Why We’re Not Hiring Engineers (And Why That’s Intentional)

In the past few months, I’ve received more than 50 messages asking if we’re hiring engineers.

Here’s the surprising part, I haven’t posted a single hiring ad.

Some people even messaged saying they’d work for free, just to learn from us.

It’s flattering, and I’m genuinely happy people are noticing our startup and want to work with us. That’s not a small thing for us. It means the work we’re doing is being seen.

But I’ve had to reject every one of these offers.

Why We’re Not Hiring Right Now

There are two main reasons:

• We have no budget to hire right now.
• More importantly: we won’t be hiring engineers for at least the next couple of years.

In my experience, hiring without proper planning can slow you down tremendously. The most important part of being a founder is knowing when to hire and when not to hire. This isn’t simple, and most founders get it wrong.

I don’t want us to be the kind of company where engineers and staff are walking around not knowing what to do, pretending to work. That’s how speed dies.

Our Current “Secret” to Shipping Fast

Most startups would be shocked at how quickly we ship features at Heffl.

Here’s why:

• No bloated collaboration processes.
• Heavy AI leverage for coding.
• As of this week, all 3 of us have transitioned into marketers who code part-time.

This keeps us focused on what matters most, getting features into the hands of users as fast as possible.

When we do hire in the future, I already know exactly the kind of person we’ll bring on. Your resume won’t matter. What will matter is your ability to take ownership, manage product decisions, and build features that solve real problems.

We want a small team, maybe 3 to 5 engineers, who are as good at product management as they are at writing code.

The Kind of Product We Want to Build

We also don’t want to create a buggy product where we’re stuck in endless bug-fixing cycles.

If we find a bug, we don’t log it into a backlog and forget about it. We fix it right away.

This keeps our product clean, reliable, and fast to improve.

Could This Change in the Future?

I could be wrong. Maybe in the future, I’ll want a big team to reach our vision.

But right now, I don’t see it.

For now, the focus is clear: stay lean, ship fast, and only hire when it truly makes us better.

Here is the team Heffl :)