The best way to build team when you have a low-budget start up
Think HYBRID when you build your hiring strategies for start-up
Introduction
I will first introduce myself so that you understand the position I am in. If you are in my situation — this article will give you value.
I am a co-founder, CTO, in a technology start-up. We just started and we do not have much budget.
If I do all the technology work it will never end and we will launch the product in many years.
This means I need more working hands (programming hands).
Should I bring in more co-founders?
Should I bring in a permanent employee? Or even use a freelancer from Fiverr?
I’ve been considering options for some time whether to bring in a permanent employee or a temporary freelancer.
From my past experience , no matter if it was automation, software and even website designs, when I brought in a freelancer on a topic I did not understand anything about — all times it ended up that everything the freelancer did went to waste, or was restored for a long time. Because there was always a need for maintenance and improvements and it was not possible to work with what he gave.
And from the other side: It seems that all companies do bring in local workers (after all, where do all locals work 🤔), but if I deep dive into that, almost all the start-ups I knew in the last two years actually did work with freelancers from abroad before raising at least 1M$.
To bring in a local permanent employee who will make a job without us understanding anything about it:
1. Produces dependence on him.
2. We have no way of tracking if he is doing something high quality, and if the time frames make sense.
3. Quite expensive in the software world
Which leads us to a way of thinking that I want to present to you:
Hybrid Ways
First hybrid way is to Hire a permanent low-cost country resident worker to be with us, but the disadvantages of dependence and uncertainty still exist. Not good enough.
Second hybrid way — The best way in my opinion
Bring in a temporary freelancer / low-cost country resident worker, but when we understand the field in which he operates.
That way we can measure what he does, and most importantly direct him to the standards we set and stay with us along the way. This way we can continue from where he left off. The employee is temporary, but will do it “my-company-oriented”.
For example, If we look at basic mobile app, instead of spending four to five months studying and building the demo app — I will only spend one month learning the field, and THEN it can be cheaply done for someone.
If we take for example Image Processing field, which I know deeply, it is possible to bring someone to help there — by the standards I will set for him, and save a lot of my time relatively cheap.
What do you think? PLEASE FEEL FREE to respond and say your opinion.
