Making Your First Engineering Hire
Get your first engineering hire right—or bridge the gap until you find the perfect full-time candidate.
Common Challenges
If any of these sound familiar, we can help:
- ✗No technical co-founder to evaluate candidates
- ✗Don't know what to look for in first hire
- ✗Need to ship product while searching
- ✗Equity negotiations with first engineer
Our Approach
Fractional CTO to help hire, plus founding engineers to ship while you search.
What You Get
- Founding engineers who ship like your first 5 hires
- Fractional CTO leadership for strategic direction
- Direct Slack access—no account managers
- Outcome ownership from day one
- Knowledge transfer to your internal team
Services for First Engineer Hire
We offer flexible engagement models to match your needs.
Proof Behind the Promise
Rupa Health
$100K→$5M ARRFractional CTO from Seed to Series A, scaling ARR from $100K to $5M.
Read case study →
Dromo
0→1 to ScaleFounding engineer from 0→1 to enterprise-scale data platform.
Read case study →
OddsJam
AcquiredTechnical due diligence that unlocked acquisition by Gambling.com.
Read case study →“Aravind is in the top 1% of engineers I've hired. He supported us from $100K to $5M ARR, keeping us shipping through crazy growth and investor scrutiny.”
First Engineer Hire FAQs
How does HyperNest help with first engineer hire?
Fractional CTO to help hire, plus founding engineers to ship while you search. We bring hands-on experience from helping companies like Rupa Health, OddsJam, and Dromo navigate similar challenges.
What's the typical timeline for first engineer hire?
Timeline varies based on scope, but most first engineer hire engagements see meaningful progress within 4-8 weeks. We start shipping value from week one while building toward larger goals.
Do I need a fractional CTO or founding engineers for first engineer hire?
It depends on your needs. Fractional CTOs provide strategic direction and leadership, while founding engineers provide hands-on execution. Many clients start with a fractional CTO to set direction, then add engineers as needed.
How quickly can you start on a first engineer hire project?
We can typically begin within 1-2 weeks of signing. We start with a technical discovery session to understand your specific situation before diving in.
What makes HyperNest different for first engineer hire?
Unlike agencies or freelancers, we embed as founding team members with outcome ownership. We've navigated first engineer hire at companies that successfully raised and exited, so we bring pattern recognition you won't find elsewhere.
Other Solutions
MVP Development
Ship your minimum viable product in weeks, not months, with production-grade cod...
Technical Due Diligence
Prepare your codebase and engineering org for investor or acquirer technical rev...
Scale Engineering Team
Grow from 3 to 30 engineers without losing velocity or culture....
AI Integration
Ship production AI features—copilots, agents, and RAG systems—without the resear...
CTO Replacement
Bridge the gap when your CTO leaves or you're between technical leaders....
Security & Compliance
Achieve SOC 2, HIPAA, or PCI compliance with security-first engineering....
Legacy Modernization
Migrate from monoliths to modern architecture without stopping the business....
Platform Reliability
Stop firefighting and build observable, reliable, performant systems....
Hire Founding Engineers
Add senior engineers who ship like your first 5 hires—with outcome ownership, no...
Technical Co-founder Replacement
Fill the technical co-founder gap without giving up equity or waiting months to ...
Mobile App Development
Ship production iOS and mobile apps from scratch—privacy-first, offline-capable,...
AI Product Development
Build AI-first products—from document parsing to automated workflows—with produc...
VAPT & Penetration Testing
Comprehensive vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to secure your pl...
Post-Cyberattack Recovery
Recover from security breaches and rebuild your platform with bulletproof securi...
Ready to tackle first engineer hire?
Let's discuss your specific challenges and how we can help.