Moment 0101 / 04
The client expects delivery from you, not a third party
The contract is in your name. The brief is in your tools. There's no version of this where the client gets a forwarded email from a logo they don't recognize.
Solution 02 · Invisible Delivery Team
White-label delivery for US agencies
Use AgencyRelay's Invisible Delivery Team as the active delivery layer behind your agency. We operate under your brand, inside your tools, on US-aligned hours — with the communication boundaries and no-poach discipline that make this safe in front of your top clients.
- White-label safe by default
- US-aligned working hours
- No client-facing footprint from us
What an Invisible Delivery Team engagement looks likeRhythm
- FormatPod-based, weekly billing
- KickoffWithin 5 business days of MSA
- CadenceDaily standup · weekly written report
- Starting at$2,400 / week (Solo Specialist)
Three pod sizes. Final SOWs are scoped per engagement. Pricing shown is a starting point, not a quote.
When the work is sold and delivery has to be quiet
The four delivery moments where a wrong sub-partner damages the client relationship — not just the deadline.
These are the moments agency owners describe on the first call. Invisible Delivery Team is built specifically for these — long enough to learn the account, bounded enough to stay invisible.
Moment 0202 / 04
The work is too long for a freelancer, too short to hire
Three to nine months of execution sits between you and the next confident hire. Stretching the team adds delivery risk; bringing in a freelancer adds management load.
Moment 0303 / 04
Quality and confidentiality matter more than headcount
It's not a labor-arbitrage decision. The work needs to look, read, and ship like it came from your senior team — and the brief can't leak into someone else's pitch.
Moment 0404 / 04
The account is worth protecting for years, not weeks
A retainer client, a flagship project, a referenceable build. The cost of a clumsy hand-off is bigger than the cost of the engagement itself.
Plain-English definition of the model: what white-label delivery actually means.
What it is — and what it isn't
Invisible Delivery Team is a bounded white-label execution layer. It does not pretend to be your agency.
What it covers
- White-label execution under your brand, inside your tools
- Pod-based delivery: design, web dev, QA, and project oversight
- Daily standup attendance on your stack (Slack, Linear, Jira, ClickUp)
- Weekly written delivery reports your PM can paste into the client update
- Code, design files, and documentation transferred to you on completion
- Mutual NDA, MSA, and no-poach signed before kickoff
What it doesn't do
- Email or call your client directly during the engagement (white-label safe by default)
- Appear in the proposal, the SOW, or the invoice your client receives
- Run your account management or own the client relationship
- Cover ad-hoc burst capacity priced by the hour — that lives in Overflow Pods
- Replace your senior creative or strategy lead — we deliver against your direction
How an engagement runs
From signed MSA to ongoing delivery rhythm
An Invisible Delivery Team engagement is a long-arc rhythm, not a sprint. The first week is shaped to make the next twelve invisible.
- Step 01Week 0
MSA & access
Mutual NDA, MSA, and no-poach are signed by Salt Technologies, Inc. We're added to your tools — Slack, Linear, GitHub, Figma — under aliases that fit your team's naming.
- Step 02Week 1
Pod kickoff
The founder and your delivery lead align on backlog shape, definition of done, and escalation rules. The pod meets your PM. The first standup is on your calendar by Friday.
- Step 03Week 2 onward
Weekly delivery rhythm
Daily standup attendance, in-tool ticket movement, code review against your standards, and a Friday written report your PM can lift straight into the client update.
- Step 04On wrap or extension
Hand-off & continuity
Code, files, decision logs, and documentation are transferred under your ownership. If the engagement extends, the same pod continues. If it pauses, restart is one SOW away — no second sales cycle.
Long-arc engagements are the default. Short engagements live in Overflow Pods — same pod composition, sized for bursts.
Pod sizes
Three pod shapes — pick the one that matches the workload
Every pod includes a delivery lead and US-aligned working hours. Sizing flexes between SOWs as the project shape changes — you're not locked into the tier you started with.
Pod tier1 member
Solo Specialist
1 specialist + delivery oversight
A focused build with one capability in the critical path — typically web development or UI/UX design for a single live engagement.
Starting at
$2,400per week
Pod tier2 members+
Pair Pod
2 specialists + delivery lead
Most retainer-shaped engagements: design + dev paired, or front-end + back-end paired, with a lead carrying the planning and review load.
Starting at
$4,200per week
Pod tier3–4 members+
Full Pod
3–4 specialists + delivery lead + QA
Multi-stream builds where design, dev, and QA all run in parallel — typically flagship retainers or platform programs that ship every sprint.
Starting at
$7,800per week
Included on every pod
What every Invisible Delivery Team engagement carries — regardless of tier.
- Daily standup attendance in your tools
- Weekly written delivery report
- White-label communication discipline
- Code & file ownership transferred to you on completion
- NDA + no-poach + MSA signed before kickoff
What the pod ships
Capabilities behind the engagement
Invisible Delivery Team leans on Salt's full delivery bench — so the pod you get reflects what we already build at scale, not a hiring promise.
Capability
UI/UX Design
Marketing sites, app interfaces, design system extension, and brand-aligned product work — under your visual direction.
