After burning $250,000 on a development agency, I decided to rebuild with a small offshore team.
It sounded simple.
Lower cost. Direct control. Faster execution.
What I didn't account for was this: I had never hired developers before. And I'm not a developer myself. That combination is dangerous.
Interviewing Without Knowing What to Look For
I lined up a lot of interviews. Front-end. Back-end. Different time zones. Different levels of experience.
I also had an "IT person" helping me. He seemed confident.
He "knew" what he was doing. Except that... He didn't. It was not incompetence, it was overconfidence.
We focused on:
- Technical jargon
- Smart-sounding answers
- CV quality
- Education background
- Years of experience
What we didn't focus on:
- Ownership
- Problem-solving under ambiguity
- Communication clarity
- Red flags in behavior
- Real-world debugging ability
Those matter more.
The First Hires
After a week of interviews, we hired one front-end and one back-end developer.
The FE looked promising. Solid. For me moment tho.
The BE? Depends on the day. That's not what you want to say about your only back-end engineer.
His CV was pretty good. Mid-level experience, proper education, clean résumé, decent English. On paper, he was a safe bet. For a not-very-complex project, he looked perfect.
Except he wasn't.
In plain English. He was really incompetent.
You Cannot Hide in a Small Team
In a three-person company with no other back-end developer, you cannot hide. There's no peer reviewing you. No senior covering for your mistakes.
Even if the founder isn't technical... if there is not backend, there is no frontend.
That's exactly what happened.
The "Expensive" Candidate We Rejected
There was another BE developer candidate. More expensive. More confident. Technically sharper.
But my IT guy said he was overpriced, and that the other once checked all the boxes. Wrong.
Here's something I learned the hard way:
Paying $1 for zero value is more expensive than paying $100 for $1,000 of value.
Cheap talent is not cheap if they don't produce. They are extremely expensive.
The Red Flags We Ignored
It took the back-end developer three weeks to set up his environment.
Three weeks.
He struggled to configure locally, identify API URLs, and navigate basic architecture. At first, I assumed complexity. Then I realized: this wasn't complexity. This was lack of competence.
What was worse? My IT advisor didn't see it as a red flag. Even when I asked directly — "Is this normal?" — the answer was always soft. Vague.
I didn't yet trust my own instincts. I should have.
Firing for the First Time
Just before his three-month mark, I let him go. It was my first time firing someone.
I felt terrible. I worked with him everyday for three months and I knew him.
But deep down, I knew: if it takes three weeks to set up your environment, a full week to create a non-working API, etc. you are not going to build anything.
After the conversation. Relief replaced guilt.
The Real Cost
We lost three months of salary, three months of opportunity, and three months of momentum.
The money hurt. The time hurt more.
In startups, momentum is everything.
What I Learned About Hiring Offshore
1. CVs Are Almost Useless
A clean résumé and solid education mean very little without execution proof. Ask: what have you built? What broke? What did you fix? What did you struggle with?
Ask about details. Details and more details.
2. Communication Over Clever Answers
Watch for clear explanations, honest "I don't know" moments, logical reasoning, and structured thinking. Be careful with overly polished answers, buzzwords, and vague explanations.
Smart-sounding is not the same as capable.
3. Environment Setup Is a Test
If someone struggles to set up locally, understand endpoints, or navigate code — that's not onboarding friction. That's signal.
4. Advisors Can Be Wrong
Just because someone works in IT doesn't mean they can evaluate talent. If you're the founder, you are responsible. Not your advisor. Not your recruiter. Not your contractor. You.
5. Instinct Is Data
When something feels off, investigate it. Don't silence it because someone more technical sounds confident. Patterns of confusion, delay, or inconsistency are not random. They're information.
The Pivot
After firing him, we had to start over. Another hiring cycle. Another set of interviews. More delays.
However, this round was quite interesting. I came across with something unexpected.
The least expensive candidate, the most junior, a sales background, and an unfinished degree, turned out to be the best hire I've made.
But that story deserves its own article.
In interviews, trust your gut. You cannot get to know a person in 45 min or by reading about them.
Listen to your team. But, you make the calls.
Act quickly. Don't wait for a mountain of evidences.