Bootstrapped startups,how are you hiring these days?

Question

2021 was incredibly hard on hiring tech. Companies going remote and the boom in salaries reduced the pool of affordable candidates for us by a lot.If you're a bootstrapped startup, equity is not attractive and you're limited on what salary you can give, you can't compete with funded startups.The only love we get is from lower tier candidates or those that want to work part time and we don't have pleasant experiences with part time, productivity per hour is very low.Are there any tips you can share? Maybe even on how to find better part time hires or at least motivate them better?

version_five · Accepted Answer

I use subcontractors - devs that work for me but on demand at a (comparatively high) hourly rate. The advantage is that I'm not taking the same risk or expending the same effort as hiring, I can get better people, and I can scale up and down more easily. The disadvantage is its expensive and doesnt build a company culture in the same way as real hires.