Marketing in a startup: in-house team, freelancers or an agency

At the start, marketing is carried either by the founder or by random contractors. There's little money, many tasks, and the question "who does all this" comes up fast. Let's break down three models and when each is best.

Option 1. An in-house team

Pros: deep immersion, constant involvement, control. Cons: expensive (salaries, hiring, management), one person doesn't cover all competencies (targeting, content, analytics, production). At an early stage a full team is often unaffordable.

Option 2. Freelancers

Pros: cheap and flexible, you hire for a specific task. Cons: fragmentation — the targeting specialist, designer and copywriter aren't connected, no one's responsible for the result as a whole. You need someone to coordinate them (usually the founder again).

Option 3. An agency

Pros: a turnkey team of competencies, responsibility for the result, experience from other projects, ready processes and a base (e.g., vetted creators). Cons: pricier per hour than a freelancer, you need to pick the right one.

How to decide

• Very early start, little money — founder + point freelancers for specifics.
• Has a budget, needs flow and results — an agency on key directions (traffic, seeding, content), small stuff to freelance.
• Grown, marketing became the core — build an in-house team, leave the agency for the specialized (e.g., influence campaigns).

A common working scheme: a hybrid — your own coordinator inside + an agency for what requires a team and a base.

What not to do

• Hire a "generalist for everything" and expect results on all fronts.
• Hand tasks to freelancers with no single strategy.
• Compare only by price per hour, not by result.

Takeaway

At the start, the choice between staff, freelance and an agency is about stage and budget: a hybrid often wins, where your own person holds the strategy and the agency provides the team of competencies. We help cover traffic, seeding and content while you grow the product and the team.