Vet a developer before you sign.
A good software partner will pass a short, concrete checklist: you own the code from day one, security is built in, scope and price are fixed in writing, you get a named contact and regular demos, and they can show similar work. Tick what your candidate passes and see how they score. Nothing you check leaves your browser.
01 / Score your candidate
02 / How this works
Hiring a developer is hard when you cannot read the code yourself. This checklist turns "do I trust them?" into thirteen concrete things you can ask for and verify.
The items are grouped into the five areas that decide whether a build goes well: ownership, security, process, communication, and track record. Tick each one your candidate clearly passes. The meter shows the share they clear, and the verdict shifts as you go. Then copy, download, or print the scorecard to use in your decision or to send to a co-founder.
How to read your score
- Strong fit: they clear almost everything, including the hard items. Any miss is minor and easy to fix in the contract.
- Some gaps to probe: a solid base with a few blanks. Ask about each unchecked item before you sign.
- Walk carefully: too many of the items that protect you are missing. Get a second opinion before you commit money.
The items are not all equal. A miss on ownership, security, or a written scope matters far more than a miss on demos. For the reasoning behind each one, read how to vet a software development agency and how to protect your idea when hiring developers. If you would rather not run the build alone, see how to build software without a tech team and our other free tools.
03 / Common questions
What is a passing score?
There is no single magic number, but the items are not all equal. A strong partner clears almost everything, and the few they miss are minor and easy to fix in the contract. Be careful with anyone who passes the soft items, like demos and references, but fails the hard ones, like code ownership and a fixed scope. Treat any miss in ownership, security, or a written scope as a red flag to resolve before you sign, not a detail to wave through.
Why does ownership matter so much?
Because everything you are paying for lives in the code. If you do not own the repo, the IP, and the deployment from the first line, you are renting your own product. You cannot switch partners, hire someone else to extend it, or sell the company cleanly. A good partner hands you full ownership and the docs to run it without them. If they hesitate on this, nothing else on the checklist will save you.
What if they fail on security?
Slow down. Security is the one area where the cost of getting it wrong lands on you, not on them, often long after the build ships. You do not need a breach-proof system, that promise is a red flag in itself, but you do need someone who treats secure-by-design as standard and can make you audit-ready. If a candidate cannot explain how they handle your data, get a second opinion before you commit.
Do you pass your own checklist?
Yes, and we built the checklist from how we work. You own the code and the IP from the first line, scope and price are fixed in writing, you get one named contact and regular demos, and security is built in rather than bolted on. The Audit is where we put all of that in writing for your specific build, with a fixed price and a fixed date you can hold us to.
Last updated June 2026 · Talk with Felipe
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