# Hiring Your First Developers Fixed-price help hiring your first developers, whether freelancers, employees, or an agency: job description, screening, interviews, and reference checks. You make the final call. From €1,800 per role. Source: https://chrishennigfeld.com/build/hiring-first-developers > “Who should build my product and how do I find them?” You need your first developers but can’t judge technical skill yourself. A wrong hire costs you months. ## Who it’s for You’re a good fit if you… - are hiring your first developers or an agency - find plenty of candidates on platforms but can’t tell who’s good - had a hire that didn’t work out and want to get the next one right Probably not a fit if you… - need someone to lead the team: [Hiring Your Tech or Product Leader](https://chrishennigfeld.com/scale/hiring-a-leader) is built for that - have developers who aren’t delivering: start with the [Dev Team & Vendor Health Check](https://chrishennigfeld.com/build/dev-team-health-check) - would rather build the product yourself with AI: I help you [set up your AI tools](https://chrishennigfeld.com/build#ai-for-building) instead ## What you get - A job description posted on the platforms of your choice - Screening and interviews that test how candidates think and decide - Reference checks with past clients or employers - A clear recommendation and advice on terms such as hourly or monthly ## How it works Two to four weeks, from the discovery call to your hiring decision. 1. **Discovery call** (Free): We talk about what you’re building, who you need, and your budget. 2. **Fixed quote** (Within two working days): A fixed price per role and a timeline. 3. **Job description and posting** (First week): I write the job requirements, you add details of your company, and the post goes out on the platforms of your choice. 4. **Screening, interviews, and recommendation** (One to three weeks): I screen applicants and run the first interviews myself, then we do a second round with the shortlist together. You get my recommendation, with reference checks and advice on terms. You make the final call. ## Fixed price Fixed quote after the discovery call. ### Tiers - **Find and screen:** From €1,800 per role, from 2 weeks. From the job description to your decision: posting, screening, interviews, and reference checks. - **Find, screen, and onboard:** From €2,500 per role, from 4 weeks. The same, plus an onboarding plan with goals for the first weeks, set together with your new developer. ## Example Real client work. Outside the case studies, client names are left out for confidentiality. ### Finding a developer you can trust with your payment systems (Monetization platform for content creators, Spain, 2026) Two first-time founders needed a back-end developer for a platform where payments sat at the heart of the system. I wrote the job post, screened dozens of applicants, and interviewed the strongest four, two of whom stood out. The founders and I then had a call with each of them. The deciding factor was deep experience building payment processing in Python, one of the most critical parts of the back-end. He was new to the freelance platform where we found him, so instead of a track record there, I checked his references and got glowing feedback from his past clients. The founders hired him. He turned out to be an excellent developer, responsible and skilled at working with AI coding agents, and one I’d gladly work with again. ## What it isn’t - No contract drafting: I advise on what to agree with your new hires, but the contracts and NDAs themselves come from you. ## Common questions ### Do you find the candidates? Yes, through a job post I write and run on the platforms you choose, such as Upwork or LinkedIn, using your company account. Where it fits, I also tap into my own network. ### What if we don’t find the right person? Sometimes the first round doesn’t bring the right candidate, especially for a very specific role. Then we look at why: the profile, where the role was posted, or the budget. You decide whether to adjust and run a second round, which I quote separately at a reduced fee, or stop there. The fixed price covers one full round. ### Freelancer, agency, or employee? A freelancer gives you flexibility: you can start small, scale up to full time, and keep working together for years. Offshore, it also spares you the HR requirements of employing someone in another country, in exchange for a slightly higher rate. An agency adds continuity: cover for holidays, a replacement when someone leaves, and a wider pool of people to draw on. An employee makes sense once you’re committed and need the knowledge in-house, which enterprise customers and auditors may ask about. ### Full time, hourly, or per milestone? Hourly suits experimental work, where you need to try things out. Per milestone, with written requirements to check against, protects your budget but leaves less room to change course. A monthly or full-time arrangement works well once you trust the person, or have someone like me making sure the work goes in the right direction, so you don’t spend a lot with little to show for it. ### Can you help hire a designer or other roles? Yes, for roles around the product, such as a designer or a QA tester. The process is the same. I’m not a designer myself, so for that role I focus on how the candidate works with you, the developers, and the product. ### Can you help me find an agency instead of individual developers? Yes, if you want an agency to build a defined project at a fixed price. Finding and vetting that agency counts as one role. If an agency only supplies individual developers, each developer is a role, as with freelancers. ## Related packages - [Dev Team & Vendor Health Check](https://chrishennigfeld.com/build/dev-team-health-check)