For startups, speed is survival. Founders don’t have the luxury of bloated hiring cycles, expensive headcount, or dev teams that only work after hours. That’s why more modern startups are turning to nearshore development teams, not just to save money, but to build faster, collaborate in real time, and ship without friction.
Key Insight: Companies that embrace nearshore or offshore delivery models cut development spend by 30–50 % on average while maintaining output quality (Accelerance Global Outsourcing Rates Guide 2023)
If you're building a product and trying to scale fast, nearshore isn’t just an option. It might be your smartest move.
Nearshore development means working with teams in countries that are geographically close and operate in overlapping time zones. For North American startups, this often means engineers, designers, and PMs based in Latin America, places like Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. Compared to offshore (which often involves a 10+ hour time difference) or onshore (which can be prohibitively expensive), nearshore teams hit the sweet spot between cost-efficiency, speed, and communication, making it essential to understand what’s right for your business when weighing offshore vs nearshore teams.
Recruiting in hotspots like San Francisco, Austin, or Toronto is brutal. Well‑funded unicorns snap up talent, and the average time to fill an in‑house software‑engineering role now exceeds 40 days (DevSkiller IT Skills Report 2023). Nearshore solves that, if you structure it right, which is one reason why New York startups are increasingly hiring nearshore development teams to stay lean and competitive.
Here’s why modern startups are choosing nearshore development teams:
Work in the same hours. Share the same standups. Review pull requests live. With time zone alignment, your nearshore team operates like an extension of your in-house crew, without the async lags.
Many nearshore developers have worked with North American startups before. They know what “ship fast” means. They understand product-market fit, MVPs, agile sprints, and moving without red tape.
While hiring a senior engineer locally might take 8–12 weeks, nearshore partners like Type B can onboard a full product squad (PM, dev, designer, QA) in under 2 weeks.
That’s the time you can’t afford to lose.
It’s not just about saving money, it’s about extending your runway. By using nearshore teams, startups can reduce burn by 30–50% while maintaining (or even improving) delivery output.
Let’s say you're a SaaS startup post-seed, trying to roll out 3 features over the next quarter. Hiring 3 - 4 in-house devs could cost you $500K+ annually and take months to fully ramp.
By building a nearshore team with Type B Digital, you could:
McKinsey finds that well‑integrated distributed teams can be up to 40 % more productive than traditional co‑located teams (The Productivity Imperative for Software Development, 2023).
When deciding how to scale your tech team, understanding the trade-offs between nearshore, offshore, and onshore models is key. Each has its own advantages, and the right choice depends on your priorities around cost, communication, and speed.
Time Zone Alignment
Nearshore teams, especially those in Latin America, operate in the same or overlapping time zones with North American businesses. This means meetings, collaboration, and real-time feedback are easier to manage. Offshore teams, often based in Asia or Eastern Europe, typically work on a 10+ hour time difference, making real-time interaction more difficult. Onshore teams, based within the U.S. or Canada, naturally offer full-time zone alignment.
Communication Speed
Nearshore and onshore teams both provide high communication speed thanks to cultural alignment and real-time collaboration. Offshore teams can vary widely; some offer excellent English proficiency and process maturity, while others may require more structured communication workflows due to language and time barriers.
Cost Efficiency
Both nearshore and offshore development models offer significant cost advantages over onshore hiring. However, while offshore may come at the lowest price, nearshore provides a strong balance between affordability and collaboration. Onshore hiring, while often ideal for certain leadership or client-facing roles, tends to be the most expensive option.
Startup Experience
Nearshore markets like Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina have fast-growing tech ecosystems with strong exposure to U.S. startup culture, agile frameworks, and modern tech stacks. Onshore teams naturally have that exposure as well. Offshore experience with startups tends to be more limited or vary significantly by region and vendor.
Team Scalability
Nearshore and offshore partners usually offer flexible team scaling options, making them ideal for startups that need to move fast. Onshore hiring, while dependable, often takes longer due to limited talent availability and high demand.
At Type B, we build and manage nearshore teams that feel like your own, because they are. Whether you're looking for a single React developer or a full product squad, we embed designers, PMs, QA testers, and engineers directly into your workflow.
We provide:
With offices and operational anchors in both North America and LATAM, we deliver nearshore like a local partner, not an outsourced vendor.
Startups need to move fast, stay lean, and build with focus. Nearshore development gives you all three.
It’s not about outsourcing. It’s about building smarter, faster, and with fewer trade-offs.
At Type B Digital, we help startups build nearshore teams that actually deliver, on time, in sync, and on mission.
Let’s collaborate and build something extraordinary together.
Type B Digital - The go-to partner for forward-thinking teams ready to turn ideas into impact.
