How DutchDrops built a nearshore team that feels like their own

Every agency owner recognises the pattern. New projects come in faster than developers can be hired. Existing clients want more velocity. The team is senior enough to know that hiring the wrong person costs more than not hiring at all. So the backlog grows, weekends get shorter, and the founder ends up in code again.

For DutchDrops, this was not a temporary spike. Shopware capacity was a structural bottleneck. Adding a junior would not solve it. Outsourcing a random ticket to a freelance marketplace would not either. They needed people who could think along, own their work, and stay.

Robbert did not want a body shop. He had seen enough offshore constructs where communication broke down, code quality dropped and every question turned into a ticket. He wanted people who understood how a small software team actually works. People who would join stand-ups, disagree with a design decision when they had a good reason, and take the same pride in the product as the rest of the team.

"I did not want to buy hours. I wanted colleagues," he told us at the start. That framing shaped everything we did next.

There was hesitation at first, and it is fair to name it. Kosovo was unfamiliar. What about culture, English, quality, timezone, continuity? All the questions any responsible founder should ask.

What tipped the balance was the way tre plus works. Recruitment, HR, contracts, office, coaching and equipment are all on us. Robbert did not need to become an international employer overnight. He needed developers, plus one place to call when anything needed to be arranged. That is exactly what he got.

The Kosovo part became easier the moment he saw it. Same timezone as the Netherlands, strong technical education, direct and pragmatic culture, and a generation of engineers who grew up online and speak English like it is their first language. On top of that: our team visits every couple of months, and Robbert has been over to Prishtina himself. Trust does not build over Slack alone.

Both join the daily stand-ups, sit in Slack, and are treated by the DutchDrops team as their own. No "the external team", no separate calls, no translation layer.

The measurable side is straightforward. The backlog that used to define every Monday morning is now under control. Delivery predictability is back. Compared to hiring two equivalent people in the Netherlands, DutchDrops saves tens of thousands of euros per year, without cutting a single corner on seniority. And in almost two years of collaboration, turnover on the tre plus side has been zero. The same two faces, every stand-up.

The less visible result is the one Robbert values most. His own team can focus again. Design does design, strategy does strategy, and no one is stuck plugging holes in the sprint. Growth stopped being a source of stress and became something the whole studio actually looks forward to.

Two things, honestly. The first is that we treat every match like a hire, not a placement. We take the time to understand the studio, the stack, the personalities and the way decisions get made. Then we introduce people we would hire ourselves.

The second is that we stay close. Rens is in the room, on the call, in the group chat. Not because everything needs micromanaging, but because a real partnership needs a real person on the other side. When something is off, Robbert calls Rens. That is the whole model.

If you are running a product team or an agency in the Netherlands, and hiring your next senior in Amsterdam feels like a game you cannot win, this is exactly the situation Team as a Service was built for. Two calls in and we usually know if it is a fit.

Curious how a nearshore team could look for your studio? Get in touch or read more about our nearshore developers and how we hire in Kosovo.