Podcast · 30 min

Hire When It Hurts

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson · REWORK by 37signals Free Beginner

The timing principle you actually need: do not hire ahead of real, sustained pain, hire when the pain is constant and you have already tried to cut or automate it away. Applied to your question, that means the day agency turnaround and repeated context handoffs become a weekly, recurring cost, not a one off annoyance. It keeps you honest about hiring at the right moment rather than too early out of anxiety.

  • Hire only for pain that is persistent and cannot be cut or automated
  • Premature hiring locks in salary before you have proven the need
  • Feeling the pain first tells you exactly what the role should own
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The question it answers

  1. When should I stop using an agency and hire my first in-house developer?

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