How I Hire Engineers for My Early Stage Startup - LinkedIn vs. Upwork
November 05, 2025
Early-stage startups need
face-to-face collaboration. Yet, I'd like to hire remotely
for cost savings. Can I have BOTH?
My solution: hire
internationally and fly periodically to co-work in person.
Details in my previous post.
In this post I describe
how to find, screen and hire remote talent quickly. Here's
what actually works.
The LinkedIn Problem
I Posted a "Full Stack Developer" role →
1,000 applications in 24 hours.
Sounds great until
you realize:
- 1,000 resumes to screen (no time as
solo founder)
- Schedule interviews with promising
candidates
- Co-working sessions (standard for
early-stage)
- Negotiate salary, equity, benefits
-
Repeat for each role
- Time cost: weeks. I stopped after
two attempts.
The Upwork Solution
I switched to Upwork (not affiliated, just sharing
what works). Here's my actual process:
1. Hire Freelancers Directly, Not Agencies
Why no agencies for early-stage?
-
Pre-PMF, I don't have a spec. I'm iterating MVP
prototypes rapidly—build, test, discard, rebuild. The spec
emerges through iteration.
- Agencies need specs upfront
-
Quality drops when agencies swap devs without telling you
(happened multiple times)
- No agency overhead
- I
interview the actual developer, not a manager
-
Contract-to-hire path for growing headcount
Exception:
If you have a well-defined project scope and aren't growing
staff, agencies can work fine.
2. My Screening Process
- Post job with a clear description + skill tags
(no paid promotion initially)
- Shortlist: Top 10%+ badge
AND in a location I can visit (safe, accessible)
- Filter
out hidden agencies:
- Check profiles for "team" mentions
- Skip freelancers with $500K+ earned or 100+ jobs (likely
agencies)
- Read feedback between the lines (I've been pressured to
change <5 star reviews to 5 stars)
- Paid trial task (up
to 8 hours)
- Zoom interview with video ON (watch for
interview proxy services)
3. Key Questions I Ask
- Explain your project
- Look for genuine
signals the dev feels your project is not difficult - confirm
the reasons are right
- Are you OK with me visiting to work
face-to-face periodically?
- Do you use Claude Code or
similar AI tools? (Required for my projects)
-
Communication test: Can we understand each other easily?
4. Trial Task
"I'm hiring you for a paid trial (up to 8
hours). You must do this yourself. If you don't pass,
that's fine—5 stars and we may work together on another
project. If you pass, expect regular Zoom video calls."
This
discourages interview proxies.
Cost Optimization
Use basic Upwork membership (5% fee). Premium (10%
fee) shows top 1% badge, but I don't see meaningful
difference vs. top 10%.
Cost comparison
- SF Bay Area founding engineer: ~$183K total
comp
- International senior engineer: $40-80K (via
Upwork)
Result: 2-4x headcount for same budget