The number of startups worldwide is virtually uncountable. There are hundreds of millions of them and most successful entrepreneurs own a few at the same time.
At the same time, however, 9 out of 10 startups fail. The market is crowded and new businesses must stick to their unique niche while reaching out to their potential customers on as many channels as possible. That’s why it’s so important to diversify your tech offering across different platforms — web, mobile, desktops.
In our guide below, we closely investigate which software developers a typical startup needs and how can you hire them fast.
The software experts your startup needs
There are tons of different developers to choose from and it’s not always easy to decide which ones your unique business needs. What are the main options, then?
- Web developers
You’ll need to hire web developers for startups to power up your website — they are especially useful if you want your product to be a web app. In such a case, you will most likely need a group of front-end and back-end developers. The first ones are responsible for all the things that your customer sees (implementing a new design, making new features interactive, etc.) while the latter focus on the server-side operations (server management, building data pipelines, etc.).
- Mobile developers
Whoever your customer is, they most likely primarily use mobiles to explore the world of digital. That’s why you also need to establish your presence on phones and tablets. You can either do it by optimizing your web app to mobiles with the help of PWA developers (PWA stands for progressive web app) or build a native app. The latter can be done using two methods. First, you can hire app developers for startups who can build separate iOS and Android versions of the software. In this case, look for iOS (Swift) developers and Android (Kotlin/Java) developers.
But you can also invest in cross-platform development — a method that allows sharing a significant chunk of code between the Android and iOS versions of the app. This speeds up the development process and makes it more cost-effective. If you wish to invest in cross-platform development, look for React Native developers, Flutter developers, or Xamarin developers.
- The data people
A broad category that can include everything from data engineers (who manage your data pipelines so your forecasts are more accurate) to AI developers and machine learning engineers. All these experts, if chosen and utilized correctly, will provide your business the future-proofness you need.
- Software consultants
A software consultant is a must if you have no idea yet which developers you will need or even what technology you will use. If you are a young startup, get in touch with them first, and together create a tech strategy that will guarantee your company true success.
The hard skills to look for when you hire app developers for startups
Of course, as we’ve highlighted above, when you want to find app developers for startups, you are actually looking for a number of people with different specialties. This means that there is no one set of skills that you can apply to all your candidates. However, there are a few categories of skills that you will always need to consider.
- Programming languages
There are a lot of them and many are used only in one specific area of software development. For example, when you want to find app developers for a startup that will focus primarily on mobiles, you might need people experienced in Swift (iOS native development), Kotlin (Android app development), or one of the languages used for cross-platform mobile development (e.g. JavaScript, Dart, C#). On the other hand, if you want to hire web developers for a startup, you will need those experienced in front-end languages (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and those in the back-end languages (PHP, Python, Ruby, and others).
- Frameworks and libraries
These tools can significantly speed up the development process by providing ready-to-use solutions, such as features that could normally take a few days to be built from scratch. Each framework and library is usually used only in a specific area of software development. For example, Symfony is a PHP back-end web development framework, React Native allows to build cross-platform mobile apps with JavaScript, while TensorFlow is one of the most widely used machine learning frameworks.
- Version control tool
This one is actually something each of the developers you hire will need to know. Version control tools allow your devs to track every change in the source code of a project.
- Agile and other methodologies
Most development teams worldwide use some kind of methodology to structure their work and make it more efficient. Agile is the standard, but other major ones are Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps — often all are used at the same time. Make sure you find app developers for startups who have experience with all these methodologies.
There are, of course, other tools and knowledge needed to truly thrive in each developer’s respective role. To set up the right checklist for each of the positions, we once again highly recommend you to get in touch with an experienced software consultant.
Leverage the potential of soft skills
Finding the right app developer for your startup is about more than just the technical skills. Remember also about the soft ones as they can highly impact how all your team cooperates.
Our recommended set of soft skills for developers for startups includes:
- User empathy
To always develop products for users, not other developers.
- Creativity
To bring new, innovative ideas to the table.
- Great time management
To be able to handle all the many tasks that a developer is responsible for.
- Attention to details
To write code that is truly issue-free and reliable.
Finding a software developer who will truly fit your startup
There is one more thing you should consider when you want to hire app developers for startups — how well they match your company. Consider the following three areas of company fit:
- Product fit
Are you developing an e-commerce solution? Or maybe need very specific features, such as bookings? Whatever the case, hire app developers for startups who have previously worked on a similar product to achieve a faster development process.
- Industry fit
Get on board people who already understand your customer and the obstacles on your market. Review the portfolios of your candidates and pick the ones who have already worked within your business niche.
- Company culture fit
The startup work environment requires a much different attitude than the corporate one — proactivity and outside-of-the-box thinking is a must if you want your startup to survive on the market. Because of this, you should hire software developers who already worked in startups, preferably even more than one.
What are your contract options when hiring software developers for a startup?
There are several hiring models you can use when you want to hire app developers for startups. The most typical ones are:
- Short-term contracts
Those are used mainly in two situations. Firstly, you might need a strong team of developers to build a new product or a new feature in a short time. This is especially useful for young startups who are just starting their journey in the business world — they hire app developers for startups who build the initial version of the product, one that will be later maintained and improved by the startups’ smaller group of in-house developers.
Short-term contracts are also used when an in-house developer needs to be replaced for a few months due to sickness, pregnancy, or another unexpected condition.
- Long-term contracts
These are used to hire app developers for startups who will oversee the product over a longer period of time. Most often, this happens during the initial launch of the product (e.g. first year of the product on the market) or when the company wishes to significantly change the strategy for the product (e.g. reach new customers, significantly change the UI, provide full redesign). This is most often done with the help of software consultants who oversee the product on a regular basis and provide hints on how to improve the development process.
- Full hires
These will be the people who will work on your product 9 to 5, five days a week (or whatever else is your standard). Both short-term and long-term contracts can be initially used for such people when you are unsure whether your product will actually be successful and for now you only plan to run a test phase for a year or two. But if you are sure you are in this for real, you need to hire app developers for startups who will know they can call your company their full-time job.
Hire software developers for startups fast
Do you need to find the right experts fast? Or maybe you are unsure whether you should hire app developers for startups as full hires or only for a specific period?
Whatever the case, get in touch with our experts at Ideamotive. We run a network of top IT talents from all across the world and can connect you with people that match all your unique requirements.
Contact us today and find app developers for startups that truly make a difference.
