Ask HN: Should we or should we not hire a developer evangelist for our product?

[chuckouellet]

We’ve been running Snipcart, our developer-first e-commerce startup, for three years now. Growth is organic, fueled by content & a bit of SEO. Inspired by the B2D success tales of Twilio/Stripe, we’re also strongly considering hiring a developer evangelist.

At what stage should a SaaS consider hiring a dev evangelist? Do you think it’s really a key to B2D success?

[brudgers]

If you already have an existing user who is perfect for the role, then there is a solid opportunity. On the other hand, hiring via "help wanted" means that the new person has to be brought up to speed on the technical details and educated on the history of the project.

The third alternative is to shift roles within the company and hire to fill gaps created by shifting roles.

Good luck.

[chuckouellet]

We hadn’t considered bringing a user in the loop; clever advice. We’ll keep this in mind as we move forward in our decision process. Cheers!