HACKER Q&A
📣 YKreator

How to find and convince a skilled dev to join a bootstrapped startup?


I created a startup project, and we have a good traction, but now we really need to strengthen our (small) technical team to improve our solution. Where should I look? Github? How can I make him/her want to join the adventure?

  👤 enonevets Accepted Answer ✓
Pay fair salary/equity/benefits.

Have a clear understanding of your identity, mission, direction, goals.

Have a clear understanding of what you're looking for in a hire.

You're looking for someone to be a fit to what you're doing as much as they are looking to be apart of something that is a fit for them. Pay, product, culture, and various mix of expectations and what each side wants is what makes this works.

You'll want to be as clear as you can about what's exciting about what you're doing, where you're going with this, and who you're looking for to join you on this journey.

👤 deanmoriarty
Pay fair market rate and decent equity. Or pay below market rate and substantial equity.
👤 decafninja
If you're willing to keep an open mind, try poaching someone from a non-tech company that wants to jump ship. There are an increasing number of such people.

They likely are getting underpaid compared to their peers at a tech company.

The downside is, a "senior software engineer" at a non-tech company might not be quite the same level as a "senior software engineer" at a tech company. I say this as one of the former myself.

👤 internetslave
I’m all ears if you’ve got something interesting and lots of equity? I work at Amazon, lots of experience with the cloud, scale, computer science etc. 6 years experience as a dev.
👤 gkrishna
> Where should I look?

I'd say search on your friends network first. If it is hard to find on your network then I suggest Angel.co, stackoverflow.

👤 visox
AS a dev i contacted someone i think it was on founders nation. In the end we did my idea haha.
👤 lmarcos
Just pay them 20% more of what they are currently making.