Most startups lose 3-6 months and tens of thousands of dollars on their first engineering hire. Here's why:

Mistake 1: Hiring for pedigree instead of output

A FAANG resume doesn't mean someone can build in a scrappy, ambiguous environment. The best early-stage engineers are builders — people who've shipped products with limited resources. Look for GitHub commits and side projects, not brand names.

Mistake 2: No structured hiring process

"Just vibes" interviewing is how you end up with someone who interviews well but can't deliver. At minimum you need: a 30-min culture screen, a take-home project (paid), and a systems design walkthrough. Skip the whiteboard LeetCode — it tells you nothing about real-world ability.

Mistake 3: Moving too slow

The best candidates are off the market in 10 days. If your hiring loop takes 4 weeks, you're only seeing the leftovers. Compress your process to under 2 weeks from first contact to offer.

We built Altaria Enterprises to solve exactly this — we source vetted tech talent for startups so you can skip the guesswork and hire faster.

If you're actively hiring engineers, designers, or product people, check out our Tech Talent Pipeline.