Post-funding startup
Post-funding: before your first full-time developer
You're post-funding and weighing your first technical hire. The pressure is on: ship faster, prove traction, show the team is growing. A first full-time developer feels natural; it's often the most expensive and slowest way to get solid product and technical leadership.
At two days a week, you can have a senior product engineer who is also your principal developer: prioritization, backlog, and requirements, then architecture and production code (Laravel, React, APIs). This isn't arms-length advice: I build the foundations and priority features, in a comparable budget band, with less risk if the product pivots.
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The trap
Why the first tech hire is risky
A junior or mid full-time developer means salary + payroll burden + onboarding + management, often before priorities, backlog, and requirements are clear enough. The founder still arbitrates product and tech alone while the team ships tickets without a frame. A bad hire is brutally expensive for a young company.
The offer
What two days a week give you
Comparable budget, senior profile
A first-hire budget can fund two days a week of a senior who has been a principal developer: priorities, backlog, and code shipped to prod, not just tickets closed.
Clear priorities, solid backlog
I prioritize features, clarify requirements and specs, and arbitrate what ships now. The team builds from a ready-to-build backlog, not vague direction.
Principal dev: I build
On those two days, I'm the principal developer: architecture, reviews, and production code. If a team already exists, I take the critical paths or guide delivery with a clear frame, with no handoff between product and build.
Flexibility if the product pivots
Before locking in an internal team, you validate pace and scope with someone who can adapt without a layoff or emergency re-hire.
Bridge to your future dev team
When you hire, you already have standards, backlog, and job criteria; I can support onboarding your first full-time developer.
The flow
Four typical steps at two days a week
Post-funding framing and product priorities
Quarter goals, what proves traction, current debt and risks. We define what to build first, what waits, and how the two days a week are spent.
Backlog, requirements, and technical direction
User stories, acceptance criteria, initial architecture: a written deliverable before weeks of code. The founder keeps the vision; the backlog becomes ready to build.
Foundations and key features shipped
On those two days, I build: foundations, priority features, unblocking. Reviews and standards so the next hire does not start from zero.
Prepare the hire and handover
Realistic job description, profile criteria, documentation, and pass-off. Optional follow-up when the first employee joins so continuity holds.
Compare
First full-time dev vs fractional partnership
Ballpark for a Quebec startup, we refine on a call. If your challenge is launching a product before hiring, see Launch a SaaS or MVP.
| Dimension | First full-time dev (junior–mid) | Product Engineer, 2 days / week |
|---|---|---|
| Total annual cost | Salary + burden + benefits; often the heaviest line in the company. | Comparable band for ~40% of an experienced senior's time. |
| Time-to-value | 2–4 months hiring, onboarding, learning your domain. | Start in weeks; direction, backlog, and shipped code from month one. |
| Product leadership (priorities, backlog) | Rarely covered by a first dev hire; founder keeps ambiguity on order and ready-to-build. | Prioritization, trade-offs, backlog, and requirements before days of code are spent. |
| Technical direction | Depends on level; founder often remains default decision-maker. | Explicit ownership of direction, technical trade-offs, and production quality. |
| Risk if the product pivots | Person to reposition, lay off, or replace. | Scope or days adjust without a major social rupture. |
| Production code | 5 days of dev, often while learning your stack. | 2 days where the senior is the one who builds (foundations, key features), not only who directs. |
| Weekly coverage | Daily presence, useful when scope is already well defined. | 2 focused days + async between sessions; enough for direction, build, and unblocking when framed well. |
How I build
Product and technical foundations
Product, technical direction, and production development on your two days: clear priorities, a ready-to-build backlog, and code I ship myself (foundations, priority features), plus criteria for your first hire.
Objections
Common questions
Often what you need daily is clear decisions, a backlog that moves, and code shipping, not yet five days of unsupervised dev. On two days, I structure and I build the priorities: foundations, key features, unblocking. This isn't an advisory-only role.
When volume truly justifies full-time, we'll see it together, and you'll hire with criteria already tested.
Yes, if that's the right model. My role is to get you to that moment better prepared: architecture, process, realistic job description. I can support onboarding so continuity doesn't break.
I partner with you: product trade-offs, backlog, reviews, ceremonies when useful. You keep the vision; I bring prioritization, requirements, and I build without turning you into a default CTO or PO.
Two days a week is the rhythm for deep work, not a barrier to reaching me.
Ongoing, I make time to reply on Slack or your preferred channel. If an emergency lands outside those days, I stay reachable and step in under a shared urgency frame we define up front (scope, priority, response time), not a vague 24/7 on-call promise.
Next step
Post-raise and torn between hiring and going fractional? A 30-minute call is enough to see if two days a week with a principal developer who builds makes sense for you.
LinkedInhello@lucrousseau.comNext step
Let's talk about your context
A 30-minute call to see if fractional support (product, technical, or both) fits your situation in Quebec.
- EmailReply within 24–48 hourshello@lucrousseau.com
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