What i learned hiring software engineers for a startup that actually scaled
People often think growing a startup is all about hiring great sales and marketing people.
That’s definitely part of it, but it’s not the whole picture.
A big part of scaling a business is building the right systems that support long term growth.
I remember this clearly from my time at an education company. A lot of people assumed our success came mainly from our on the ground outreach.
While that helped, the real growth came from the systems we built to support the business.
At the time, we were providing quality education in low income areas. One of our core strategies was to build schools and hire local teachers to teach local children.
The lessons were delivered through iPads, which was a huge surprise to many people in the communities we served.
They often asked, “What system are these guys using to run this education model?” Just using the iPads helped spread our brand organically.
Behind the scenes, we built a software team whose job was to support this delivery system.
They created a platform that allowed teachers to access and deliver pre-uploaded lessons on the iPads.
At that time, no other local schools were using anything like it.
Since I was working in HR, I was in charge of hiring software engineers who understood our goals and could help us maintain and improve the system.
Through that process, I learned a lot, especially about what it takes to find and hire strong software engineers.
Today I want to talk about a challenge many early stage startups face: hiring great software engineers. It’s tough out there, good engineers are in high demand, and their salary expectations can be way beyond what a small company can afford.
I recently came across an article by
called the billion dollar startup formula, and it lays out some smart ideas that really apply here. One key point he makes is that top talent is more likely to join early stage startups when they believe in the long term vision and feel like true partners in the journey, not just employees. That mindset is critical when you can’t compete on salary alone.With that in mind, I’ll share a few practical tips on how to make your startup more attractive to top tier engineers.
On top of that, big tech companies are offering generous compensation and benefits, making it even harder to compete.
Many engineers have lots of options, and some do get a bit arrogant about it, which I understand. But there are also other reasons top engineers won’t join your startup, and that’s what I want to talk about.
Disclaimer: I’m not a software engineer myself. What I’ll share here comes from my experience hiring them as a talent and HR associate in my previous role.
Now, back to the story...
Why hiring top engineers is so hard for startups
If you're a CEO or founder trying to hire senior engineers, you’ve probably hit a few of these walls:
The money gap is real. Senior engineers at big tech companies often make $500K–$900K+ with stock and bonuses. Most startups can’t offer anything close.
“Solo engineer” jobs are red flags. No team, no support, no real processes just pressure to build, fix bugs, ship features, and keep everything running around the clock. That’s not appealing; it’s a burnout recipe.
They’ve been through it before. Many top engineers have already done the early stage grind. They’ve carried entire products, burned out, and sometimes watched the company fold anyway.
They have better options. Freelancing, contributing to open source, investing, advising there are plenty of ways for engineers to make good money while keeping control of their time and energy.
I’ve seen this play out more times than I can count. When top engineers say no, it’s rarely because your product idea is bad.
It’s everything else around the job, too much risk, too little support, unclear payoff.
Founders often want a unicorn who can architect, code, scale, hire, and lead, all on a startup salary.
These people exist, but they’re not waiting around for that kind of offer.
Why the usual advice doesn’t work anymore
The typical playbook for hiring engineers is out of date:
Write a fun, quirky job post! - That might attract attention, but experienced engineers care more about the codebase, the tech stack, and whether the team is solid. Memes aren’t going to close the deal.
Offer a big chunk of equity! - Most engineers have learned the hard way that equity can end up worthless. Cash is what pays rent.
Give them a take home project! - If they’re good, they’re probably already working full time or consulting. They’re not going to spend a weekend on your unpaid test unless they’re already pretty interested.
Go after indie hackers or devs with big Twitter followings! - These people are already making money their way. If you can’t offer something genuinely better, you’re wasting everyone’s time.
The market has changed. What worked five years ago doesn’t work now. If you want great engineers, you’ll need to shift your strategy.
What actually works
After working with a couple of startups, here’s what I’ve seen work again and again: the best engineering teams don’t rely on hiring “10x engineers” or expecting one person to do everything.
Instead, they set things up in a way that actually works for both productivity and people.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
1. Split the role: architect + builder
Hiring one person to be your principal engineer, tech lead, senior IC, mentor, system designer, and feature shipper is a fast track to burnout. Just ask anyone who’s done it.
nails this in her piece on how to drive senior engineers up the wall: 8 guaranteed ways to annoy your senior engineer. It’s not just demoralizing, it’s inefficient.Here’s a smarter setup:
The Architect (5–10 hours/month) - A senior engineer or fractional CTO who handles system design, technical direction, and mentorship. They set the high level direction, review key decisions, and support the team when needed.
