How to hire developers for your startup? – Complete guide

If you are a startup with a small team or a sole founder, you probably already juggle multiple responsibilities. Early-stage startup founders face inevitable multitasking with often shifting priorities. At this stage, it is no surprise that when they need to hire developers for a startup, they might struggle to allocate sufficient time and resources to it. Plus, it would be rather daunting to prioritize hiring the best tech talent. Wouldn’t you say that your primary concern would be controlling costs? and maybe keeping to legal requirements?

Virtually every commercial and academic research recognizes this one thing:

It is human capital development –  the quality of people you hire and their training – that ensures your long-term business success and a higher likelihood of survival and growth.

Depending on where your startup is at, you need to hire developers for the startup accordingly. We’ll break down what needs you might have at different startup stages and how to address them.

Startup Growth Stages and Needs to Hire Developers For Startup

As a startup owner, you naturally think about achieving success. And the top 5 success factors are likely occupying your mind. Looking at them, there is already a lot to deal with. 

You think about market trends and how to best time the arrival of your product to the market. Then, you think about your product idea and screen the competition. Moreover, you think about different models and the sources of funding. Each of these ensures your success and each of these is a complex task on its own. 

In the barrage of these tasks, excelling at all of them is mission impossible. Having a success team for your startup is quite high on the list. But to hire developers for startup is quite a complex and technical process. It might exhaust your company’s resources which are probably already stretched thin. This is precisely why it is not uncommon to outsource. So how do you recognize your outsourcing needs? What does your startup require at this point in time?

Stage 1 – Startup Formation & Needs to Hire Developers For Startup

At this stage, you are likely a team of one or a very small team with just a few people. At this stage, you probably are just figuring out the expectations from your team members. Then, your HR practices are barely covering the basics. Plus, you are only forming the needs and clarifying the requirements for digital project development. That’s why even creating a job ad and determining a technology stack or project scope might be a challenge.

So, you outsource. Hiring developers is best outsourced not only for cost control and legal compliance but also for flexibility and saving time. In hiring developers for startup, you need to gain expertise in:

• job ad creation, 
• screening and selection, 
• onboarding and training. 

With some tasks like defining the project scope, technology stack, and such, you need technical and business help. Lastly, you need maximum agility and capacity for change. Hiring developers from an agency helps you cover all of that.

Stage 2 – Startup Validation & Needs to Hire Developers For Startup

After formation, your startup is getting established. You probably have a few specialized teams. It might be a sales team and a customer support team. You might also have a product team or operations team. Probably, communication between your teams is a bit fractured. The needs of each team arise chaotically. Plus, each team might fight for prioritisation of their needs over others. In addition, onboarding practices are likely to be different across teams. Each team will have their codes of communication. 

Hiring a team of developers is still better outsourced at this stage. Developers are often more costly to businesses than other job categories. Moreover, developers must be placed in high-performance work systems. Early startups including the validation stage often do not have that. 

Stage 3 – Startup Growth & Needs to Hire Developers For Startup

At this stage, the startup has already formed and established talent management and HR practices. Business owner is now involved in a range of activities outside the ‘comfort zone’. A business owner has a growing number of routine concerns as well as new challenges related to the firm’s growth pains and market pressure.

At this stage, outsourcing is still the best option. However, a business owner might be looking at dedicated teams. With this option, a business owner gets full control of the developers. Selection, training and all the legal work is done by the agency. You can find out more in our article How to Find the Best Outsource Development Team for Startups?

It is also possible that the startup might hire a few developers in-house and augment developers for the rest of the work. For example, you might hire a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Lead Developer. This person can manage the development process for you. Yet, when a big chunk of work is required, or some skills are missing, CTO can outsource it and get an augmented team member(s).  

How to hire developers for a startup: Guide

Step 1: Identify Your Development Needs

Now that you’ve identified which stage you are at, let’s talk in greater detail about your development needs. Granted, every startup is unique and the needs for bringing developers on board would vary. So, let’s consider the general pointers.

Stage 1 – Formation Development Needs

At this stage, you are likely looking to Develop Custom MVP app. It can be either an Android app or iOS, or hybrid, or a web app. Your development agency will help to determine which one is the best to start with if you haven’t already. You can also require other Startup Services such as:

• a kit to present to investors to gain funding;
• A kit to detail the scope of work and a clickable prototype you can win over investors with;
• If you have a design ready and the idea validated, you can opt for the MVP package;
• Custom app development opens more flexibility to interact with the market and fine-tune your business offering.

Here, you might need to hire developers for your startup as follows: UI/UX developer for prototyping, BA for market analysis and mood boards, a team of front-end and back-end developers for an MVP, and a bigger team for a custom MVP development.

