#ProductDevelopment #StartupLife #HiringDecisions
Are you facing the dilemma of deciding who to hire next for your small product that is gaining traction? As a non-technical founder with a background in math, navigating the world of scaling and security can be overwhelming. However, it is essential to make the right decision to ensure the continued success of your product. Let’s explore some practical solutions to help you address this problem effectively.
##Assessing Your Options:
###1) Hiring for Scaling and Security:
🔒 As your product gains more users, the need for scaling and security becomes crucial. Consider hiring someone who specializes in server management and can ensure that your resources are optimized for increased traffic.
🔄 Despite the elasticity of EC2, having an expert who can fine-tune your resources can prevent any potential performance issues in the future.
🛡️ Security is a top priority for any startup. Ensure that you are adhering to best practices and implementing measures to prevent any security breaches that could jeopardize your product’s reputation.
###2) Hiring Onshore Full-Stack Developers:
🤝 If you prefer working with a team that is physically present and can handle both server management and backend development, hiring onshore American engineers may be the right choice.
🏢 Being able to collaborate face-to-face can enhance communication and productivity, especially if you feel the need for in-person interaction.
💻 However, with the rise of remote work, many top tech talents are opting for WFH setups, making it possible to continue working with offshore engineers via virtual communication platforms.
###3) Evaluating the Need for New Talent:
💡 If your product is functioning smoothly without any performance issues or glitches, you may not feel the immediate need to hire additional talent.
📈 Monitor the performance of your product as it scales and assess whether your current team can handle the workload effectively.
🔄 Consider hiring new talent only when there is a clear need for specialized skills or if you foresee a decline in productivity due to the lack of expertise within your current team.
In conclusion, the decision to hire new talent for your growing product should be based on the specific needs of your startup. Whether you choose to focus on scaling and security, opt for onshore full-stack developers, or stick with your offshore team for now, make sure to evaluate your options carefully. Remember, the key to success lies in building a strong and capable team that can support your product’s growth effectively.
Going with onshore devs might be costly, unless your ARR is at least $100k. I would say keep experimenting and grinding, signing new customers. Also identify how fast you want grow this year plan accordingly: marketing, sales, pitch deck.
Consider hiring a DevOps expert to handle scaling and security, while maintaining your current offshore team for development.
First off – congrats! That’s awesome to hear!
I would say focus on growing! As someone wiser than me has said, there isn’t a problem that more sales can’t fix. You should use your limited resources to create more resources. You shouldn’t focus on re-engineering your product until you are dealing with problems that can’t be patched.
The type of on shore dev you’re looking for, find someone like that and see how many hours they’d estimate to do an appsec focused code review of your app. Then, a more in general thing, see if people with that type of experience would be interested in an equity based co-founder position (assuming you’d be interested in something like that). Best to have experience like that in house even if they’re not directly contributing to the codebase as often as SE’s.
I’m Head of Product for a tech startup.
Did you give equity to the current engineers?
If not, and if you plan on this being a tech startup, then I recommend you find a couple of technical cofounders first, give them equity in the company, and get rid of the hired guns.
Outsourcing the initial dev work offshore will slow you down in the long run and could potentially put you in a vulnerable position if you really start to gain big traction, as the contracted devs will have leverage over you…by having the “keys to the kingdom”.
​
We went through something like this with my current company (we had outsourced devs), and getting control of the backend from them was a slow and painful process.
It sounds pretty unstable at the moment. I’ve got no clue of the competence of your developers but with a product that’s in its growth stage, it would be wise to look to invest a bit more resources in upgrading that side of the business. Your role as the non-tech founder is to worry about non-tech things. If you’re worrying about tech things, then there’s a missing link.
You could get a consultant to review the code and determine their competency through that. If they’re good, continue. Otherwise, expand the team with more qualified developers. (Onshore vs offshore doesn’t matter too much imo. Try to use a tech recruiter to convey your needs and wants)
I run a “Tech co-founder as a Service” business that helps non-tech founders build their products in a more holistic manner. We usually prefer partnering with idea stage startups but if it sound interesting, give me a shout and we can sort out a quick chat.
PS: What’s the stack? I could potentially have a look at it to see if I can give a two cents on it.
Marketing + Sales
If this is Product Led Growth machine – get marketing.
If you have to demo to sell – get sales.
Get them early you need the bones now. Once you sell more you’ll be able to afford better engineers. But you will die without more sales.
Will send you a DM