The Builder (full-time) - An early career or mid-level developer who focuses on execution, writing code, owning features, and growing into bigger responsibilities with support from the Architect.
This solves two common issues:
Budget - You avoid paying senior level rates for junior level tasks.
Direction - Your less experienced devs aren’t left guessing.
It also helps prevent the all too common burnout cycle that
describes here: how to burn out a software engineer. Splitting the role makes things more sustainable.How to find the right people
Your architect
Reach out to experienced engineers or ex CTOs open to part time advisory roles.
Look for people sharing thoughtful content on blogs, GitHub, or LinkedIn.
Ask your founder or investor network for intros.
Target folks between roles who are open to fractional work.
Pay them well and stick to the hours you agree on. Their job is to provide clarity, not write code.
Your builder
Hire for drive, not credentials. Look for someone who’s learning fast and motivated to grow.
Side projects and personal repos matter more than big name employers.
Don’t overlook people from bootcamps or QA/support backgrounds, curiosity and persistence go a long way.
This won’t fix every engineering problem, but it gives you a structure that scales without burning people out.
And it respects everyone’s time and energy, which matters just as much as technical skills.
2. Build a technical advisory group
Don’t go it alone. Instead, create a small group of senior engineers to bounce ideas off 3 to 5 people who’ve worked in different settings (startups, big tech, open source).
Meet every couple of weeks, keep a Slack or WhatsApp group active in between, and offer them $1-2K/month or some equity.
Ideally, you or a capable mid-level engineer takes their input and runs with it.
This gives you access to high-level technical feedback without making a full time hire.
piece on growing into a CTO, shows how much faster you can improve with the right feedback loop. A group like this gives you that kind of support.3. Build a specialist engineering network
Hiring full time for every role doesn’t always make sense. A smarter move is to build a network of specialists you can tap when needed.
That might mean bringing in a freelance DevOps engineer for infrastructure help, a part time security consultant, a performance expert, or a contract frontend lead for occasional design heavy work.
Platforms like Upwork and Toptal make finding these people easier, but someone still has to manage them.
Usually, that’s you or your tech lead. It’s more coordination, but the tradeoff is flexibility and high quality work without the long term commitment.
4. Start a power user engineering council
This is basically a supercharged feedback loop. Gather 5-10 of your most active and thoughtful users developers who really get your product.
Offer a stipend ($300–700/month) or perks like AWS credits or gear, and meet monthly to go over bugs, usability issues, or API gaps.
Give them early access to new features and encourage direct collaboration with your team.
It’s not just about collecting feedback. It helps your engineers stay connected to how real users think.
This works well alongside a product team that’s already organized around both architecture and execution.
has a great post on how outside input can seriously sharpen your thinking: tips to become 10x better in tech.Don’t build around a “10x engineer”
It’s tempting to rely on one person to carry the team, maybe they know the whole codebase or they’re the only one who understands the deployment pipeline.
But that’s a risky setup.
Instead, build your team from day one so it doesn’t hinge on any single person.
Here's how:
Write stuff down. Not just READMEs. Actual guides: how to set up a dev environment, run tests, deploy code, onboard a new service, or handle incidents. When it's documented, anyone can jump in quickly.
Build systems, not hacks. Focus on reusable tools, libraries, and infrastructure that improve over time.
has a solid list of tools that make engineering life easier: 6 tools to ease software engineer life.Share the load. Don’t treat engineering as a solo job. Rotate responsibilities, pair program, and do code reviews to spread knowledge and build shared context.
What great engineering actually looks like
A team with different strengths working together
Trial and error before getting to clean solutions
Space to experiment
Tools and processes that make iteration easy
And yes, some luck and timing
One standout hire helps. But real momentum comes from teams that build together, improve together, and share the work.
My final thoughts
If you’ve made it this far, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you tried any of these approaches?
What’s worked or backfired for you when hiring engineers at a startup?
Drop a comment below and share your experience. Whether you're a founder, hiring manager, or engineer yourself, your take could help someone else who's in the thick of it.
And if you found this useful, go ahead and share it. Chances are someone in your network is wrestling with the same hiring challenges.