How to build and run a developer-first software agency

I'm a full-stack developer with 10+ years of experience and I really love my craft. I've always dreamt of building my own team so we can deliver cool products together. I've missed lots of B2B opportunities which I could've handled if I wasn't alone. Experience showed me that most of the agencies I worked with in the past are negligent by delivering smelly, unscalable code, and this drives me nuts. I have built for myself all the necessary boilerplates, flows, scripts, etc, with respect to latest tech, patterns and DX, giving me a pretty good boost while enforcing best standards.

I know how to build good software in a timely manner, but I need more people. How can I start without having a steady stream of projects to begin with? I plan to work just with freelance full-stack seniors, even part-time.

If you were to think like a growth hacker, where can I find such people?

If you were to consider joining such team, what would make you happy?

The values I want to cultivate are: developer-first, remote culture, async communication, frictionless experience, available resources to do your job without wasting energy on non-functional things, from infrastructure, to product specs and documentation.

Work when you can, have pros around when you need them, respect the client, deliver, get paid, don't block others, repeat. If stuff hits the fan, then protect the team, push back on the client, take losses if I have to.