How to Hire a Software Contractor as a Non-Technical Founder
A practical guide to vetting, hiring, and managing software contractors when you don't have a technical background. Avoid the expensive mistakes.
Most non-technical founders get burned by their first contractor. Not because they picked a bad one. Because they didn't know what to look for.
I've seen this pattern dozens of times. Founder finds someone on Upwork or through a referral. The person seems competent. They start building. Three months later the founder has a half-finished app, no documentation, and a contractor who's gone quiet.
This guide is what I wish someone had given those founders before they started.
The Hiring Process That Actually Works
Skip the job boards. Skip the "post and pray" approach. Instead, follow a structured process that filters out the wrong people early.
Contractor Hiring Pipeline
The paid test project is the most important step. It tells you more in one week than three interviews ever will.
What to Look For (and What to Ignore)
Ignore years of experience. Ignore fancy tech stacks. Ignore how many followers they have on Twitter.
Instead, focus on three things:
- Communication speed. Do they respond within a day? If they're slow before you pay them, imagine after.
- Questions asked. Good contractors ask clarifying questions. Bad ones say "no problem" to everything.
- Finished projects. Not side projects. Not tutorials. Real things that shipped and that real people use.
- They promise a timeline before understanding the scope
- They can't show you code from a previous project
- They want to use a tech stack you've never heard of "because it's better"
- They don't ask about your users or business goals
- They disappear for more than 48 hours without warning
The Test Project
Don't ask them to build a feature for your product. That creates arguments about IP later.
Instead, give them a small standalone project that tests the same skills they'd need for your work. Pay them for it. $500-1,000 is cheap compared to the $20K+ you'll waste on the wrong person.
What the test project reveals:
- Code quality. Is it readable? Does it have tests?
- Communication. Did they ask questions? Update you on progress?
- Time management. Did they hit the deadline? If not, did they warn you early?
- Problem solving. When they hit a blocker, did they figure it out or just stop?
Keep it to 1-2 weeks max. Define clear deliverables upfront. Tell them you're evaluating multiple candidates. This isn't deceptive. It's honest, and it motivates them to do their best work.
Setting Up the Contract
Fixed-price contracts work better than hourly for non-technical founders. Here's why: with hourly billing, you can't tell if 40 hours of work was productive or if they were spinning their wheels.
Fixed-price forces the contractor to estimate upfront. If they're wrong, they eat the cost, not you. Good contractors are fine with this because they're accurate estimators.
Your contract should include:
- Milestone-based payments. Never pay 100% upfront. Structure it as 25% start, 50% at midpoint milestone, 25% on delivery.
- Source code ownership. You own everything they write. This must be explicit.
- Communication expectations. Weekly updates at minimum. Daily standups if the project is critical.
- Termination clause. Either side can walk away with 2 weeks notice. You pay for completed milestones.
Managing Without Technical Knowledge
You don't need to understand the code. You need to understand the output.
Ask these questions weekly:
- "What did you ship this week?" Not what they worked on. What's done and deployable.
- "What's blocking you?" If the answer is always "nothing," they're either lying or not working hard enough.
- "Show me." A weekly demo takes 15 minutes and tells you more than any status report.
If you're three weeks in and can't see any working software, something is wrong. Good contractors ship incrementally. If they say "it'll all come together at the end," start looking for a replacement.
The Cost Reality
Good contractors aren't cheap. In Australia, expect $150-250/hr for senior developers. In the US, $100-200/hr. Offshore rates ($30-60/hr) sound appealing until you factor in the communication overhead and rework.
The math usually works out like this: a $150/hr contractor who ships in 3 months costs less than a $50/hr contractor who takes 9 months and delivers something you need to rebuild.
When a Contractor Isn't Enough
Contractors are great for defined scope. Build this feature. Fix this bug. Set up this infrastructure.
They're not great for ongoing strategic decisions. If you need someone to decide what to build, not just how to build it, you need a technical co-founder or a fractional CTO.
The signs you've outgrown contractors:
- You're managing 3+ contractors and spending all your time coordinating
- Technical decisions are being made by people who don't understand your business
- You're shipping features but your architecture is a mess
- Investors are asking about your technical leadership and you don't have a good answer
That's a different problem with a different solution. But getting the contractor hiring right is still step one.