How to Find Developers for Your Startup in 2024

The core of every business is its people. You may have a great startup idea, a budget to test your product, and a launch plan, but all of these won’t work if you hire the wrong team. 

When technical experience is a priority, you should also pay attention to their soft skills, flexibility, and ability to work in an unstructured environment. Add to this the red ocean of competition for talent in the tech industry, spiced up with a tech talent shortage, and finding developers may seem like a nightmare. 

Don’t worry—we’ll walk you through how to find developers for your startup and what qualities to prioritize. 

Key Challenges startup founders face when hiring developers 

Hiring tech talent for your startup may seem like finding a needle in a haystack, especially if you don’t have tech expertise. 

In fact, 18% of startups fail due to team issues and other human resource-related challenges.  Let’s review the main pitfalls that may await startups during the hiring process.

Limited resources

While established companies lure candidates with various perks, such as high salaries, free professional courses, gym membership, and unlimited coffee in the office, startups have to count each dollar spent. So before jumping to hiring developers for a startup, we recommend doing the following:

Determine if you really need to hire engineers at this stage and whether you can afford it

If you hire in-house, you need to add up costs for recruitment and onboarding, as well as office infrastructure, retirement account benefits, and health insurance. Calculate all the expenses in advance and consider whether you can afford to hire this person for at least one year.

Think about the cost-effective alternatives

If you haven’t validated your startup idea yet, think about testing out your product in a less technical way. 

For example, there are a variety of low code / no code platforms and existing tools that will help you test your idea first. One of the mistakes startup founders make is overspending on developing a product and building features without putting it in front of people first. 

Hire freelancers or consider outsourcing

Instead of hiring in-house, you can consider outsourcing, which can save you around 77% of your budget. If you want to find a programmer for startup on a freelance platform, that’s also an option. However, in this case, you’ll need to think about quality assurance and maintenance and take over the management part, which requires a lot of time. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of all these options later on.

Unknown brand

The challenge of hiring for startups begins with attracting the right candidates at the top of the funnel. Sometimes, it can be tough to attract qualified candidates to a business that does not keep its feet on the ground. 

In this case, there is only one way out – start building your company reputation right now. Here is how you can do it:

• Attend networking events to build connections with candidates
• Share updates about your company on social media
• Collaborate with industry experts
• Take part in relevant communities for startup founders

Lack of experience in hiring and retention

Hiring is challenging, and it’s a skill each entrepreneur should master. Bad hiring costs you time and money, and these assets are so limited when you’re just starting.

Often, startup founders rush to hire a tech team without having a clear understanding of the screening process. Let’s review some tips on how to find developers for your startup if you have no experience in hiring.

Build a hiring process for developers

If you’re doing the hiring by yourself, learn to interview people. A lot of managers think they already have the skill of interviewing and can do it with their gut. 

However, that’s not always true. First of all, create a clear hiring process. Identify the necessary hard and soft skills for the role. After that, come up with a list of defined questions you’ll use to evaluate each candidate. 

Also, you can create a scoring system that will help you evaluate each candidate’s answers. This will help you better differentiate good candidates from not-relevant ones. 

Learn how to sell your startup

You need to pitch your startup to the candidate in the same way you pitch your idea to an investor. 

Think about what will appeal to your candidate and what sets your startup apart. While you can’t boast about compensation yet, focus on the culture, impact, growth, and development your startup can offer. 

Also, it’s crucial to be honest and talk about the challenges a candidate will have to deal with at the current stage of your business. Only honesty from both sides will help you build meaningful relationships in your company.

Think about retention strategies

Working in a startup is not about stability; your team will regularly overcome different hurdles. That’s why build a startup culture that will make your employees want to stay with you even during the most challenging times. This may include:

• Paying on time
• Giving honest feedback about your team’s work
• Listening to your employee’s opinion
• Giving your employees initiative
• Supporting your employees and caring about their growth

As a startup founder, you have to keep a close connection with your team and build a supportive culture in your company, where everyone works together as one.

Hiring strategies to consider in 2024 

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to hiring strategies, as everything depends on your budget, product stage, requirements, and team size. 

Let’s review the main hiring strategies for startups to consider in 2024 and their pros and cons.

In-house team

In-house involves hiring a dedicated team that works exclusively for your company instead of relying on a subcontractor who provides you with developers based on your needs. 

Hiring an in-house team is more expensive as you need to invest in screening, onboarding, training, management, and infrastructure. However, this hiring method comes with some perks. Let’s review the main pros and cons of hiring an in-house team.

