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Comment by technoir | Hacker News Reader

Surprised this guy didn't write an article on how to sell his position to developers. In spite of claiming to understand the current labor market for development talent, it appears he's still got it backwards.

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Totally agreed. It seems he made some interesting choices about how to setup a startup for success before bringing on a technical co-founder, and as a technical co-founder I would be interested to hear 1) what he did and 2) what he thinks would be useful in convincing someone like me to come join him

I certainly tried to find a CTO before building a product - it's nearly impossible these days if you don't have funding, especially if you're founding your first startup.

So, I raised a small FAF round and outsourced my MVP to two awesome dev shops. Now I'm raising a second round of funding and can afford to bring on someone full-time. It's definitely not ideal, but it was the only way I could do it. I'm hoping the idea, the flexibility of the job, and the above average equity piece are intriguing to a potential CTO. Would be interested to hear suggestions on how to make this more attractive?

I can't really write that one yet, since I haven't been successful - I may be doing it all wrong. As to your second point, I understand developers are in the drivers seat. I was just trying to point out a few good ways to market yourself to a non-technical founder, since that's what I am and that's what I can speak to. I wasn't saying that you NEED to do this to get a job - you don't. Just saying that if you wanted to get the attention of a startup, this could be a good way to do it.

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