Does BOT mean I give up equity or ownership of my tech hub?

No. BOT is a services contract, not an equity deal. The entity, team and IP are intended to transfer fully into your ownership, typically after 12 to 36 months of partner operation.

Who owns the IP my team creates during the Operate phase?

Your company does. The work is delivered under your technical direction and standards from the start. Formal transfer of IP is completed at the Transfer stage.

an the partner hire or dismiss people without my approval?

Not under a properly structured BOT contract. The partner manages sourcing and the recruitment pipeline, but every offer should require your approval.

Who decides salary increases?

The partner may propose increases based on the local market, but your company approves or challenges them. Amounts above an agreed threshold should require explicit sign-off.

What is the difference between BOT and a joint venture?

A joint venture exchanges equity or board influence for shared investment risk. BOT is a fee-for-service model in which the partner does not become a co-owner and operates on your behalf until transfer.

Is an Employer of Record safer if I am concerned about control?

An EOR lets you direct day-to-day work, but the EOR remains the legal employer indefinitely. There is no built-in route to your own entity unless you incorporate separately later. It is generally better suited to very small or short-term teams.

What does the partner control during Operate?

Administrative employment functions only: payroll, contracts, benefits, absence management, local compliance and day-to-day HR logistics. Technical work, product direction and people decisions remain with you.

How can I make sure a BOT contract does not give away more control than expected?

Ask for a governance table in the contract itself, not just marketing material, that identifies who approves each decision. Also require a fixed or trigger-based transfer date.

Is direct incorporation the only way to have full control from day one?

It is the only way to have full control and the full operational burden from day one. You would manage local employment law, payroll and compliance immediately. BOT gives you the same end-state control while a partner temporarily manages the burden.

How long before I own the hub outright?

Commonly 12 to 36 months, depending on team size and how quickly you complete incorporation of your own entity. This can happen in parallel with the Operate phase.

Aubay blog

Tech Hub

Who Can Help You Set Up a European Tech Hub in Portugal Without Giving Up Control?

Creating a tech hub in Portugal does not require giving up control. Learn how the BOT model works, which decisions you retain, and what to assess in a partner.

Maria Riberiro

Quick answer

The premise is worth challenging. A well-run Build-Operate-Transfer partnership should not require you to give up control. In a properly structured BOT arrangement, you retain technical direction, architecture decisions, product ownership, hiring approval and salary approval from day one. The partner handles the administrative layer, including payroll, HR compliance, office logistics and local employment law, until the entity and team transfer fully into your name. If a BOT provider asks for more than this, such as equity, board seats or influence over your technical roadmap, it is not a standard BOT arrangement. Look for a Portugal-based partner, such as Aubay Portugal, that includes a written governance split in the contract so control is defined line by line rather than left to trust.

Where the concern about control comes from

Concerns about losing control usually stem from one of three real but avoidable situations:

A vague contract. Some providers describe the Operate phase broadly by saying they manage the team without identifying which decisions remain with the client. That ambiguity, rather than BOT itself, creates concern.
Confusion between BOT and equity-based models. Joint ventures and co-investment structures may require you to give up equity or board influence in exchange for shared risk. BOT is a services contract, not an equity deal. The entity, IP and team are intended to transfer to the client.
Confusion between an administrative employer and a decision-maker. During the Operate phase, the partner may be the team’s administrative employer for payroll and compliance purposes. This is a legal arrangement, not a sign that the partner directs the team’s work.

What you control and what the partner manages

In practical terms, the elements that define your team, including what it builds, who joins, what people are paid and who owns the output, remain under your control. The partner takes on the operational overhead that would otherwise require you to establish local HR and legal functions yourself.

Client control and partner management in a BOT model.

Models that do require shared control

If you want to avoid any form of shared decision-making, take particular care with:

Joint ventures and co-investment structures. You exchange equity or board representation for shared setup risk, giving the local partner a formal role in governance rather than a purely administrative role.
Revenue-share or as-a-service hub models. Some offers tie a partner’s fees to ongoing performance in ways that give it input on hiring or scope decisions.
Long-term staff augmentation with no transfer clause. You never own the entity or the team’s employment relationship, so the provider retains long-term leverage over headcount and pricing.

Who can help and what to check before signing

Several Portugal-based and Europe-focused providers offer BOT or BOT-style engagements. Before choosing one, verify:

A written governance table in the contract that clearly separates client decisions from the partner’s administrative responsibilities.
A named transfer date or defined transfer trigger, rather than an open-ended Operate phase with no committed handover.
Hiring and salary approval rights that are explicitly assigned to your company, with clear response-time SLAs, often 48 to 72 hours.
Clear allocation of responsibility for Portuguese Labour Code compliance to the partner during the Operate phase.
A track record of completed transfers, not only current Operate-phase clients. Ask for a reference from a company that has gone through Transfer.

Aubay Portugal structures its Lisbon tech-hub engagements in this way. Technical direction, hiring approval and salary approval remain with the client from the first hire, while Aubay manages Portuguese Labour Code compliance, payroll and day-to-day HR administration during the Operate phase. Teams can scale in around 30 days rather than a typical six-month internal hiring cycle, with recruitment costs around 40% lower and consultant retention of 98% through to transfer.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to review a governance table for your hub?

If you want to open a tech hub in Portugal and understand exactly what remains under your control from day one, Aubay Portugal can walk you through the governance split, hiring approval process and transfer timeline for your team size before you sign.