How to Hire a Developer: A Guide from Someone Who's Actually Done It

I've hired dozens of developers across five SaaS exits and multiple active products. I've been scammed by guys who claimed to know React but couldn't center a div. I've paid $150/hour for someone who ghosted mid-project. And I've found absolute rockstars on Upwork for $40/hour who shipped features faster than my last in-house team.

Here's what I've learned about hiring developers without wasting six months and $50,000 finding out someone can't actually code.

Where to Actually Find Developers

Most founders start on Upwork or Fiverr and complain about quality. The platforms aren't the problem-your filtering process is.

I still use Upwork for 80% of my developer hires. The key is knowing how to spot the real talent buried under 200 applications from people who clearly didn't read your job post.

Job Boards That Actually Work

Upwork and Toptal are my go-to platforms. Upwork gives you volume-you'll get 50-100 applications in 24 hours if you write a decent post. Toptal pre-vets developers so you're paying more ($100-200/hour) but the quality floor is higher.

For senior roles or specialized skills, I've had luck with Gun.io and Turing. Both focus on remote developers and do technical screening before you ever see a profile.

If you're hiring locally or want someone full-time W-2, AngelList Talent (now Wellfound) works well for startups. You'll get developers who specifically want to work at early-stage companies.

The Referral Strategy That Actually Scales

Once you find one good developer, ask them to refer others. I pay a $2,000 referral bonus for any developer who stays past 90 days. Your best developer knows other good developers, and they're not all on job boards actively looking.

I also keep a running list of developers from projects that didn't work out timing-wise. Someone might be booked for three months, but I'll follow up when I have new projects. Building a bench of 5-10 developers you trust means you're never starting from zero.

How to Write a Job Post That Filters Out Garbage

Most job posts are terrible. They list 47 required skills and say nothing about what you're actually building or why anyone should care.

Here's the structure I use:

Paragraph 1: What you're building and why it matters. Two sentences max.

Paragraph 2: The specific project or feature you're hiring for. Not "we need a full-stack developer"-try "we need someone to build a Stripe integration and migrate 10,000 customer payment methods."

Paragraph 3: The tech stack. Be specific. React? Which version? Are you using TypeScript? What's your backend-Node, Python, Ruby?

Paragraph 4: Include a filter question they must answer in their proposal. I use: "What's the most complex API integration you've built, and what made it difficult?" This immediately eliminates 70% of copy-paste applications.

I also list my budget range upfront. If you can only afford $30/hour, say that. You'll get fewer applications but they'll all be relevant. Wasting time interviewing someone who wants $120/hour when you have a $3,000 budget is pointless.

The Technical Screening Process

Never hire a developer without seeing them code. I don't care if they worked at Google. I've seen resumes that claimed 10 years of React experience who couldn't explain the difference between state and props.

Step 1: The Code Sample Review

Ask for a GitHub profile or code samples from previous projects. I'm looking for:

• Clean, readable code with consistent formatting
• Meaningful commit messages that show their thought process
• Projects they've actually completed, not just half-finished tutorials

If someone says "I can't share code because of NDAs," that's fine-but they need to complete a paid test project before you move forward.

Step 2: The Paid Test Project

I pay $100-300 for a small test project that should take 2-4 hours. Something real from your product backlog, not a coding puzzle.

For a React developer, I might say: "Build a responsive dashboard component that fetches data from this API endpoint and displays it in a table with sorting and filtering."

You're evaluating:

• Do they ask clarifying questions or just start coding?
• Do they deliver on time?
• Is the code clean and maintainable, or a hacked-together mess?
• Does it actually work, or do you get 12 console errors?

The developers who complain about doing a paid test project are usually the ones who can't code. Good developers understand you need to verify skills and appreciate being paid for their time.

Step 3: The Technical Interview

I keep this short-30 minutes max. I'm not doing whiteboard algorithms or asking them to invert a binary tree. That's garbage.

I ask about their test project: "Walk me through how you structured this component and why you made those choices." If they can explain their decisions clearly, they understand what they're doing.

Then I ask about edge cases: "What happens if the API returns an error? What if the user is on a slow connection?" Good developers think about these things. Bad ones didn't consider them at all.

Red Flags That Mean Walk Away

Some warning signs I've learned to catch early:

They can't give you a clear timeline. "It depends" is fine for complex projects, but if someone can't estimate a basic feature within even a wide range, they don't know what they're doing.

