The $100 MBA Show
Host: Omar Zenhom
Episode: MBA2720 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Find & Hire A Senior Tech Person?
Date: December 24, 2025
Episode Overview
In this Q&A Wednesday episode, Omar Zenhom tackles a crucial question from listener Gustav: How do you find and hire a senior tech person? Drawing from his 20+ years of entrepreneurial experience—including building and eventually selling his software company Webinar Ninja—Omar breaks down his proven, step-by-step strategy for sourcing, evaluating, and successfully integrating high-level technical talent into your startup or growing business. The episode is packed with actionable insights, hard-won warnings, and practical hiring guidelines designed for founders who want to avoid costly mistakes and get their tech right from the get-go.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Cost of a Bad Tech Hire vs. The Value of a Great One
- Bad tech hires are costly: Hiring the wrong person for a senior tech role isn't just expensive; it can destroy your product through technical debt, poor decisions, or months (even years) of wasted time.
"A bad hire isn’t just expensive. They can destroy your product. They can create technical debt you’ll have to pay off for years to come." — Omar Zenhom [02:00]
- You get what you pay for: Omar strongly advises against bargain hunting or searching for the “diamond in the rough” in technical hires.
"Don’t try to find the diamond in the rough. It doesn’t exist." — Omar Zenhom [03:18]
2. Hire for Seniority, Even If It’s Expensive (It’s Not Truly Expensive)
- High hourly rates save you money: Senior engineers charge more but work exponentially faster, with better decisions and less oversight needed. Cheaper hires eat more hours and accumulate hidden costs.
"A senior engineer who costs more per hour will actually save you money because they finish it in a fraction of the time and make better decisions for your company now and for the long run." — Omar Zenhom [03:48]
- Go where senior engineers are: Omar recommends Upwork, sorting by price high-to-low to draw out top-tier talent.
"Sort price high to low. Trust me. I look for the most expensive engineers who match the skillset I need for the project. Why? Because expensive engineers are usually the best in the game." — Omar Zenhom [04:34]
3. Examples from Webinar Ninja
- Specialists for foundation-building: When launching Webinar Ninja, Omar hired senior specialists for different technical areas (infrastructure, scaling, UX, database optimization). These hires had backgrounds at major companies, and their speed and expertise paid major dividends.
"They built major features in a weekend, they diagnosed bugs in minutes... they optimized our infrastructure in a single afternoon, which that alone saved me thousands of dollars a year." — Omar Zenhom [06:30]
4. Don’t Forget Communication Skills
- Technical prowess isn’t enough: Effective communication is critical for translating business goals into technical deliverables, ensuring correct implementation, and providing necessary documentation.
"Skills without communication skills is basically useless." — Omar Zenhom [10:09]
- What to look for: In interviews, evaluate how well candidates listen, clarify requirements, explain trade-offs, and avoid talking down to you.
"If you feel like the communication is bad, that’s a sign the whole relationship is doomed." — Omar Zenhom [11:46]
5. Set Technical Hires Up for Success
- Provide full context: Give hires specifics about your business, target audience, goals, timelines, trade-offs, and a limited set of non-negotiables.
"Most founders try to hire a senior engineer and they hand them some vague instruction... No, that's a recipe for disaster... You must tell them what the business does in the first place." — Omar Zenhom [12:22]
- Importance of clarity: The clarity of your leadership directly impacts the results of your technical team.
"Their talent really depends on the clarity of your leadership." — Omar Zenhom [13:48]
6. Sell the Vision—They’re Also Interviewing You
- Top talent has options: The best engineers are typically not desperate for gigs. Sell them on why your product and mission are exciting and meaningful, and why working with you will be fun and rewarding.
"You need to sell them on the project, the mission, the impact that your product will make on the world." — Omar Zenhom [14:45]
7. Start with a Project, Not a Full-time Commitment
- Mitigate risks: Initiate the relationship with a well-defined, time-bound project rather than a long-term contract. Evaluate outcome, hours, cost, and collaboration.
"You never want to commit long term at the beginning of the relationship, start with one clearly defined project." — Omar Zenhom [16:18]
- No drama if it doesn’t work out: Short-term commitments make it easy to part ways if needed.
8. Seniority Is the Real Cost Saver
- Avoid costly mistakes: It’s far riskier (and ultimately more expensive) to rely on cheaper, less experienced engineers than to invest in top-tier talent for critical projects.
"Most people think that hiring a senior engineer is expensive. The truth that I found is not. Not hiring a senior engineer is a whole lot more expensive." — Omar Zenhom [17:12]
- You're paying for outcomes, not hours: Senior engineers bring speed, clarity, and a big-picture perspective.
9. Final Words of Wisdom
- Don't overcomplicate it: You don’t need a full-time CTO or a 10-person engineering team to start. One right senior hire on a mission-critical project is all it takes.
"You need that first right person doing the right work." — Omar Zenhom [17:48]
- Keep strategy over guesswork: Use the method Omar outlined—find, interview thoroughly, give full context, inspire, start with a project, and let the relationship evolve naturally.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On cost vs. value:
"A cheap engineer can cost you months, if not years of work... a Senior engineer can save you an entire project, an entire product." — Omar Zenhom [17:19]
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On leadership’s role in tech outcomes:
"Their talent really depends on the clarity of your leadership." — Omar Zenhom [13:48]
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On inspiring great engineers:
"Show them that you’re building something worth building... I can guarantee you’re going to do the best work of your life on this project." — Omar Zenhom [15:00]
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On taking the first step:
"You need that first right person doing the right work. Spend the time to find them." — Omar Zenhom [17:48]
Actionable Steps [Summarized Action Plan]
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Use Upwork or similar platforms.
- Sort by highest price and skill match.
- Look for experienced (even Fortune 500) candidates.
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Interview 5-10 candidates.
- Evaluate both technical and communication skills.
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Don’t commit long-term initially.
- Start with a narrowly defined project.
- Agree on hours, rates, and deliverables.
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Give detailed business context.
- Explain your audience, goals, requirements, and priorities.
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Sell your mission to candidates.
- Convey the impact and excitement of your project.
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Assess the working relationship.
- If successful, consider further collaboration; if not, part ways easily.
Essential Timestamps
- [02:00] – Why bad tech hires are so risky
- [03:18] – The myth of finding a cheap star
- [04:34] – How to search for senior tech talent on Upwork
- [06:30] – Real-life results from hiring senior engineers for Webinar Ninja
- [10:09] – Communication as a core requirement
- [12:22] – How to provide the right context for success
- [14:45] – Selling the project to top candidates
- [16:18] – Why you should start with a clearly defined project
- [17:12] – Seniority as a long-term cost saver
- [17:48] – Final motivational advice on hiring senior tech talent
This episode delivers a complete, experience-driven blueprint for hiring senior tech talent—emphasizing premium skills, leadership clarity, meaningful work, and risk management. Highly recommended for founders preparing for crucial technical hires.