About us
Built for the companies the big firms ignore
A fifty-person company in Boston or Berlin can run a five-person engineering team in Bengaluru today. Almost nobody is set up to help at that size with a real person on the ground — not a sales funnel into an enterprise programme.
The advisory firms want programmes worth hundreds of thousands. The staffing agencies want a percentage of every salary, forever. Neither wants to sit with you and work out whether hiring three people in India is actually a good idea this year.
That gap is what ContextDelta exists to fill: senior, practical help setting up and running a small capability centre in Bengaluru, priced so it makes sense at five people rather than five hundred — led by a founder who lives here.
What we believe
A capability centre succeeds or fails on its first five hires and on whether people in India are treated as part of the company, not a cost line. Everything else is administration: important, solvable, and easier when someone local owns it.
Where we are
Bengaluru — not a London office with a partner network “in India.” Anupam lives and works here, knows the salary market first hand, and can be in a candidate interview or a vendor’s office the same day.
How we operate
Lean on purpose — so a small centre stays possible
A traditional consultancy sells discovery phases and decks. A fifty-person software company usually needs something else: a few good hires in Bengaluru, employed legally, paid on time, and looked after well enough that they are still there in two years.
So we run without a bench. No account-manager layer funding itself on your invoice. The founder does the work; specialist partners handle regulated pieces; you see what everything costs.
That is how a structure that works at five people does not need to be dismantled at fifty — and why you get a committed person in Bangalore, not a relay of handoffs.
What we take off your desk
- Choosing between EOR, BOT and your own entity
- Incorporation, registrations and bank account setup
- Employment contracts with IP assignment and notice terms
- Payroll, statutory contributions and monthly filings
- Salary benchmarking, sourcing and interview panels
- Onboarding, training plans and probation reviews
- Workspace, laptops, VPN and access control
- Culture, one-to-ones and retention before attrition starts
You keep what you should keep: technical direction, performance decisions and who joins your team.
Leadership
Anupam Tandon
Founder · Based in Bengaluru, working with US & European teams
Twenty years in technology and entrepreneurship: building products, running delivery, hiring engineers in India, and carrying payroll when the month ends. That last part is the job. Most capability centres do not fail on strategy slides — they fail on the first five hires and whether someone local stays accountable when hiring, compliance, or a vendor goes sideways.
I started ContextDelta because the advice available to a fifty-person company in Boston or Berlin is usually written for a five-thousand-person company. You do not need a transformation programme. You need someone in Bengaluru who will pick up the phone, tell you what a good senior engineer actually costs this quarter, and then go hire one — or tell you to wait.
Every engagement is run by me. When the work needs a specialist (incorporation, employment law, transfer pricing, payroll filings), it goes to a named partner firm here in the city, and I stay accountable for the outcome.
What you can expect
This is a new firm. You will not find client logos or testimonials here, because collecting them before the work is done would tell you nothing true.
What you get instead:
- The founder on every call — not a salesperson handing you off.
- Salary bands and vendor quotes shown at cost, with our fee stated separately.
- A written plan before you commit money, including what could go wrong.
- Named partners for anything legal, statutory, or regulated.
- Exit terms agreed at the start, not when you want to leave.
Early clients get founder attention that will not scale forever, and pricing that reflects it. That is the honest trade — and why a committed person in Bengaluru can still sit with you on the details.
How it runs
From first call to a team that ships
A clear path you can show your board — with a person in Bengaluru owning the next step at each stage.
Weeks 1-2
Understand and choose
Roles, seniority, budget, IP and data constraints, and how your team actually works. You get a costed comparison of EOR, BOT and your own entity, and a recommendation with the reasoning shown.
Weeks 2-8
Set up the ground
Employer of Record contracts, or incorporation and registrations if you are going direct. Payroll, policies, workspace, equipment, VPN and access control: everything a new joiner needs on day one.
Weeks 4-12
Hire the founding team
Benchmarked offers, screened shortlists and interview panels run with your engineers. We hire the first team slowly and deliberately, because everyone after them is recruited by the culture those people set.
Ongoing
Operate, then hand over
Payroll and compliance run monthly, retention and training tracked openly, and a short written report you can forward to your board. On a BOT, transfer happens on the date and terms agreed at the start.
Thinking about India? Test the idea with someone on the ground
Twenty minutes with Anupam in Bengaluru, then a written note covering the roles, the realistic cost, the model that fits, and what could go wrong. No fee — and no obligation afterwards.