No matter how good you think you are, no matter how fast you work, at some point you are going to need the efforts of others to make up your team. Whether you look to external firms or hire your own team members, a wide range of options is open to you. The modern workforce is made up of a variety of third-party contractors, offshore teams, onshore teams, and full-time employees, all working together to build and run your platform.
But do you know which type you should consider and which one will work for a given circumstance? It is not an easy problem to solve, because many different variables are at play, including availability, experience, budget, and the type of work to be done.
This chapter presents how to take the mystery out of this whole area. The one piece of advice for CTOs is that you should never see recruiting as a one-time event; you need to make it a part of your routine, with the mindset that you are always hiring. You never know when someone just might leave your team or you need to scale up quickly; bench strength is a wonderful tool to have in your back pocket. The most successful CTOs are skilled at bringing people on nearly immediately, because they have built up a great pipeline of candidates.