From Intro Call to First Merged PR in 4–6 Weeks
How Seeed's nearshore engagement model actually works — a verifiable operating process that replaces the "trust us, we have great engineers" pitch with concrete milestones, written commitments, and weekly reporting.
Discovery → Vetting → Onboarding → Steady-State
Discovery (1 week) — Roadmap review, gap analysis, proposed team shape, monthly rate. We deliver a written proposal in 48 hours of the intro meeting, then refine it during the discovery week.
Vetting (1–2 weeks) — Three internal stages plus your technical interview. We present pre-vetted candidates; you make the final call. Pre-vetted engineers pass external interviews at 80%+.
Onboarding & Steady-State — Week 1 setup, week 2 first PR, week 4 feature ownership. Then steady-state with weekly reporting, monthly account reviews, and quarterly retrospectives.
Phase 1: Discovery (Week 0–1)
30-Minute Intro (Video or In-Person)
You walk us through the roadmap, the team gap, and the constraints (budget, timeline, technical stack). We listen. No discovery deck, no boilerplate questions.
48-Hour Written Proposal
Within two business days of the intro meeting, we send a written proposal: roles, seniority levels, ramp plan, monthly rate, and the assumptions behind each. You review with your team before any further commitment.
Refinement Call
We walk through the proposal together. You push back where the numbers do not match your reality. We adjust seniority, count, or scope. The output is a final engagement structure both sides can sign.
Engagement Contract
US entity-to-entity contract. IP transfer terms, confidentiality, replacement guarantee, payment terms, and termination clauses all in writing. No subcontractor chain.
Phase 2: Sourcing & Vetting (Week 1–3)
Bench-First Sourcing
We hire from a curated LATAM senior bench — engineers we have either worked with on prior Seeed projects or sourced through trusted technical referrals. We do not run open requisitions for client engagements.
Stage 1 — Technical Video Interview
60-minute video conversation with a Seeed senior engineer covering the candidate's most recent production work. The goal is filtering for ownership and architectural reasoning, not language trivia.
Stage 2 — Paired Code Review
Candidate reviews a real Seeed codebase sample with one of our seniors. We watch how they read unfamiliar code, ask questions, and propose changes. This catches engineers who interview well but freeze in real codebases.
Stage 3 — Architecture Conversation
90 minutes designing a system at a whiteboard with two Seeed seniors. Trade-offs, failure modes, scaling. We are looking for engineers who can argue with us, not just agree.
Your Technical Interview
We present pre-vetted candidates. You run your own technical loop with whatever rigor your team applies. Seeed-vetted engineers pass external interviews at 80%+ — but the final call is yours.
Phase 3: Onboarding (Week 1–4)
Week 1 — Environment & Read-Through
Engineer gets access to your repos, tools, communication channels. They read through the codebase, attend your standups in observe-only mode, and meet the team. No production work yet.
Week 2 — First PR
Engineer ships a small, scoped change to production. The goal is exercising the deployment pipeline, code review process, and team communication patterns — not delivering big features.
Week 3 — Real Feature Work
Engineer is assigned a feature or bug from your sprint. They scope it, design it, ship it, with the same support a new internal hire would get from your team.
Week 4 — Full Ownership
Engineer owns a feature, service, or area of the codebase end-to-end. They are in your on-call rotation if applicable. They answer in standups about their work as if they have been there six months.
Phase 4: Steady-State (Week 5+)
You Direct the Work
Your standups, your tickets, your code review, your release cadence. Seeed sits in the background as the employer of record, payroll partner, and escalation contact.
Weekly Delivery Report
Every Friday: code commits, PRs merged, sprint velocity, blocked work, flagged risks. One page, no fluff. Goes to you and your engineering manager.
Monthly Account Review
30 minutes with the Seeed Miami account lead. Engagement health, scope changes, team adjustments, and any operational issues. You drive the agenda.
Quarterly Retrospective
Honest review of what is working, what is not, and what should change. Common outputs: scope expansions, role changes, replacement decisions, or rate adjustments.
The Three Risks Buyers Worry About
Bad Fit — 30-day at-no-charge replacement guarantee. You tell us in the first month if an engineer is not working out (any reason — soft factors count). Replacement starts within 2 weeks. In writing in the contract.
IP Exposure — US entity-to-entity contract. Engineers sign Seeed-side IP agreements that flow rights to you. No third-party subcontractors. No offshore-side ambiguity at acquisition time.
Lock-In — 30-day termination notice. No multi-year minimums, no termination penalties beyond the notice period. Scale up, scale down, or end — your call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions buyers ask while reviewing the engagement contract.
Start with a 30-Minute Call
Send your roadmap and current team gap. We'll come back within 48 hours with a written proposal — roles, seniority, ramp plan, and monthly rate. No sales call required to receive it.
48-hour written proposal
Roles, seniority, ramp plan, rate. In writing.
Bench-first sourcing
Engineers we know, not open req candidates.
30-day fit guarantee
Replacement at no charge in the first month.
4-week first-merged-PR
Concrete onboarding milestone, in writing.
Start with a 30-Minute Call
Send your roadmap and current team gap. We'll come back within 48 hours with a written proposal — roles, seniority, ramp plan, and monthly rate. No sales call required to receive it.
48-hour written proposal
Roles, seniority, ramp plan, rate. In writing.
Bench-first sourcing
Engineers we know, not open req candidates.
30-day fit guarantee
Replacement at no charge in the first month.
4-week first-merged-PR
Concrete onboarding milestone, in writing.
