it's a little different but when I look at my experience with developers from Xteam or TopTal (very positive experiences) vs other agencies (some in India) that

it's a little different but when I look at my experience with developers from Xteam or TopTal (very positive experiences) vs other agencies (some in India) that I've worked with I see a set of clear differences. One is quality in code. I'm very rarely having to correct work, whereas other agencies we will receive a project and it often way off base. The work might meet the spec but not of quality and certainly can't be built upon. In another post, you mention team augmentation and I think that is a great idea. I would also echo concerns about autonomy and ability to innovate. Again with X-teamers/TopTal devs they usually want to help drive technology decisions and want to help to own a project. They then build trust by executing successfully on those ideas. I think if you differentiate on quality, augmenting teams, and autonomy, you will be able to rise above stereotypes that have been built up. That likely means charging more and spending more time screening potential hires. Smart companies will recognize that it's worth paying more so they don't have to pay several times over to fix what was done by a lower quality team.