
Ask HN: Finding a CTO after your MVP? - atwi
Once you&#x27;ve released your MVP and validated user interest, what are the best approaches to finding a CTO&#x2F;technical cofounder to lead development beyond the MVP?
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gamechangr
This may not be helpful, but using your network is the way that most do it.
The best fits usually are recommendations from friends.

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KingOfCoders
I agree. Which makes me mad that head hunters get $20k+ for a placement and
companies here in Germany pay $1k if an employee recommends a friend.

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boring_twenties
Yeah that's why you make friends with a recruiter who works with your own
company.

They'll happily give you $5-15k of their cut, and you get to hire your friend.

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KingOfCoders
Nice hack.

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KingOfCoders
As a CTO coach I'd say get a very promising senior developer and coach him ;-)

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atwi
How would you approach hiring that senior developer? I am well connected for
fundraising but we are still early stage enough that optimally we wouldn't be
using a significant amount of money to hire lead developers.

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KingOfCoders
Have you worked with one before? It's best to hire someone you've worked with
in the past. If you don't have work experience it gets more difficult.

Before Corona I told people to go where developers are e.g. meetups and
conferences and listen to speakers, talk to them and then hire one of them.
Now it's a little bit more difficult.

When conferences start again (probably too late for you), go to meetups and
conferences with a tshirt that says "Looking for a CTO, I'll hand you $10 if
you have an interesting CV".

Create a coding contest, interview the top five, hire the best.

Look at your potential competitors or customers on Linkedin and hire on of
their senior developers.

But I admit it's currently harder to meet developers.

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atwi
Thanks. I'm wondering specifically in terms of compensation. The reason we are
looking for a technical cofounder over hiring developers directly is to have
someone who is a co-owner of the business, aligning their interests with ours
and allowing us to budget funding for employees and marketing.

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KingOfCoders
I would think there is little difference, you already want entrepreneurial
developers in an early phase startup (later on when you need to hire dozens of
developers at a time, there won't be enough entrepreneurial ones).

I'd wait until after an larger Angel/VC round, and not get a technical co
founder before funding. After funding it's easier to get a better technical co
founder for less equity.

