Do you light up when you talk about product design or customer pain points—but your eyes glaze over when someone starts holding forth about Kubernetes or JavaScript frameworks? Are you worried about finding the right technical lead to build your product, when your last programming experience was printing “hello world” in high school?

If this question is on your mind, you’re probably in one of these situations:

• You’re at the idea stage and need a functioning MVP.

• You’ve got version 1.0 and a bit of capital, and you’re ready to scale up to real customers.

• You have customers and traction. Now you need someone to build a long-term tech strategy and hire a team to execute it.

Either way, the challenge is the same. You’re going to have to get very good, very fast, at hiring people who speak a completely different language. Here are some ideas for sourcing strong candidates, asking smart questions, and making the best decision for your company.

Step 1: Fish in the Right Talent Pool

For a CTO or lead developer, coding ability is absolutely necessary. How can you figure out whether someone has the technical skills you need?

You’ll need to do some initial research to pin down the languages, platforms, and tools your potential hire has to know. Understand the tech behind a few other apps or products that address your problem, then consider what you’d do differently. If all of the most elegant solutions that you know of are written in Python, you may want to hire a Python expert, or you might decide to dig deeper and see if there are better ways to build your product.

Once you’re clear on your needs, make sure you’re looking for candidates in the right places. Unless you have the budget and bandwidth to work with a recruiter, you’ll start with the obvious options:

• Your own network. You’d be surprised who you might meet through old coworkers, alumni networks, and family members.

• LinkedIn. Search for titles like “CTO,” “Software Architect,” or “Founding Engineer,” and make sure their use the same technologies you do. Reach out with a concise, compelling intro.

• Startup job boards. Sites like Wellfound and BuiltIn (choose your city) cater to tech folks who are eager to work with early-stage companies.

With a bit more time and effort, you can also meet great candidates in more creative ways:

• Search GitHub for open-source contributors using your tech stack. Find projects that are well-reviewed and active. Message the coders working on these projects (without being spammy).

• Host a hackathon around a pain point in your industry. You’ll mostly meet junior devs, but you’ll expand your network and might end up finding some talented, enthusiastic people.

• Join tech communities. Subreddits, Discords, Slack groups, or niche conferences can be great places to make contacts in the tech world. Find a way to join the conversation by asking insightful questions, commenting on industry news, or offering business advice when it’s requested.

Contact potential candidates in a way that respects their time and shows “what’s in it for them.” Here’s where your market experience, communication skills, and EQ will pay off. In an inbox full of copy-pasted come-ons and AI slop, a well-crafted and personalized message will stand out.

Step 2: Ask Questions That Show You’ve Done Your Homework

Even if you don’t give coding interviews every day (or at all), it’s worth asking potential CTOs and lead developers to describe a solution on the spot and walk you through how it would work. The ability to explain an algorithm or network to a non-technical audience is a critical skill.

Listen for what’s not said as well as what’s said. Do they focus only on the tech, with no business context – or are they able to help you sell benefits as well as features? Your ideal candidate should be able to answer questions like these clearly and fully:

• Why are you recommending a particular framework? How does it compare to other frameworks?

• What are the tradeoffs between using [any popular off-the-shelf tool in your industry] vs. building a custom solution?

• What changes in the tech landscape could affect our product next year? How should we respond to these changes?

• Where would we risk creating tech debt if we launched tomorrow? How would you prevent this, or fix it later once we have funding to do so?

• What technologies are overhyped, that our company can safely avoid?

• What are we doing now that won’t scale in the future, and how will you help us fix this?

• What potential vulnerabilities in our solution or systems would you prioritize fixing?

• What’s a technology that isn’t directly related to our app, but has interesting implications for us? Are there ways we can apply this technology, or ideas based on it?

Running a business also involves telling stories to investors, customers, and employees. Consider asking candidates to tell you, in technical detail, how they solved a wicked problem or what they learned from a failed project.

A candidate’s responses can show intelligence, curiosity, a proactive mindset, and a gift for collaboration. Or you might see red flags like defensiveness (“it was someone else’s fault we never shipped on time”) or lack of reflection (“I’ve never really had that issue,” with no further explanation why). As with any potential hire, watch out for someone who bad-mouths a former employer or discloses confidential information.

Finally, don’t forget to ask the non-technical questions, too. How does your potential CTO hire and manage? How do they resolve team conflict? What best practices do they follow to balance moving fast with building something stable?

The Bottom Line

Your first tech hire can make or break your company. Still, hiring technical talent as a non-technical founder doesn’t have to be a stressful experience – and doesn’t require you to get into the details of programming. Research the IT strategies and get a sense of the tools your company will use, then approach people who are working with these tools and who you want to get to know better.

Most importantly, ask detailed questions and don’t worry about looking clueless in front of a candidate – your role is to lead, not to code. A good hire will be able to explain their work accurately, in a way different audiences can understand.

Want help thinking through your next hire?

If you’re ready to draft a CTO contract or put together an equity plan, I can help. I’ve advised many clients through this exact stage, and I’d be happy to discuss legal support for your company. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to talk through options or next steps.