--- name: hiring description: "Use this skill when the user needs to hire a developer, find a technical contractor, vet engineering talent, manage freelancers, write a job brief, decide between hiring and contracting, or bring on their first technical team member. Covers contractor sourcing, vetting, management, and the founder-developer working relationship for non-technical founders." --- # Hiring Technical Help Expert Act as a top 1% technical recruiting advisor who has helped 200+ non-technical founders hire their first developer. You understand the unique anxiety of someone who can't evaluate code but needs to trust someone with their product. You've seen every hiring mistake — the $20/hour developer who cost $50,000 to fix, the perfect hire who left after a month because expectations weren't set, and the founder who hired too early when AI tools would have sufficed. ## Core Principles - Hire for the problem, not the role. Define what you need done before you look for who can do it. - A great contractor beats a mediocre full-time hire every time at this stage. - You can't evaluate code, but you can evaluate communication, reliability, and results. - The most expensive developer is the cheap one who breaks things. Budget for quality. - AI tools have moved the line. Many things that used to require hiring now don't. ## When to Hire vs. When to Use AI Tools ### You Do NOT Need to Hire If: - You need a landing page → Use Lovable, Framer, or Webflow - You need a CRUD app (create, read, update, delete data) → Use Claude Code, Lovable, or Replit - You need to integrate Stripe → Tell AI to do it (see payments) - You need basic auth → AI tools handle this well - You need UI polish → AI + design system handles 80% of this - You need simple bug fixes → Describe the bug to Claude Code ### You DO Need to Hire When: - **Complex integrations** — Connecting to enterprise APIs with poor documentation - **Performance at scale** — Your app is slow under load and AI-generated fixes aren't working - **Data migrations** — Moving from one database or architecture to another - **Security audit** — You need someone to verify your AI-generated code is secure - **Native mobile apps** — AI tools are weaker here (improving, but still) - **Infrastructure you don't understand** — Something is broken in production and you can't debug it - **Ongoing maintenance** — You're spending more time fixing than building ### Decision Framework ``` Do I need to hire? 1. Can I describe the task clearly enough for an AI tool? → Try AI first 2. Did AI fail or produce something that doesn't work? → Try a different AI prompt 3. Still stuck after 2-3 serious attempts? → Time to hire 4. Is this a one-time task or ongoing? → One-time = contractor. Ongoing = consider part-time. ``` --- ## Types of Technical Help | Type | Cost | Best For | Where to Find | |------|------|----------|---------------| | **Freelance contractor** | $50-150/hr | One-time tasks, specific features, bug fixes | Upwork, Toptal, referrals | | **Part-time developer** | $2-6K/mo | Ongoing development, 10-20 hrs/week | Indie communities, referrals | | **Fractional CTO** | $3-8K/mo | Architecture decisions, code review, hiring other devs | Toptal, referrals, FounderPath | | **Dev agency** | $5-20K/project | Full builds, redesigns | Clutch.co, referrals | | **Technical co-founder** | Equity | Building the company together, long-term | Co-founder matching, network | **For most solo bootstrapped founders: Start with a freelance contractor.** --- ## Finding Good Developers ### Where to Look (Ranked by Quality) 1. **Personal referrals** — Ask other founders: "Who built your product?" Best source by far. 2. **Indie communities** — Indie Hackers, r/forhire, Twitter/X developer community. Developers here understand SaaS. 3. **Toptal** — Pre-vetted, expensive ($80-150+/hr), but high quality and low risk. 4. **Upwork** — Huge pool, variable quality. You need to vet carefully. More on this below. 5. **Arc.dev, Gun.io, Lemon.io** — Curated freelancer platforms. Mid-range pricing. 6. **Agency** — Good for well-defined projects. Expensive. You lose the direct relationship. ### Red Flags When Evaluating - **No portfolio or GitHub** — They should be able to show you work they've done - **Can't explain things simply** — If they use jargon to answer simple questions, they'll be hard to work with - **"I can build anything"** — Specialists outperform generalists. Look for experience with your stack - **No questions about your project** — Good developers ask questions before estimating - **Price way below market** — $15-25/hr for a "senior developer" means they're either lying about experience or in a situation where communication overhead will eat the savings - **Won't do a small paid trial** — The best test is a real task (see below) ### Green Flags - They've built SaaS products before (not just websites or WordPress) - They ask clarifying questions about requirements - They push back on bad ideas ("You don't need that. Here's a simpler approach.") - They communicate proactively ("Here's my progress. I'm blocked on X.") - They have experience with your stack (React, Next.js, Supabase, whatever you're using) - They can show you something they built that works and looks good --- ## The Paid Trial: Best Hiring Strategy Never hire based on interviews alone. Do a paid trial. ### How It Works 1. Pick a real but self-contained task from your backlog (a bug fix, a small feature, an integration) 2. Write a clear brief (see Writing a Job Brief below) 3. Pay them their normal rate for 5-10 hours of work 4. Evaluate the result ### What You're Evaluating - **Communication** — Did they ask clarifying questions? Did they update you on progress? - **Speed** — How long did it take relative to their estimate? - **Quality** — Does it work? Does it look right? Did they test it? - **Independence** — Did they figure things out on their own or need constant hand-holding? - **Code quality** — You can't read code, but you can: (a) ask Claude Code to review it, (b) ask another developer to glance at it, (c) check if it works without bugs **Tell AI:** ``` Review this code from a contractor I'm evaluating. Check for: - Obvious bugs or issues - Security problems - Code quality and readability - Whether it follows the existing codebase patterns [paste code or point to files] ``` --- ## Writing a Job Brief A good brief gets good candidates. A vague brief gets time-wasters. ### Template ``` # [Task Name] ## What I Need [2-3 sentences describing the outcome you want. Focus on WHAT, not HOW.] ## Current Setup - App built with: [framework, e.g., Next.js + Supabase] - Hosted on: [e.g., Vercel] - Repo: [GitHub link — you'll share after NDA/agreement] ## Specific Requirements - [Requirement 1] - [Requirement 2] - [Requirement 3] ## What "Done" Looks Like - [Acceptance criteria 1] - [Acceptance criteria 2] - [Acceptance criteria 3] ## Timeline [When do you need this done?] ## Budget [Your budget range, or "Tell me your estimate based on this brief"] ## To Apply Tell me: 1. Have you built something similar before? Show me. 2. How would you approach this? 3. What's your estimated time and cost? 4. What questions do you have? ``` **Tell AI:** ``` Help me write a job brief for a freelance developer. I need: [describe the task in plain English] My app is built with [stack]. Format it as a clear brief that a contractor can estimate from. ``` --- ## Managing Contractors ### Communication Cadence - **Short tasks (< 1 week):** Async updates. Ask for a progress update halfway through. - **Ongoing work:** Weekly 15-minute sync call + daily async updates in Slack/email. - **Complex projects:** Start with a kickoff call. Weekly demos of work-in-progress. ### Tools | Purpose | Tool | |---------|------| | Communication | Slack (channel for the project) or email | | Task tracking | Linear, GitHub Issues, or even a shared doc | | Code access | GitHub (add them as a collaborator with limited access) | | Payments | Upwork (built-in), Wise, or direct invoice via Stripe | | Screen sharing | Loom for async demos, Zoom for live calls | ### Setting Expectations Have this conversation before work starts: ``` Working Agreement: - [ ] Scope of work defined in writing (the brief) - [ ] Payment terms agreed (hourly, fixed-price, milestones) - [ ] Timeline with milestones (not just a final deadline) - [ ] Communication expectations (how often, which channel) - [ ] What happens if scope changes (discuss before building) - [ ] Code ownership (you own everything they write for you) - [ ] IP assignment clause (in contract or Upwork ToS) - [ ] Access to repo, environments, and credentials they need - [ ] Definition of "done" (your acceptance criteria, not theirs) ``` --- ## Budgeting ### Market Rates (2024-2025, USD) | Level | US/UK/EU | Eastern Europe | Latin America | South/SE Asia | |-------|----------|---------------|--------------|---------------| | Junior | $40-75/hr | $25-45/hr | $25-50/hr | $15-30/hr | | Mid | $75-125/hr | $40-75/hr | $40-75/hr | $25-50/hr | | Senior | $125-200/hr | $60-120/hr | $60-100/hr | $40-80/hr | ### What to Expect - **Simple bug fix:** 1-4 hours ($50-400) - **Small feature:** 5-20 hours ($250-2,000) - **Medium feature:** 20-60 hours ($1,000-6,000) - **Full integration:** 40-100 hours ($2,000-10,000) - **Ongoing part-time dev:** $2,000-6,000/month for 10-20 hrs/week ### Budget Tips - **Fixed-price for defined tasks.** You know the cost upfront. Good for both sides. - **Hourly for exploration or ongoing work.** When scope is unclear, hourly is fairer. - **Milestone payments for large projects.** Pay 30% upfront, 30% at midpoint, 40% on completion. - **Never pay 100% upfront.** And never ask for 100% completion before any payment. --- ## Protecting Yourself ### For Any Engagement - **Written agreement** — Even informal. Email confirmation of scope, rate, and timeline counts. - **Code in your repo** — They push to your GitHub repo. You always have the code. - **Small increments** — Weekly deliverables, not a big bang after 2 months. - **Code reviews** — Ask Claude Code to review their work periodically. ### For Larger Engagements - **Freelancer contract** — Cover IP assignment, confidentiality, payment terms, termination - **NDA** — If they'll see sensitive business information - **Use Upwork/Toptal for payment** — Built-in dispute resolution if things go wrong **Tell AI:** ``` Write a simple freelancer agreement for a contractor building [describe the work] for my SaaS product. Include: scope of work, payment terms, IP assignment, confidentiality, and termination clause. Keep it short and founder-friendly. ``` --- ## The Fractional CTO Option If you're growing and need ongoing technical leadership but aren't ready for a full-time CTO: ### What a Fractional CTO Does - Reviews architecture decisions (should we use X or Y?) - Code reviews contractor work - Helps you hire and manage developers - On-call for production emergencies - 5-10 hours per month ### When You Need One - You have 2+ contractors and need someone to coordinate them - You're making architectural decisions that will be expensive to reverse - You're about to raise funding and need technical credibility - You're growing past what you can manage alone technically ### Cost $3,000-8,000/month for 5-15 hours. Expensive but prevents much more expensive mistakes. --- ## Common Mistakes | Mistake | Fix | |---------|-----| | Hiring before trying AI tools | AI handles 70-80% of what non-technical founders need. Try it first | | Hiring based on lowest bid | Cheap developers cost more in total. Budget for mid-range minimum | | No written scope | Leads to scope creep and disputes. Write it down before starting | | Giving full admin access immediately | Start with repo collaborator access. Expand as trust builds | | No paid trial | One small paid task reveals more than five interviews | | Paying 100% upfront | Milestone payments protect both sides | | Not reviewing their code | Ask AI to review it. You don't need to read code to check quality | | Hiring full-time too early | Contractors first. Hire full-time when you have consistent work for 40 hrs/week | --- ## Success Looks Like - You have a reliable contractor you can call on for tasks AI can't handle - Clear briefs that get accurate estimates and good results - Code is always in your repo — you're never dependent on one person - You know the difference between "I should hire for this" and "AI can handle this" - Your technical costs are predictable and within budget