--- title: 'Vlog #7 — Hiring for a bootstrapped software company' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9zHhbtQiM' video_id: 'Rz9zHhbtQiM' date: 2026-07-14 duration_sec: 0 --- # Vlog #7 — Hiring for a bootstrapped software company > Source: [Vlog #7 — Hiring for a bootstrapped software company](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9zHhbtQiM) ## Summary The speaker discusses a counterintuitive hiring philosophy for bootstrapped software companies: hire slowly, hire as few people as possible, and focus on revenue and profit per employee rather than headcount. They argue that using employee count as a proxy for success can harm the business by leading to rapid hiring, cash burn, and inefficiency. ### Key Points - **Hiring Philosophy** [00:00] — The speaker advocates hiring slowly and minimally, emphasizing revenue per employee and profit per employee over total headcount. - **Dangers of Rapid Hiring** [00:30] — Optimizing for headcount can lead to hiring too quickly, running out of money, and harming the business, especially for a small bootstrapped company. - **Smart Problem Solving** [01:00] — The company prefers solving problems with software, systems, and training rather than throwing more people at the problem. - **Customer Growth Without Hiring** [01:30] — The company added about 4,000 customers since hiring their last customer support person, showing efficiency. - **Metrics for Success** [02:00] — The speaker measures success by revenue and profit, not headcount. They reluctantly share employee count (25-26) but focus on revenue growth. ### Conclusion The key takeaway is that bootstrapped companies should prioritize profitability and efficiency over headcount growth, hiring only when necessary and focusing on revenue per employee. ## Transcript are you excited to go to CrossFit is the phone clicking a video of you what do you think about that Jimmy put it away okay [Music] [Music] but today my big good day to talk about hiring what do we do why do we hire how often do you hire because a lot of people have this idea of more is better put your when it comes to teams oh you know how many employees do you have we've got you know 10 20 30 50 oh the company must be doing really really well if you've got 50 employees I don't agree using that as a proxy for success or how well you're doing is not good because you if you optimize for that metric then you can actually do a lot of harm to the business because you can hire too quickly you can you know you can run out of money basically and since we're a small bootstrap software company it's really important we don't run out of money profitability is really important and it's also really important to me that we solve problems in a really smart intelligent way with software with systems and we invest in training rather than just throwing more people at the problem saying okay you know hire two more customers discuss people hire more over here etc we've added about 4,000 customers since we've hired our last customers to grass person and I was just looking at her stuff for Q and and the Q is looking really really great my philosophy on hiring is higher slowly hire as few people as possible and really focus on revenue per employee profit per employees other metrics rather than like just total headcount so you asked me how can work its doing well one will just tell you the numbers because they're all totally public and I want to be optimizing for revenue for profit rather than bread count but two if you ask me like how many employees we have I'll reluctantly say 25 or soon if it's offer letter that I'm writing today gets accepted you know we think 26 and for me it's really about like okay how slow can we grow the headcount and how quickly can we go to grow the revenue and then [Music] just finished a great meeting with a local vlogger business owner we just moved here from the area so she was pretty great it's fun to talk through her business or audience and come in the minimal space and it's a fun thing all the potential what keep you busy and another good cop shop oh it's a lot here but at hanging out at slow but slow which is one place that will send people to for the conference so yeah and a beautiful day I'm working [Music] headed home for a couple minutes come across the chain spring you gotta try be fun I've already gonna be a craft that I get that I guess that means yes are you actually better I look at mommy okay mom oh I know take a look and I thought you thought of it there there we go back to market side [Music]