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Developing a successful startup takes more than just a good idea. There may be a lot of ideas, but they're empty words without implementation, which is impossible without a decent team.
Software developers define the product and your company in the future. Each developer should bring vision, as well as knowledge and experience to the table.
You may have heard about great leaders, such as Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. The world appreciates their contribution. But if you go deeper, you'll realize there's a solid team behind them, and sometimes the attempt to find programmers for your startup is the biggest challenge you may face.
Two heads are always better than one. Even if you can generate outstanding ideas, you need someone who will implement them in real life. Quality products require effort in addition to creativity. The right people nearby will make this much easier.
Running a startup has a lot of pitfalls. However, startup owners can learn a lot from examples, that’s why analyzing issues, the other companies have to deal with, is very helpful. Check out the list of problems you must prepare for.
Most tech startups start alone or with a couple of dedicated friends, but it's not enough to grow, and one day you’ll need to hire more developers. There are a lot of software developers to choose from, but it is not so easy to decide who in this pool is your perfect match and where to find a programmer for your startup.
When hiring software developers for startups, you need to write an attractive job ad, then gather CVs and schedule interviews. Be wary, as candidates may have a strong background and technical knowledge, but poor soft skills. Hiring developers takes time and energy, even if you have a professional recruiter in your team.
Once you’ve found your developers, it’s on to your next concerns, and your employees’ satisfaction is one of them.
You may offer an interesting project with huge opportunities, but what about the warm onboarding for software developers? Working on the MVP development, you most likely don’t have a budget to satisfy extravagant needs, in terms of the office with free breakfast, lunch, snacks and rooftop Friday beers. Developers’ quality of work will reflect, if they don’t like the surrounding atmosphere.
Even if you’ve landed a couple of developers who are the lifeblood of your future product, you still don’t have enough teammates. As a result, you have to ask your colleagues to juggle between tasks. You need to consider this: Who will interact with prospective investors? Who is in charge of competitors’ analysis? While you want your team to multitask, overloading them with tasks will lead to burn out.
While building your dream team, it’s still important to keep your budget in mind and follow a financial strategy. This can be difficult when working with freelance developers.
Modern businesses face modern challenges. The bigger your startup gets, the more security threats you should be prepared for. With searching for different development partners and working with them on a daily basis, it's essential to have robust protection for all the data your team has access to.
It's hard to find software engineers, but keeping the startup’s team on the same page is as difficult as building the platform from scratch. Sometimes it's impossible to come to a mutual understanding between team members, and the more tech talent you have in your team, the more complicated the task becomes. Each person has their own vision, approach, and ways to organize the work routine. Their communication is important not only with you, but with all team members. It's a vicious circle that may become crucial for the development process of an early-stage startup.
The challenges we have described above shouldn’t scare you. The more you know about them, the more confident and prepared you are. You should also know that there are various hiring approaches to choose from. They have their advantages and disadvantages, and it's impossible to say that one is better than the others. However, it's possible to define the best option according to your start position and hire remote developers for your startup that meets your expectations. Let’s see what your perfect match is!
The most traditional approach is to directly hire the staff you need. According to Statista’s report on global recruitment plans for IT developers, 60% of HR professionals stated they were looking to hire up to 50 developers in 2025.
However, we can’t say for sure that this approach works for new startups. Let’s analyze it from a few different angles, and understand whether this strategy is what you’re looking for.
Building an in-house team, you:
However, this approach is not always the best, because:
The second strategy is to find programmers for a startup who are working on a freelance basis. You can open Upwork or other freelance platforms, post your job ad, and receive applications from developers located in different countries. This coin has two sides as well.
Hiring an outsourced team is the third strategy, and the most efficient option for the early-stage startup. Of course, this approach may have disadvantages as well, so let us provide you with the full picture.
We suggest following these steps to hire developers for building your platform:
Startup founders should start with determining the goal of their project. For this, you may ask yourself the following questions:
At this stage, you may need to get in touch with consultants or experienced professionals to seek help with analytics or organizational aspects. Either way, this is a stage when you decide on your goal to be attained.
Once you know the goal of your project and have some ideas about your future team, it’s time to define the objectives. This is important both for you and the candidates as they need to be clear what is required during the app development. At this step, ask yourself these questions:
Let’s say, you’ve decided to develop a food delivery platform. Depending on the chosen business model, you may need a customer-side app, a restaurant-side app, and sometimes a courier’s app. Each of them usually includes an authorization page, dashboard or a list of restaurants with their menus on the client side, and an opportunity to make or accept an order. Which development tasks does your project need to have for your potential employees?
Only after the previous two steps will you make a decision on what type of developers your project needs. Keep your goals and objectives in mind, while putting your team together. To get more clarity, you may ask yourself some of these questions:
If you managed to answer at least some of the questions, we congratulate you on your knowledge of the development process. Yet, it’s okay for an entrepreneur to have no idea about the number of developers you’ll need. That’s why we provide free project consultations — <a class="blog-modal_opener">let’s schedule a meeting</a> and determine the skill sets you need.
While hiring, startup founders have different employment models to explore. You can hire the whole in-house team of full time developers, find freelancers, or get in touch with an outsourced team. All of these approaches are valid and you need to decide what's better for you and your startup.
There are different ways to search for the right developers, depending on the hiring strategy. Although it may seem complex at the first, it boils down to three paths.
No matter which hiring strategy you’ll choose, we recommend organizing a proper interview. At the meeting, you can ask about the team’s or employee’s past experience with similar projects, desktop and mobile app development, check their skills, share ideas, and even come up with new ones.
The team's soft skills are as important as its hard skills. While speaking, you may learn about their approach to work, communication skills, language proficiency, and relationship building abilities, with you as a client. You should also pay attention to their way of solving the problems that may occur in the future.
