Who do you hire first after launch?
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Building mostly solo so far and I'm starting to hit the point where I can't do everything. Support, small bug fixes, and posting about the product all eat into actual building time. My gut says get help with support first since that's the most repetitive, but I worry I'd lose touch with what users are actually struggling with. A part time developer feels like the obvious move too, but then I'd be managing instead of building. For those who went through this, what was your first hire or contractor and would you pick the same again?
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I’d probably start with support if it’s taking up a predictable amount of every day. Getting those repetitive tasks off my plate would give me more uninterrupted time to build
the concern about losing user context is real. I’d keep a direct channel with customers even after delegating support so I can still see recurring problems firsthand.
For me, the first hire would depend on what is actually limiting growth. If engineering work is piling up, another developer makes sense, but if support is eating the whole day, that might be the easier win.
Small bugs can be surprisingly expensive when they constantly interrupt deeper work. I’d probably document the common fixes and hand those over first rather than immediately delegating the more complex enginerring work
I'd keep support and hand off the bug fixes first. Support is where you hear what's broken in people's own words, and that's the hardest thing to get back once someone else filters it for you.
After hundreds tech interviews, my advice for a part timer is to skip most of the interview and pay for one real bug from your backlog. You see how they read code they didn't write, and for this job that matters more than anything a whiteboard shows