Build-operate-transfer:
build a product team in Europe

Build

We assemble a cross-functional team — Product Design, Software Engineering, Product Management — and start delivering. No entity, no local contracts, no operational setup on your side.

What happens in this phase:

• An on-demand, vetted team onboarded to get things started.

• No local operations required on your side.

• Clear quality guardrails and exit paths from day one.

• A squad typically operational within four to eight weeks.

• 12-month minimum engagement, with the option to transition team members each year, at a minimum 30% off our standard pricing.

Operate (optional)

As you commit to Portugal, you open your local entity with trusted partners. Our team keeps delivering with quality and speed while your internal hub takes shape.

What happens in this phase:

• Introductions to local legal, HR and recruitment partners if you need them: Fresh, beTaxed, RedBridge, AGPC, Porto City Council.

• You scale with our team acting as your delivery counterpart in Portugal.

• You focus on establishing your operations and hiring, we keep shipping.

• Access to trusted partners, from entity setup to accounting.

Transfer (optional)

Once your team is ready, you can hire selectively from the pilot team during agreed windows, ramp down external support, or keep collaborating at a smaller scope.

What happens in this phase:

• Planned transition windows after 12 months.

• No forced handover, the timing is yours.

• Ongoing collaboration optional.

• Structured knowledge transfer to preserve context and delivery momentum.

• No management fee applied. You own and operate the hub with full ownership and autonomy.

What's included in build-operate-transfer services

A traditional build-operate-transfer engagement means recruiting a team from scratch in your target market and handing the whole thing over at the end. Ours works differently in five ways.

1. High-talent density, not a recruitment drive. Your squad is drawn from our standing team of 70+ in Porto, people who already work together to a shared standard. Behind them sits a pre-vetted talent pool and a hiring network built over more than a decade through universities, senior networks and long-term relationships — so the team scales without waiting on a hiring cycle.

2. The operational overhead is covered. HR, legal and accounting support, temporary office space, and Employer of Record services if you need them. You get a dedicated team and none of the setup that usually comes with one.

3. You establish local operations, we open the doors. Introductions to the local partners who handle entity setup, accounting, tax, legal, HR and relocation: Fresh, beTaxed, RedBridge, AGPC, and Porto City Council. You contract them directly.

4. We run delivery and stay accountable for it. Day-to-day management, performance, culture and quality, measured on outcomes rather than headcount.

5. Teams scale up or down deliberately within an engagement baseline, so capacity adjusts to what you actually need.

Who is build-operate-transfer for, and who is it not for?

It fits if you're:

• Committing to at least 12 months rather than quarter to quarter.

• Building a product that's core to the business, not a side project.

• Investing €400k+ a year.

• Open to owning the team eventually, not just renting capacity.

• After a European presence without setting up a company before you know it works.

It doesn't fit if you're:

• Running a three-month project.

• Looking for one or two developers.

• Not interested in employing anyone locally, ever. In that last case you'd be paying for an exit you'll never take, and staff augmentation is the cheaper, better answer.

Build-operate-transfer vs staff augmentation vs managed services

• Choose staff augmentation if: you need specific skills on an existing team, quickly, and you don't want to run a hiring process.

• Choose managed services if: you want to buy a result and not think about how it's produced.

• Choose build-operate-transfer if: the team itself is the thing you want at the end.

What does a build-operate-transfer agreement cover?

The agreement's job is to make the transfer boring. What it covers:

• Transfer windows. Planned after 12 months, with the option to transition team members each year. No forced handover: the timing is yours.

• Intellectual property. You own the product, the code and the IP throughout, in every phase.

• Employment contracts. You hire selectively from the pilot team during agreed windows, ramp down external support, or keep collaborating at a smaller scope.

• Tooling and accounts. What transfers, and what gets rebuilt on your side.

• Timeline. The arc from first squad to independent team, and what triggers each step.

Quality guardrails and exit paths are set from day one, and knowledge transfer is structured to preserve context and delivery momentum. Once the hub is yours, no management fee applies.

Build-operate-transfer examples: UJET's tech hub in Porto

We built ujet.cx's tech hub in Porto. UJET, a US cloud contact center company, partnered with us in March 2025 and launched Portugal operations that September. The team grew from 4 people to 25 — multiple dedicated product teams that may migrate to UJET's Portugal entity. In its first year the team shipped 16 features, six of them in the first six months, grew UJET's end-to-end test suite 4.8x with 43% of it authored by our engineers, and cut onboarding time for new team members by 4x.

"Pixelmatters was the type of firm that would not let their team fail a client. They had that sense of ownership and accountability and wanted to understand the broader strategy and the implications of success versus failure." — Leslie Blanke, CPO, UJET

Why Portugal for build-operate-transfer?

Portugal gives you four things at once: top design, engineering and product talent with real depth rather than a thin top layer; a bridge timezone, with working-day overlap across the US, Europe and part of Asia; EU employment law, which reads as a feature at transfer because the team you inherit tends to stay; and operating costs well below US rates and below London, Amsterdam or Berlin.

Porto and Lisbon are both established tech hubs with strong universities and a deep product talent pool. We're in Porto, and that's where our hiring network is.

How much does build-operate-transfer cost?

Build-operate-transfer engagements start at €400k per year, on a 12-month minimum engagement. The pilot phase runs at a minimum 30% off our standard rates.

What moves the number is team size and scope: a four-person squad and a twelve-person hub are different engagements, and the seniority mix matters more than the headcount. The €400k covers the team and the operational support around it: HR, legal and accounting support, temporary office space, and Employer of Record services if you need them. It doesn't cover the partners themselves: when you open your entity you contract Fresh, beTaxed, AGPC and the rest directly, and they invoice you directly. After transfer you stop paying us and start paying salaries.