HR letters
  • Leave management
  • Expense processing
  • Compliance deadlines
  • A named account manager

Employer statutory add-ons of roughly 13% to 17% ride on salary at actuals. To budget your first year of team building, run the EOR versus entity calculator with your planned roles.

Building a team in India, first-timer questions.

What SMB and scaleup founders ask before their first Indian hire.

How small is too small to start?

One hire is a fine start, and it is how many of our clients began. The $149 monthly fee applies per head with no minimum, so a single employee gets full contracts, payroll, insurance and filings without any scale threshold.

Which roles should an SMB hire in India first?

The pattern we see work: start with roles that have clear output and mature talent markets, like engineering, QA, data, finance operations or support. Add coordination-heavy roles once two or three people are settled and your overlap rhythms exist.

Do we need an Indian entity to build a team?

No. Your team is employed by our Bengaluru entity while working exclusively for you. An entity of your own becomes worth considering around thirty to forty heads, and when you get there the team transfers across with continuity of service.

What does a five-person India team cost annually?

Five market salaries at actuals, statutory employer add-ons of roughly 13% to 17% on top, $149 per person per month to us, plus one-time 12% recruitment fees where we source. For typical engineering salaries that lands far below the equivalent US or UK payroll for the same seniority.

How fast can the first three hires be working?

Shortlists arrive nine days after briefs, interviews take a week or so, and onboarding completes in five days per hire. First-time clients usually have their initial two or three people working inside five to six weeks.

Is this the right page if we are planning a GCC?

If you mean a large captive centre with its own premises and hundreds of seats, no: our GCC in India page covers that build, its economics and its timelines. This playbook is tuned for the first two to twenty hires of an SMB or scaleup.

What if a hire does not work out early?

Exits run through us with proper notice and full and final settlement. If the person leaves within their first 90 days, the recruitment fee was never invoiced and the replacement search costs nothing.

Longer reading: GCC in India, the captive-centre road · Hire talent in India in fourteen days · Hiring in India without an entity

Tell us where you are on the decision.

A role you want to hire, a team you want moved, or just the two routes to compare. A named person replies in 4 to 6 hours.

A named person replies in 4 to 6 hours, not an autoresponder.

We use these details to respond to your enquiry.

A named person replies in 4 to 6 hours, not an autoresponder. We use these details to respond to your enquiry.

What the first call covers

30 minutes

A cost comparison for your headcount, on your numbers, both routes.

  • A written cost breakdown
  • Entity documents before the call
  • PF, ESI, TDS, termination law
  • No follow-up sequence
Book a call →

You pick the time, we send a Meet link. Any timezone.

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