How do you find 10x Engineers?
I am trying to hire engineers for my startup. I am a semi-technical solo founder who understands technical capabilities and limitations but just doesn't want to code.
I have hired 2 engineers recently but now I feel like they are mediocre. Although I took help of a senior engineer to screen and interview the candidates.
Is there a guide, or playbook to hire 10x engineers for startup founders? How would I find them? What criteria to look for? Is it incentive problem?
Especially with AI IDEs like Cursor and Replit getting popular for influx in productivity, I'm confident we should be able to prototype and launch at speed.
But I don't feel confident with my current hires. Also, is there any service that takes interviews and screens candidates for their technical abilities?
11 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 36.6 ms ] threadThat said, here's one potential approach:
- ask your engineers who they are learning their skills from (YouTube / blog posts / universities / online courses / etc)
- go and ask those people who they would recommend in the specific area you are working on (consulting fees for an hour chat are a normal part in this world)
- if a few names come up, those will be your 10x engineers
Then talked with this startup, %99 job match with same experience they want. After a call, he mailed me that I'll be interviewed by two different guys two times, that'll take 2 hours.
Now probably I'll switch to corporate, interviews were much easier with the similar pay.
If this exists and everyone can easily use it, will they still be 10x? It'd be a commodity, no?
> But I don't feel confident with my current hires.
Side note: not sure if you'd really want to openly post this about existing employees?
if you are looking for 10x engineers, why you would wanting to code be a relevant factor? you have to be be able to see these people as much smarter than you, rather than think you could do it if you wanted. smart engineers don't mind working for super smart people, but they don't like people who overestimate themselves.