Capability
Web Development
Marketing sites, portals, dashboards, custom CMS work, and headless builds shipped to your code review standards.
Capability
QA & Testing
Manual and automated QA woven into the pod cadence — not a separate vendor your PM has to chase.
See the full benchBrowse all capabilities
Best-fit partners
Two agency profiles use this most
Invisible Delivery Team works hardest for agencies whose client relationship is the asset — and who can't afford a delivery layer that introduces itself.
Most common entry point
For Design Agencies
Design-led teams that need an engineering layer behind a long-arc build — without taking on the management overhead of a permanent dev team.
Read the design agencies fit
Long-arc retainers
For Shopify Agencies
Shopify partners shipping store builds, app integrations, and theme work where capacity has to flex with the merchant calendar.
Read the shopify agencies fit
Operating principles
Partner-safe by construction
Every Invisible Delivery Team engagement is contracted through Salt Technologies, Inc. The same rules apply to a Solo Specialist as to a Full Pod.
Principle
No client-facing footprint
We don't email your client, join their calls, or appear in the proposal — unless you explicitly white-list a named pod member in the SOW.
Principle
Communication boundaries
Everything happens inside your tools, under aliases that fit your team. Escalation paths are defined at kickoff, not invented mid-engagement.
Principle
No-poach / non-solicitation
We don't approach your team and we don't accept introductions to your client off the back of a pod engagement — written into the MSA.
Principle
Contracted through Salt
MSA, NDA, and the engagement SOW are all issued by Salt Technologies, Inc. — the legal entity behind AgencyRelay.
The same operating principles run across all four AgencyRelay solutions. Most relationships start in one and naturally extend into another — without renegotiating these boundaries.
Compare before you commit
Read the comparisons that come up most
Most agency owners considering Invisible Delivery Team are weighing it against one of three alternatives. These pages address each one head-on.
Compare · Free
AgencyRelay vs E2M
How a US-aligned, founder-led delivery layer compares to a bulk white-label provider on quality, communication discipline, and account safety.
Compare · Free
AgencyRelay vs Uplers
Pod-based delivery against staff-augmentation: where each model wins, and which one survives a long-arc retainer with a flagship client.
Compare · Free
White-label vs hiring in-house
The honest read on when an Invisible Delivery Team pod is cheaper than the first delivery hire — and when it isn't.
Pre-engagement FAQ
What agency owners ask before booking a pod
Direct answers to the questions that come up on almost every first call about white-label delivery.
- Q.01
Will AgencyRelay ever contact our client directly?
Not by default. Every engagement is white-label safe — we work behind your team, inside your tools, under aliases that fit your naming convention. If you want a named pod member joining a client call as a technical lead, we can do that, but it has to be explicitly white-listed in the SOW. Outside of that, our footprint with your client is zero.
- Q.02
How is white-label actually enforced?
Three layers. Contractually: the MSA contains a no-direct-contact clause and a no-solicitation clause, both signed by Salt Technologies, Inc. Operationally: pod members work inside your tools under your team's naming, never their own. Cultural: the founder reviews escalation paths at kickoff and signs off on every SOW personally.
- Q.03
What does a typical engagement look like?
A Pair Pod (two specialists plus a delivery lead) running for three to nine months on a long-arc retainer or build, paid weekly, with a daily standup on your calendar and a Friday written delivery report. Most engagements start at one tier and resize once the workload stabilizes — you're not locked into the shape you started with.
- Q.04
What stack and capabilities are covered?
UI/UX design, web development (Next.js, headless CMS, custom CMS, e-commerce platforms including Shopify), QA and testing, and project oversight. App development and AI implementation are available too — they live on the AgencyRelay capabilities pages and are commonly added inside an Invisible Delivery Team engagement when scope extends.
- Q.05
How fast can a pod start?
Five to seven business days from a signed MSA in most cases. The bottleneck is rarely on our side — it's usually tooling access, code repository permissions, and the first scoping conversation with your delivery lead. We can compress that with prep work before the MSA is signed.
- Q.06
What's a fair starting price?
Public starting prices are $2,400 per week (Solo Specialist), $4,200 per week (Pair Pod), and $7,800 per week (Full Pod). All include a delivery lead, US-aligned working hours, and the operating discipline above. Final pricing is scoped per engagement against the actual backlog.
- Q.07
Can we resize the pod over time?
Yes. Pods are designed to flex between SOWs — Solo Specialist to Pair Pod when scope grows, Full Pod down to Pair when a release calms. The MSA is unchanged; each SOW carries the new shape, the new starting date, and the new weekly rate. No second sales cycle, no commercial reset.
- Q.08
What happens if the engagement ends?
Code, design files, decision logs, and documentation are transferred under your ownership at wrap. The no-poach clause continues for the period stated in the MSA. If the engagement is paused rather than ended, restarting is a single SOW — same pod where possible, same operating principles.
Bring the engagement
Tell us about the work that's already sold. We'll tell you what pod shape and start date make sense.
MSA before any access is granted. Founder-led on every kickoff. First standup on your calendar inside the first week — or the engagement doesn't start.
Operating principlesMSA / NDA / SOW issued by Salt Technologies, Inc.US-aligned working hoursNo-poach commitmentsWhite-label safe by default