Podcast 77: How to Hire a Great Software Developer and the Story of Long Tail Pro

Last updated: September 3, 2021

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Welcome to another episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast! In today's episode, Perrin and I discuss my last blog post about hiring a great software developer for your bootstrapped business in depth.

If you haven't had a chance to read that blog post yet, I highly recommend that you do so here.

These blog posts are part of a 5 part series that I'm doing on how to bootstrap a software business. You can read part one of the series right here.

Because I've actually been involved in a couple of different software projects, and I highly successful one (Long Tail Pro), I think sharing some of the Long Tail Pro story along the way makes sense as I teach these principles.

In a nutshell, Perrin and I discuss on this episode:

Budget needed to bootstrap a software business
How I hired my first developer for Long Tail Pro for just $2,500
How miscommunication lead to one of the worst dilemmas I've ever dealt with in my business.
How my developer held me hostage with some source code
How I found my next great developer
Strategies to weed out the bad and find the good developers
The importance of discussing deliverables before the project starts
Advantages and disadvantages of having a tech partner
Additional tips for boostrapping

Overall, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast!

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By Spencer Haws

Spencer Haws is the founder of NichePursuits.com. After getting a degree in Business Finance from BYU (2002) and an MBA from ASU (2007) he worked for 8 years in Business Banking and Finance at both Merril Lynch and Wells Fargo Bank.

While consulting with other small business owners as a business banker, Spencer finally had the desire to start his own business. He successfully built a portfolio of niche sites using SEO and online marketing that allowed him to quit his job in 2011. Since then he’s been involved in dozens of online business ventures including: creating and exiting Long Tail Pro, running an Amazon FBA business for over 3 years and selling that business, founding LinkWhisper.com, and co-founding MotionInvest.com. You can learn more about Spencer here.