Episode 850 | How Not to Screw Up When Hiring Your first Developer and More Listener Questions (with Derrick Reimer)
Startups For the Rest of UsShow Notes
How do you onboard a hire onto a codebase you built alone?
In this episode, Derrick Reimer joins Rob to tackle four listener questions. They cover hiring and onboarding your first developer as a bootstrapped founder, then move into the temptation to build features just because AI makes them cheap to ship, getting past social anxiety as a founder, and whether it's worth trademarking your product name.
Topics we cover:
(3:59) – How do you hire your first developer?
(5:14) – Qualities to look for in a first developer hire
(13:37) – Onboarding a new hire into your codebase with AI
(16:49) – Reducing hiring risk: pairing, reliability, recruiters
(22:50) – The temptation to build features just because AI makes it cheap
(30:43) – Getting over social anxiety as a founder
(35:25) – Is trademarking your product name worth it?
Links from the show:
TinySummit | December 5–7, 2026 · JW Marriott, Cancun
MicroConf US | April 18–20, 2027 · Austin, TX
Partnerships: [email protected]
Idea to Traction: Stop Building SaaS Nobody Wants (book wait list)
Rob Walling Newsletter
Remote First Recruiting
SavvyCal
Derrick Reimer | LinkedIn
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We'd love to hear from you!
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