Talk
Hire, Outsource or Automate? Building Your Team in the Age of AI
Every growing startup reaches the same fork: do you hire in-house, bring in an outsourced team, or let AI do the job? Ten years ago the answer was simple. Hire for your core, outsource the rest. AI has changed that. A small in-house team with the right tools can now ship what used to take twenty people, and outsourced teams are no longer just "cheaper hands". (And no, the answer isn't "just ask ChatGPT".)
I build sales, go-to-market and AI/ML teams for startups across Türkiye, Europe and the US. In this session I'll share where hiring in-house wins, when a dedicated external team scales you faster, and which roles AI is actually changing today, using real examples from cross-border teams.
Key takeaways:
1. A clear framework for deciding when to build in-house and when to outsource.
2. The signals that it's time to scale, and the mistakes that happen when you scale too early.
3. How AI is changing team size, the roles you hire for, and what you should still never outsource.
About
Francesca Tommolini Topçuoğlu is an Italian talent acquisition expert based in Türkiye. She hires sales, go-to-market and AI/ML talent for startups across Europe, Türkiye and the US. She specialises in cross-cultural hiring and helping companies enter new markets.