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Why most startups don’t need a full-time tech lead (yet)

Posted on:May 2025

Hiring isn’t the real problem. Judgment is.

Early startups don’t need 40 hours of coding. They need 4 hours of the right code.
I’ve seen junior teams waste months on fragile systems.

Experience fixes it in under two weeks.

What founders really need isn’t speed. It’s clear direction.

A senior working part-time produces cleaner, faster results with less overhead than a full-time junior guessing at architecture.
Full-time leads come with meetings, roadmaps, and constant reviews.

You need a surgeon who spots bottlenecks, unblocks them, and moves on.
I stabilize codebases fast, not by magic, but because experience wins over effort.

Culture can wait. Product can’t.
Think carefully before hiring full-time.
Hire judgment first. Bodies later.

Buy judgment, not hours.

Unblock, ship, or refactor, fast

Explore scoped engagements designed to ship outcomes, not hours.