Pros of hiring an in-house team

Better communication and commitment 

Usually, the in-house team works in the same time zone (or even in the same office), so it’s easier to gather everyone when you need to discuss some actions or fix any issues. 

Also, your dedicated team becomes a part of your company culture and values, so they are not just building features for your product but investing in creating your mission and showing more commitment to your goals.

More control over the process

As you are not delegating team management to third-party companies, you’re the one who controls the process without any intermediates. Also, you have a deeper connection with your team and can discuss all the concerns they have, improving your work process on the go.

Investment in employees’ growth

While in-house development is more expensive, you are investing in the growth of your team. Developers gain expertise in your industry to understand better your business goals, product specifics, and trends. In such a way, you have the chance to provide more innovative solutions on the market.

Cons of an in-house team

High costs

As we’ve already mentioned, with in-house development, all the costs are on you: developer salary, benefits, training, HR, hardware and software costs, team and project management, etc. 

Staffing issues

When your project grows, you’ll need to extend your team and hire new people. It not only takes time and budget and puts some project work on pause, but you may also face some staffing issues like a shortage of experienced specialists.

Ongoing costs

When the work on your project is finished, you still have to keep your team in-house until the new round of work begins (e.g., if you have released MVP and now need some time to gather feedback). In this case, you’re not paying just for the hours spent working on your project but for the layoffs as well.

To wrap it up, if you’re a startup with a limited budget and an unvalidated idea, in-house development may be a costly option. Also, if you need to quickly test your idea on the market, hiring an in-house team may not be the best choice, as hiring, onboarding, and training take a lot of time. 

However, if you have already gathered some investments, validated your idea, or even made it to the seed stage, hiring an in-house team may be a nice long-term investment in your growth.

Now, let’s proceed to freelance platforms and see if it’s a good idea to find web developers for startup there. 

Freelance platforms

Using freelance platforms or developer marketplaces may seem easy at first sight. You just filter out candidates depending on your requirements and get a list of specialists in a few seconds. However, there are some pitfalls you may face. Let’s review both the pros and cons of this hiring method.

Freelance platforms pros

Lower price

Freelancers usually have lower hourly rates than agency developers. Additionally, you only pay for the work done, with no extra costs for hiring, management, or communication.

Speed

You may hire a freelancer who will start working on your project as soon as the next day. This works great if you’re limited in time or need some quick tech consultation.

Freelance platform cons

Project management issues

Since you’re just relying on the skills of a freelancer, there is no guarantee that your project will be finished on time.

In contrast, when you work with an agency, they assign you with a project manager who manages the team and ensures that the tasks are completed within a deadline. If one of the developers is unable to continue work, you’ll be quickly backed up with another specialist.

Scalability issues

If you want to scale up your project, you’ll need to hire additional specialists. In this case, it may not only take time to assemble a team, but you’ll need to play the role of a project manager who will organize the work process, assign tasks, and check out results.

To conclude, freelance platforms may be a good choice for well-defined small-scale projects or one-time tasks. However, freelance platforms may not be the best way to go when it comes to complex tasks requiring specialists with different expertise.

Now, let’s review the pros and cons of hiring an outsourcing development company.

Outsource team

Nowadays, a lot of companies choose outsourcing because of its cost-efficiency. Let’s review this hiring method in more detail.

Outsource team pros

Talent availability

With outsourcing, you get access to a pool of talent around the world with different expertise and skills. You don’t need to spare resources for hiring, training, and onboarding; you get an assembled team ready to work on your project.

No management hassle

When outsourcing, you sign a contract with a vendor who handles all the development processes for you so that you can focus on the business side of your startup. 

Cost efficiency

The cost of outsourcing depends on the region, but the average hourly rates range from around $15-$45 for junior specialists and up to $50-$100 for senior engineers. Also, you save your budget on operating expenses like salaries, office rent, infrastructure, and training.

Flexibility

With outsourcing, scaling your team is easy because vendors have already vetted specialists with diverse skills and experience. Also, if you need to cut down costs, you can easily downscale at any time and with no commitments. Such flexibility is a great benefit for startups.

Outsource team cons

Difference in time zones

As you live in different time zones, there may be some delays in communication, which may result in a lengthy back-and-forth process. However, experienced companies with an established work process and a variety of project management tools know how to make communication within different time zones effective. 

Less control

When the whole process is managed by someone else, it’s tempting to give up control and let things take their course. However, if you don’t manage the process and don’t check the results, you risk missing out on some errors that may pile up and cause issues in the future.

