nikfam.ai blog https://nikfam.ai/blog/ Notes from Hootan Nikbakht on interim CTO work, scaling engineering teams, and AI-first development. en-us Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Why hiring a senior developer from a staffing agency is the wrong first move for a seed-stage startup https://nikfam.ai/blog/why-staffing-agencies-fail-seed-stage-startups/ https://nikfam.ai/blog/why-staffing-agencies-fail-seed-stage-startups/ Most seed-stage founders hire their first senior developer through an agency. I've watched this play out seven times. It fails for reasons that have nothing to do with the developer's skill. Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT hootan@nikfam.ai (Hootan Nikbakht) Hiring Startups Starting a blog, 6+ years into being a CTO https://nikfam.ai/blog/welcome/ https://nikfam.ai/blog/welcome/ Why I'm finally writing down what I've learned about building engineering teams, shipping real products, and the parts of technology leadership nobody teaches you. Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT hootan@nikfam.ai (Hootan Nikbakht) Engineering Leadership