Stage 2 – Validation Development Needs

If you’re a startup at the validation stage, you probably have an MVP. You might be looking at developing a fully-fledged app and refining it for best market fit. You might be also looking to add more sophisticated features. For example, augmented reality or virtual reality and whatnot. You might want to add some custom IT tooling for your teams like customer management system (CMS) and such. 

Here, you may want to hire developers for a startup as such:

• UI/UX developers for fine-tuning your app.
• Developers to implement the latest and complex technologies.
• Back-end or full-stack developers to cover internal development needs.

Stage 3 – Growth Development Needs

If you‘re a startup at the growth stage, you might be looking to scale. Either to go into different platforms or upgrade architecture to increase capacity. At this stage, you might also need developers to implement cutting-edge technologies, newer features, or the latest and coolest designs. You might simply want to revamp your UI and upgrade your UX.

At this point, you might have varied needs when it comes to hiring developers for your startup. 

Step 2 Decide on the Hiring Strategy

With outsourcing developers, you have several hiring options with agencies. It can be on a project basis, a dedicated team, or staff augmentation. 

• If you work on a project basis, you often get a fixed price for the project from the agency. To opt for this mode, you need to have requirements clearly defined. Often, requirements change might reflect on the project’s price.
• If you decide to get a dedicated team, you get a team of developers to work exclusively for you. You directly communicate with the team. Plus, you can request any changes you want. They are basically your employees. The plus of it is that the agency does all paperwork, taxes, training and other administrative things.
• If you have an in-house team and there is a huge backlog or skills gap, staff augmentation is for you. You get an extended team to be given tasks by your in-house team. 

Step 3 Select a Country to Hire From

The primary reason to outsource hiring developers for your startup is cost control. Therefore, offshore outsourcing is the best option cost-wise. It means you outsource from a development agency in a less developed economy. With that, you have to consider several factors:

• English Proficiency. You might find really affordable rates coming from Vietnam, but English levels are higher closer to Europe, such as Ukraine. 
• Cultural Differences. Even though India is an attractive outsourcing option, it might be challenging in terms of navigating cultural nuances. Ukraine again is a better option for its internationality and cultural flexibility.
• Political/Economical Situation. Brazil often experiences economic instability, and Ukraine is going through the perils of war. But, in fact, many Ukrainian development agencies are headquartered in Europe to ensure risk-free cooperation.

The quality of work is often up to international standards and market demands regardless of country you choose. And, you can check reviews about quality on Clutch such as here.

Step 4 Select an Agency

Development agencies might specialie in one technology stack or a few of them. From your perspective, you might not be sure what technology stack you require. Or even what is the exact app development you need. 

So, 1st piece of advice is to select an agency that works with a few technology stacks. Even if you know what technology you need exactly, the point of outsourcing and the nature of startups are all about flexibility. It is best to have a reliable outsourcing partner who can fill in expertise gaps in more than one technology. 

Secondly, you might want to relate to the methodology the agency uses. For startups, the lean methodology is the best these days. It can ensure results in a lean way, meaning fast deliveries with the least costs possible. 

Step 5 Verify the Expertise

As we’ve mentioned, there is Clutch, where you can check the client reviews. You can also search for a company’s profile on LinkedIn. 

Checking reviews of past clients on Clutch gives you a possibility to assess:

• Overall rating and specific feedback on quality, schedule and cost;
•  Portfolio of projects and their industries;
• Verified business information.

Checking out the company’s profile on LinkedIn can give you the following info:

• Linked employee accounts and their expertise and skills;
• Company’s publications and recent news;
• Company’s public activities, engagements, and achievements.

All of the above can give you a decent sense of the agency’s expertise and credibility.

Step 6 Have a Call

Set up a meeting with the agency. Be sure to ask all the questions that interest you. Of course, first, you would inquire about cost and time. Other than that, there are several other questions you might consider asking:

• What is the process like? Walk me through a typical development lifecycle for my chosen development work.
• How often can you provide deliverables? 
• How are project communication and updates carried out?
• Will there be testing and quality assurance? Do you employ QA specialists or subcontract this work?
• Who will be the key developers on the team for my project? What are their roles and responsibilities? What about their experience and expertise?
• How do you handle bug fixes, updates, and maintenance?

One other critical question you might need to ask is how fast the agency can begin the development. It is just to avoid the situation when the agency takes on a project but they don’t have available developers. They count on quick hires but it might drag on. So if they have the developers you need, it will be a week or two project start time. 

Step 7 Start Work

Once you are happy with the interview and signed the contract, set things in motion. There are just a few things to keep tab on:

• Review the contract and ensure that you are on the same page about business requirements. 
• Then, make sure that you have communication lines available to you. 
• Try to give feedback as clearly as possible so that your requirements are well conveyed.

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To conclude, business owners can greatly benefit from hiring developers for startups from an agency. It frees up your hands to deal with more pressing issues. Plus, it unties you from all the HR issues so that you are focused on business strategy and product development. 

FAQ: How to hire developers for your startup?