Security concerns

You’ll need to pass sensitive business information to third parties to allow vendors to better analyze your business and its goals. That is why it’s important to choose a vendor with many positive reviews and have legal professionals prepare NDAs.

Hybrid model

The hybrid model combines the best in-house and outsourcing approaches. Let’s review it in more detail.

Hybrid models pros

Flexibility

With hybrid outsourcing, you can enhance your in-house team with offshore developers when needed. For example, if your on-site team doesn’t have experience with a certain framework, you can outsource developers and integrate them into your work process.

Hybrid models cons

Team management

As a hybrid model involves two different teams, you need to ensure that there are no communication issues and that both teams stay on the same page. 

How to find developers for a startup in 7 steps 

If you want to build an organized team, you need a plan. Let’s review 7 essential steps to hire someone who will become a part of your product’s mission.

• Specify your business needs

Start with the goals you want to achieve. You’re not just hiring a developer; you’re hiring a person who will help you bring your product to the market. That’s why you need to put your business goals first and explain what you want to achieve with the first version of your product. This way, the team you hire will be more involved in the process and feel like they are part of your product vision. 

• Define the skill sets you need

Define both soft and hard skills the developer should have. Then, compile a list of questions you will use to determine if the candidate is the right fit for your project. 

• Choose the hiring strategy

If you are still not sure what hiring strategy to choose, schedule a consultation with tech specialists to discuss the pros and cons of each option. 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to outsourcing companies and book a free consultation to discuss their work process. By speaking to different companies and specialists, you’ll better understand what to expect, which will help you make the right decision.

• Search for candidates and always check references

Where to find developers for startup? Start by searching for candidates on job boards and career websites such as Indeed, Linkedin, AngelList, StackOverflow Careers, TopTal, and Remote.co. Also, you can connect with developers on different development communities, such as Github and Reddit. 

After that, you can create a list of relevant candidates and cross-check them via Linkedin or Twitter to better understand their personality and experience. Also, always check the references because nothing speaks better about the person’s skills than the people they’ve worked with.

• Create a pitch

Present your project to explain why the candidates should care about your offer. Explain the mission of the product you create, why you think this candidate is a good fit, and why your project is relevant to them.

• Conduct interviews & expertise review

The best way to test the expertise of the developer is to give them a test project to complete. This will help you to better evaluate their problem-solving skills, time management, creativity, and work style. 

Qualities to look for in developer

But how do you decide between several developers and make the right choice? Let’s review the main qualities to look for in a developer.

Technical proficiency

Without a doubt, technical experience is a must. Ask developers about the projects they worked with, tools and frameworks they’ve used, and challenges they have solved. Also, it’s a great advantage if the developer has experience in your industry.

Problem-solving skills

Working in a startup is similar to riding the waves in a storm. That’s why a developer should always be ready for unexpected challenges. Here’s what questions you can ask to check problem-solving skills:

• Can you describe a time when you had to develop a solution with limited resources or incomplete information? How did you approach the challenge?
• Describe a case when you faced significant obstacles to solving a problem. How did you overcome this?
• How do you decide when to handle a problem by yourself or ask for help?

Flexibility

Startups are usually not about stability. That’s why you need to ensure that your team will be ready for various changes, such as switching to a new toolset, testing new frameworks, or even rebuilding the whole app logic. Ask the developers how they prioritize tasks, manage their time, and make decisions under pressure to maintain productivity, even if they have to change direction.

Teamwork 

Team building skills are essential for each company, especially for the startup, where the whole team’s efficiency depends on each member. Ask developers about their past experience working in a team, especially how they handled different conflicts during the work process.

Common mistakes startups make when hiring developers 

Now let’s review the most common mistakes startup founders make when hiring a tech team.

Hiring in a rush

One of the most common mistakes startup founders make is rushing to hire a person without assessing their actual needs. First of all, invest your time and think about what skills and experience you want a developer to have. Envision the portrait of your perfect candidate in detail: their hard and soft skills, their approach to solving problems, their ability to work under pressure, etc. 

Overlooking the importance of a cultural fit

People may have wonderful hard skills, but when it comes to teamwork, they can turn the work process into a real disaster. During the interview, check if the person fits your culture and values first. When hard skills can be achieved through effort and practice, the ability of your workers to communicate, lead people, and solve problems is exactly what will drive your startup growth.

Hiring people who are not experts in their fields

Large organizations spare a budget to nurture their employees, and that’s why they can afford to hire people with less experience. But you’re a startup, and speed is your biggest strength. Don’t hire someone who needs hand-holding if you’re just getting off the ground.