Try not to rush things and devote some time to discussing the working terms. Describe your expectations to the development team, get their take on it, and find a working model. Make the process as clear as possible to avoid misunderstanding in the future.
Consider setting a trial period to make sure you’re on the same page. Don’t forget to ensure that both parties mutually agree to the payment terms, instead of trying to negotiate the lowest rates possible, consider it as a worthy investment in your app.
When you hire developers, don’t forget to formalize the working specifics, like hourly rates, with a contract. Early stage startups may face difficulties during this step if the founders aren’t experienced in the matter of labor law and contracts. So don’t hesitate to ask experts for help if you aren’t sure. It may seem like an unnecessary expense, but you’ll lose more if something goes wrong further down the road.
Here are the most effective ways to hire developers for your startup:
Search for a trustworthy top list of development companies. Contact a development agency from the list, with a portfolio you find promising. Ask them to provide you with professional employees who’ll help you with project completion. You can choose either an outstaffing or outsourcing model of cooperation. Take remote options into consideration, as such an approach expands the range of talented developers working all over the world.
This way of finding developers is used by many startup owners because you can hire developers who have already successfully worked with each other.
Go to Upwork or any similar platform with specialized job boards and an opportunity to hire freelance developers. There you can post job ads and find programmers for building your app, view their profiles, and discuss working terms in the chat. But be careful: not all of the remote freelancers are consistent and responsible.
Ask others in your field, if they know any worthy development agencies or independent freelancers. Usually it’s better to hire someone after getting honest reviews from past clients about their work. Any information will be useful even negative experiences as it saves your time on filtering out unsuitable candidates.
However, the buzz marketing method works only if your fellow startups and entrepreneurs have some experience with developing mobile or desktop platforms. But you may become a pioneer, and that’s when the next method proves to be useful.
What’s a universal solution to any problem in the 21st century? “Google it!” Just enter your query into the search box and browse development agencies’ sites or some employees’ social-media accounts.
This method of recruitment is time-consuming, but it gives you access to a global talent pool. This way, you can get an impression of the potential candidates’ way of presenting themselves.
If you’re reading this, you know what we’re talking about. When you come across an interesting corporate blog, don’t hesitate to examine the company’s portfolio, frameworks they work with, and their outsourcing options. Even if you don’t need it right now, it’s better to have some useful contacts just in case.
You can also check some online platforms or professional networks like LinkedIn. Most employees and companies have accounts there and tell other users about their projects and accomplishments.
Pay attention not only to potential candidates’ cases, but to the publication dates. The portfolio should be regularly updated to show that the company is in high demand.
There are lots of business events where entrepreneurs and developers interact with each other to share their development experience. You can find both online and offline IT-conferences and networking meetings. If you have a chance, visit one of them and try to find and then hire some good developers with relevant experience.
As a nice bonus, potential candidates who visit these professional events usually care about what they do and know the latest trends of the industry.
Let’s take a quick look at some common problems that startups face while searching for the right developers:
Even though there are more developers available, more and more job posts appear, so they're still in great demand. It may take a lot of time to hire a qualified programmer for your startup because most skilled developers are already employed. The thing is, you need several IT specialists who possess much more than basic tech knowledge. This means, it’s not just a one-time, but a continuous process of searching for suitable tech talents.
Hiring an HR department doesn’t seem like a smart choice for an early-stage startup. So, you have to do the headhunting and interviews by yourself. Recruitment takes your time, energy, and may turn out to be not that effective, as it’s unlikely you're also an HR specialist. That’s why hiring full-time web or mobile app developers for your startup may become quite a challenge.
In contrast to large corporations, early-stage startups with limited budgets can’t afford to sustain a whole in-house development department. Because if they hire in-house employees, they’re obliged to pay not only for the developers’ salaries but also for social security, annual leave, and so on. From this perspective, outsourcing app development to a trusted company seems like a good idea. The prices are more affordable, and you don’t need to worry about any extra costs.
Starting a new business can be tough, especially at the early stages. But we know how to help startupers cope with difficulties on the way and work smarter. We’re a team of 200+ experts with 10+ years of experience who will transform your ideas and solutions into reality without costing too much. Let’s see how we’re going to tackle your problems.
Startups grapple with the challenge of hiring a developer for their projects. Here’s where Purrweb steps in, offering proficient developers. We also pay attention to your niche and do our best to find developers who’re familiar with it. We form a tech team of good developers skilled in particular frameworks according to your project’s needs. So, Purrweb provides multiple options, ensuring that you’ll find the match for your niche and project.
When hiring, we check applicants’ working skills, and ask about previous projects. Before some of the shortlisted candidates join our team, they have to pass advanced tests. This way, we ensure that only good developers will make the cut. So, when startups team up with Purrweb, they avoid the problematic recruitment process, while still working with experienced developers.
You get access to these battle-tested experts who offer top-notch services. As a result, you have a team of professionals who understand startups’ unique challenges and help them succeed in the competitive market.
We understand that startups need to be prudent with their spending. So, we offer a cost-effective solution without compromising on quality. This combination of affordability and expertise makes Purrweb an essential development partner for startups.
Our clients often start with developing an MVP to make sure that their ideas come off and bring in more than they’ve invested. We also save their time on finding a development team working with necessary frameworks and programming languages, so the startupers can spend it on other important tasks.
These are approximate prices for our development services:
You may choose the approach you like the most, since it's your project. However, you can learn from the best practices, so don’t miss the opportunity. Choose a dedicated outsource company to develop an outstanding MVP and grab the investors’ attention.
➡️ To have a chat with us and discover what we offer to our startup clients, <a class="blog-modal_opener">fill in the form</a>.
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