They promise everything. If you ask "Can you do X?" and they always say yes without any follow-up questions, they're overselling. Good developers ask about requirements and sometimes say "I haven't done that before, but I can figure it out."

They disappear for days without communication. I don't need hourly updates, but if someone goes dark for 72 hours with no heads-up, that's a pattern that won't improve.

They blame everything on the previous developer. Yes, sometimes you inherit terrible code. But if someone spends your entire first call trashing the last person's work instead of proposing solutions, they're going to be difficult to work with.

Onboarding That Doesn't Waste Two Weeks

Most founders hand a new developer a GitHub login and say "figure it out." Then they're confused why nothing ships for three weeks.

I spend 2-3 hours upfront doing proper onboarding, and it saves 20 hours of confusion later.

The Onboarding Checklist

I send this before their first day:

• Access to all tools: GitHub, Slack, project management (I use Monday for most projects), staging environment
• A Loom video walking through the codebase structure-where things are, how it's organized, any weird quirks
• Documentation links for any internal tools or custom frameworks
• Their first 3 tasks, clearly defined with acceptance criteria

On day one, I do a 30-minute video call to answer questions and make sure they can run the project locally. Then I let them work.

I check in at the end of day two to see progress on task one. This catches any major misunderstandings early before they spend a week building the wrong thing.

How to Structure Payment and Contracts

I use hourly for the first month, then switch to fixed-price milestones once we've proven we work well together.

Hourly for the first 40-80 hours protects both of you. You're not locked into a $15,000 fixed contract with someone who might flake, and they're not stuck doing endless revisions without getting paid.

After that first month, I'll switch to milestone-based pricing: "$3,000 to build the user authentication system with these 8 specific features." It's clearer for both sides and incentivizes efficiency.

I always use contracts. For freelancers, I have a simple 2-page agreement that covers: scope of work, payment terms, who owns the code (you do), and confidentiality. I pay a lawyer $500 once to create a template, and I reuse it for every project.

For payments, I use Upwork's escrow for new relationships and switch to direct payment via Gusto or Wise once we've worked together for a few months.

Managing Developers Without Micromanaging

I'm not technical enough to review every line of code, and neither are most founders. You need a system that gives you visibility without breathing down their neck.

I ask for daily Slack updates: what they worked on, what they're tackling tomorrow, and any blockers. Takes them two minutes to write, takes me 30 seconds to read. If someone goes off in the wrong direction, I catch it in 24 hours instead of two weeks.

For feature delivery, I want to see working code in a staging environment. No "it works on my machine" excuses. If I can't test it in a browser, it's not done.

I also do weekly 15-minute syncs. Not to check up on them, but to answer questions and reprioritize if needed. Projects change, and a quick call prevents someone from spending a week building something you no longer need.

Building a Long-Term Development Team

Once you find a good developer, do everything you can to keep them. Raise their rate before they ask. Give them interesting problems to solve, not just bug fixes. Refer them other clients if you don't have enough work to keep them busy full-time.

I've worked with the same core group of 3-4 developers for years now. They know how I work, they know my products, and they can ship features in a quarter of the time it would take someone new.

When I'm building out a feature that requires multiple developers or design work, I'll often bring in help to coordinate the project. I cover the framework for managing technical teams inside my coaching program.

What to Do When You Hire the Wrong Person

It happens. You'll hire someone who seemed great and then delivers garbage or disappears.

Cut them loose fast. Don't spend three weeks hoping it gets better. If someone misses two deadlines in a row with poor communication, end the contract.

Be professional: "This isn't working out. I'm going to pay you for everything completed so far, and we'll part ways." Don't ghost them, don't drag it out.

Then go back to your pipeline and hire the next person. If you're interviewing consistently and keeping a bench, a bad hire sets you back two weeks instead of two months.

The Resources That Help You Scale

If you're hiring developers to help with sales operations, lead generation, or building internal tools for your agency, grab my 7-Figure Agency Blueprint-it covers how to structure your team as you scale from solo founder to a full operation.

For founders who are conducting discovery calls with potential clients and want to tighten up that process while you're building out your technical team, the Discovery Call Framework will help you close more deals with the time you have.

Hiring developers is one of those skills that feels impossible the first time and obvious after you've done it ten times. Start with small projects, pay for test work, and trust your gut when someone feels off. You'll build a reliable team faster than you think.