I have some thoughts but I'm going to tackle the numbers first => 1. I believe you should focus on finding the most talented people no matter where they are. P

I have some thoughts but I'm going to tackle the numbers first => 1. I believe you should focus on finding the most talented people no matter where they are. Pre-planning a division of labor ignores an organic movement to the way that the team works best together. 2. Always incrementally. Theres a reason we develop this way now. 3. See above. 4. Let people grow into their level of responsibility. Leaders lead first and then pick up things like titles, raises, etc So here's my $0.02: Having talented hardworking people that work well together is a priority over where they reside. In the most recent Stack overflow survey the top perk that Devs would like is Remote opportunities - so I would consider "in-house" to be a hinderance more than a benefit for the business. Additionally, (inferring here) you already have a system that works well for remote work, meaning there is no additional overhead to keeping the system the way it currently exists From a management standpoint you always want to incrementally grow responsibilities, and grow your team. Ask any high growth company that has to hire fast. A lot of mistakes are made in hiring when you have to hire, or when you have to give responsibilities away to soon. Reducing these mistakes goes straight to the bottom line. Leaders emerge naturally and they will be better at leading the team if you allow them to emerge naturally. Additionally the number one reason that people leave a job is a bad boss (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-dont-leave-companies-managers-brigette-hyacinth https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-dont-leave-companie...) so handing it over to a Lead/ Architect type before they prove themselves is a dangerous proposal. On the flip side you seem to be giving these things thought... so a feather in your cap for being conservative, and waiting to pick a strategy. My closing thought => your priority should be to find the single best person that you've ever worked with or ever will, hire them first and now... and if you are able to do that... then the next person you hire should be even better than that person.