The Real Cost of Building Your First 10-Person US Team
A ten-person US team can look affordable in a hiring plan and become expensive very quickly in practice. The problem is not simply that American salaries are high. It is that salary is only one line in the real cost of employing, equipping and retaining people across the US.
For a European startup entering the market, the first ten hires often include senior engineering, product, sales, solutions and operational capability. That can put first-year people costs well above $2 million before equity, office space or a failed hire are considered.
Key takeaways
- Base salaries are the starting point, not the employment budget.
- Benefits, payroll taxes, insurance, recruitment and equipment materially change the number.
- The city, hiring sequence and role mix matter more than the headline team size.
- A rushed senior hire can cost more than leaving the role open for several weeks.
- Founders should model cash cost, equity and execution risk separately.
A realistic ten-person startup team
There is no universal first-ten structure, but an AI or B2B SaaS company launching in the US might build something like this:
| Role mix | Illustrative base payroll |
|---|---|
| Four software, data or ML engineers | $700,000 |
| Product leader | $170,000 |
| Sales leader | $220,000 |
| Two commercial hires | $260,000 |
| Solutions or implementation lead | $160,000 |
| Operations or customer hire | $120,000 |
| Total illustrative base payroll | $1.63 million |
Those figures are assumptions for a mixed senior team, not Dataworks salary benchmarks or a quote for every market. A San Francisco onsite team may cost more. A distributed team in lower-cost cities may cost less. The point is to expose the full calculation.
What sits above base salary?
Benefits and statutory costs
The latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data for June 2026 shows that wages represented 68.5% of average employer compensation for full-time private-industry workers, with benefits representing 31.5%. That national figure spans many industries and company sizes, so it should not be copied directly into a startup budget. It does show why treating base salary as total cost is unrealistic.
Employer payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, paid leave, retirement contributions and healthcare all sit outside base pay. Healthcare is particularly important: KFF’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey put the average annual family premium at $26,993, although the employer and employee typically share that cost.
For an initial planning model, founders often need a meaningful on-cost buffer above payroll, then a proper quote from their payroll, benefits and employment advisers for the states where people will work.
Recruitment cost
Recruitment spend depends on the roles and model used. Contingent fees, retained search, internal talent salaries and embedded recruitment all produce different cash profiles. Founders should model the cost against the hiring programme rather than compare a fee with zero: “doing it ourselves” still consumes founder and leadership time.
Dataworks has supported businesses building new North American teams through both individual search and embedded models. The right choice depends on hiring concentration. One or two critical roles may suit retained search; a connected programme of ten hires can justify dedicated embedded capacity.
For a real example of market-entry work, see how Dataworks supported Druid AI’s commercial hiring.
Equipment, software and security
A laptop is the obvious expense, but not the whole one. Budget for monitors, peripherals, shipping, mobile or home-working allowances, software licences, security tools and replacement equipment. Technical teams may also need development environments, data products and significant cloud or model usage.
This is where headcount and infrastructure planning meet. In our ThinkData conversation with Nikhil Mungel at Cribl, AI sprawl and token costs illustrate why software and compute cannot be treated as minor extras around the team.
Legal, payroll and employment setup
A company hiring directly may need entity setup, payroll registration, state compliance, employment agreements and specialist advice. An employer of record can reduce setup work but introduces a recurring per-employee fee and different operational trade-offs.
State choice matters. An employee working from California, New York, Texas or North Carolina can create different salary expectations, tax registrations, leave rules and employment obligations. “US remote” is not a single cost base.
An illustrative first-year budget
Using the $1.63 million payroll example, a simple planning model might look like this:
| Cost | Illustrative assumption |
|---|---|
| Base payroll | $1,630,000 |
| Taxes and benefits | $407,500 (25% planning allowance) |
| Recruitment | $326,000 (20% blended assumption) |
| Equipment and setup | $30,000 |
| Legal, payroll and onboarding | $50,000 |
| Illustrative first-year total | $2,443,500 |
This is a scenario, not a universal benchmark. It excludes office space, travel, commission above target, relocation, visas, severance and the economic value of equity. It also assumes all ten people are employed for a full year; a staged hiring plan changes the cash timing materially.
The hidden cost: getting the sequence wrong
The most expensive mistake is not always overpaying. It is hiring ten people against a structure that has not been validated.
A sales team hired before positioning and implementation are ready can burn cash without creating repeatability. Engineers hired against a vague roadmap can add capacity without increasing delivery. A senior US leader hired too early may spend months building infrastructure the business does not yet need.
Start with the dependencies. Who owns the US number? Who can deliver the product? Who supports the first customers? Which hire unlocks the next two? The answers determine the sequence.
How founders can control the cost
- Model by city and role. Do not apply one percentage to every hire.
- Stage start dates. Budget monthly cash outflow, not only annualised payroll.
- Set compensation before sourcing. Include base, bonus, equity and benefits.
- Choose the recruitment model deliberately. Match search capacity to the number and urgency of hires.
- Keep founders involved. Early hires are assessing the people and the risk as much as the job.
- Measure hiring speed. Dataworks’ established benchmark is roughly 55 days from vacancy to hire, but the right assessment matters more than chasing an arbitrary deadline.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a ten-person US startup team cost?
A senior, cross-functional team can readily exceed $2 million in first-year cash cost. The actual number depends on locations, role mix, benefits, commission, recruitment and start dates.
Is an employer of record cheaper than setting up a US entity?
It can be faster and simpler for a small initial team, but it adds recurring fees. The decision should consider hiring volume, expected duration, tax and legal advice—not fee alone.
Should European startups hire sales or delivery first?
Usually neither in isolation. The first sequence should ensure the company can create demand, deliver for customers and learn from the market without one function waiting for another.
Budget for the team you actually need
The headline cost of ten salaries is easy to calculate. The real work is choosing the right ten roles, in the right places, in the right order.
If you are planning a US launch, talk to Dataworks about the hiring sequence, candidate market and recruitment model.