Comparison · Growth
In-house growth team vs. a growth partner.
Build in-house when a channel is proven, core to the business and big enough to keep a full-time team busy. Work with a growth partner when you need senior experience across several channels now, want to test before you hire, or can't yet justify a full team. Many fintechs do both: a partner finds and proves the channels, then hands them to the hires it helped plan.
By Victor Colombo, President, FGVWhen does an in-house growth team make sense?
When you know which channels work and they are central to how you grow. A proven channel deserves owners who live inside your product, data and brand every day, and the cost of a full-time team is justified by the volume it manages.
When does a growth partner make sense?
When you are still finding what works, need several disciplines at once, or need senior judgement before you can afford a senior hire. A partner brings people who have run the channel before, so you skip the learning curve and the cost of a mis-hire.
How do cost and speed compare?
A full in-house team carries salaries, benefits, recruiting time and ramp-up before it produces results, and it is hard to resize. A partner can start in weeks, scale up or down with the work, and bring tools and benchmarks you would otherwise build yourself. In-house becomes cheaper per unit of work once a channel runs at steady volume.
What do you give up with each?
Neither option is free of trade-offs.
- In-house: slower to start, narrower experience, and a team sized for today's plan
- Partner: less day-to-day context at first, and knowledge that must be handed over deliberately
Can you combine the two?
Yes, and it is often the best path. A partner opens and proves channels, writes the playbook, and helps define and hire the roles to take the work in-house. FGV runs growth and talent from the same team, so the hiring plan comes from the channel data rather than a guess.
Questions
- Should a seed-stage fintech hire a head of growth?
Often not first. Before product-market fit is clear, a senior partner can test channels faster and cheaper; hire once you know which channels the role will own.
- How long does a growth partnership usually last?
It depends on the goal. Channel launches can run a few months; ongoing programs run longer. Agree on the outcome and the handover plan at the start.