Software Development for Startups: Your Tech Team
from Day One
Developers your startup can actually afford, and a partner who thinks along: from MVP to cloud and AI to the security questions of your first enterprise customer. Startup package from €1,000 a month, German point of contact, kick-off in 2 weeks.
Startup development by the numbers
What founders get with us, proven with ZANOA
Where is your startup?
Every stage has a different bottleneck. We step in wherever you are right now.
Great idea, no technical co-founder
You know the market and the problem, maybe you even have first prospects. What's missing is someone to build the product. Agencies blow the budget, and a patchwork of freelancers is a gamble.
- Scoping and tech stack advice before the first line of code
- Design, development and infrastructure from one team
- Startup package from €1,000 a month, equity models for selected startups
Ship the MVP before the runway runs out
Every month without a product burns runway. You need a team that starts right away, ships fast and turns feedback from your first users into features.
- MVP typically in about 3 months instead of 9
- Short sprints, a visible increment every week
- Predictable budget: fixed price or fixed monthly rate
The roadmap grows faster than the team
Hiring senior engineers takes months and costs a fortune in recruiting fees. Meanwhile your developers spend too much time on ops, bugs and infrastructure instead of features.
- Single developers in 2 weeks, full teams in 3–4 weeks
- Scale up and down as you need
- DevOps and QA take load off your core team
Tech decisions without guesswork
Which tech stack? Is that quote realistic? Will the architecture hold when 10,000 users show up? If you don't come from engineering, you need someone who gives you straight answers.
- Architecture and tech stack decisions explained in plain language
- Preparation for investors' technical due diligence
- Honest advice, even when it's "don't build this yet"
More than developers: your tech partner
Startups rarely need just code. We cover the IT topics that come up between founding and Series A, from one team with one point of contact.
What a developer really costs
One full-time developer, per month. A permanent hire also takes months to find.
Permanent hire in Germany
approx. €6,000–7,500 / month
- →Gross salary plus employer contributions
- →3–6 months of recruiting, often longer
- →You carry the risk of sick leave and churn
Freelancer or agency in Germany
approx. €16,000 / month
- →Day rate around €800
- →Available fast, but expensive
- →Knowledge often leaves when the project ends
DeViLink
from €1,000 / month
- →Startup package: full-time junior developer, guided by a senior lead
- →Mid-level developers from €3,400 / month
- →Kick-off in 2 weeks, no recruiting costs
- →Contract with a German GmbH, German point of contact
- →If someone leaves, we organize the replacement
💡 Booked individually, mid-level developers cost €170 per day with us, senior developers €250. Work out your exact team in two minutes. Open the cost calculator
From idea to app in 8 months
A founder without a tech team, an investor, and DeViLink as development partner and co-investor.
Joshua Kantara is an actor with a clear vision: a platform where filmmakers showcase their portfolio, connect and develop projects together. What he didn't have was a team to build it.
DeViLink took full technical ownership of the product – UX/UI design, iOS and Android app, backend and infrastructure – and came on board as a co-investor. We started in June 2025; on February 13, 2026 ZANOA went live on the App Store and Google Play.
We've kept building ZANOA ever since. That's what startup partnership means to us: not until launch, but beyond it.
The team behind ZANOA
- 2 full-time developers (Vietnam & Germany)
- 2 more developers added on demand
- 1 full-time designer
- Project management in Germany
Three ways to work together
From a single developer to a tech partner who invests alongside you
Startup package
The entry point for startups on a tight budget: your own developer who is never left alone.
- Full-time junior developer
- Senior lead for architecture and code reviews
- Kick-off in 2 weeks, monthly billing
- Add mid-level (€3,400) or senior (€5,000) developers per month
MVP team
For founders who need a finished product, not just developers.
- Design, development and infrastructure from one team
- MVP typically in about 3 months
- German project manager as your point of contact
- Milestone-based payments
Tech partner with equity
We invest alongside you, just like with ZANOA.
- Development partly in exchange for equity
- Long-term technical ownership
- Technical support in investor conversations
- Condition: we believe in the product, market and team
From first call to launch
Four steps, no surprises
Founder call
30 minutes, free: idea, status, budget, timeline. You get an honest assessment, even if it's not what you hoped to hear.
Scoping & plan
Together we sharpen the MVP scope, choose the tech stack, and you get a binding quote.
Kick-off in 2 weeks
Team, tools and sprints are in place. You see what was built every week and have a say in what comes next.
Launch & growth
Release on the App Store, Google Play or the web. After that we work in user feedback and scale the team and infrastructure with you.
Questions founders ask us
What founders ask most often in the first call
How much does an MVP cost with DeViLink?
It depends on the scope. The most affordable entry is our startup package from €1,000 a month: a full-time junior developer guided by a senior lead. For comparison: two mid-level developers cost around €6,800 per month. If you need design and project management too, the cost calculator gives you a quick estimate. After the free scoping session you get a fixed price or a fixed monthly rate, with no hidden costs.
How fast can the team start?
After the first call we introduce suitable developers within 3–5 business days. A single developer is productive 2 weeks after signing, a team of 3–5 within 3–4 weeks. We handle contracts, tool access and onboarding.
I don't have a technical co-founder. Can you replace one?
Partly. We take technical ownership of architecture, development and operations and advise you on technology decisions. What we don't replace is a co-founder who works full-time in your company. Many investors want to see technical expertise in the founding team in the long run. Until then, we build a solid product with you, and when you're ready, we onboard your CTO.
How do equity partnerships work?
For selected startups we combine development work with an equity stake, as with ZANOA, where DeViLink is development partner and co-investor. The condition is that we believe in the product, the market and the team. How payment and equity are split is agreed individually.
Who owns the code and the IP?
You do, completely. We sign an NDA and IP assignment agreements before the project starts. All results, repositories and documentation belong exclusively to you, which also matters for every funding round.
How does working with a team in Vietnam work day to day?
Your contract is with a German GmbH and your point of contact is in Germany. Vietnam (UTC+7) shares 3–4 working hours with Central Europe: your morning (8 am to noon in Berlin) is afternoon in Hanoi, 2 to 6 pm in winter and 1 to 5 pm in summer. That covers stand-ups, sprint reviews and decisions; Slack and Jira handle the rest asynchronously.
What happens if we build our own team later?
We help with the transition: documentation, code handover and onboarding your new developers. The code and repositories are yours anyway. If you like, we stay on board for peak loads, DevOps or QA.
Do you also help with security and data protection?
Yes, to the extent a startup needs it. GDPR-compliant architecture is part of how we build. For proof of security towards investors or enterprise customers there is the Basic Check for €199 or a penetration test from €3,500 by our security team. We do not provide legal advice.
Tell us about your idea
30 minutes, no strings attached: we talk through status, budget and timeline and tell you honestly which path fits your startup.