A six-month sequence, not a sprint.
The ones that struggle hire engineers first, then scramble for the structure to hold them. This roadmap lays out the order that works, drawn from real builds, so your first India office is something the team wants to stay in.
The companies that build a strong India office on the first try treat it as a sequence, not a sprint.
If you have ten minutes before a hiring review, read only this.
The 6-month timeline at a glance.
Months 1 to 2: entity, compliance, banking.
If you are building a captive, this is where it starts. Register the entity, set up statutory compliance and tax registrations, open banking, and stand up payroll. This phase is unglamorous and easy to underestimate; delays here push everything else back. If you want engineers working sooner, an EOR can bridge the first hires while the entity is finalized.
Planning a hire like this? Tell us the role and we will map the right approach within a week.
Book a consultation →Months 2 to 4: location and first leader.
Choose the city deliberately. Bangalore offers depth but high cost and attrition; Pune and Hyderabad increasingly offer strong talent at lower cost and churn. Secure workspace sized for the 6 to 12 month plan, not day one.
Most importantly, make the leadership or anchor hire now, before the engineers. A senior local leader sets the hiring bar, the culture, and the retention that the whole office depends on.
Months 4 to 6: the first engineers.
With a leader in place, hire the first engineers against a clear bar. Onboard them into real work quickly, with a delivery process and overlap hours agreed with the home team. The first cohort sets the standard every later hire is measured against, so weight quality over speed.
The sequencing mistake to avoid.
The most common and most expensive error is hiring engineers before a local leader or anchor. Without someone senior on the ground, the bar drifts, onboarding is thin, and your best early hires leave within a year. Sequence the leader first; the team follows. The India GCC hiring playbook covers the hiring bar in more detail.
A first office is far easier with a partner who has run the sequence before. We built and staffed the NBA India team on this exact timeline, from foundation to a delivering engineering team. The India team build practice exists to compress those six months without cutting the corners that cause attrition later.
Where a specialist partner changes the outcome.
The decisions that make or break an India team are made in the first ninety days. A partner who has built teams before prevents each mistake from being discovered the expensive way.
City strategy → Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad compared on depth, cost and attrition for your roles.
Leadership first → The India lead is hired through executive search before any pod.
Operating model → EOR, entity or both, sequenced to headcount. See India team build.
Notice and retention → Candidates are managed through 60 to 90 day notice periods, with counter-offers mapped early.
Discuss a mandate →Real mandates, real numbers.
A first technology team in Mumbai with no prior operating footprint and sourcing restrictions that ruled out several obvious talent pools.
Planning your India team?
If you are hiring your first India employees, choosing a city or moving from an EOR to your own entity, we can map the right sequence for your stage before any commercial conversation.
A senior team member responds within one business day. No pitch deck, no obligation.