You do not need to be able to do the job to hire well for it. You do need a process that produces signal you can trust.
Define the work, not the technology
Describe the problems the person will solve and the outcomes expected. A list of technologies copied from a competitor's posting tells you nothing about fit.
Borrow technical judgement
Have a trusted engineer, whether an advisor, a contractor, or a partner firm, run the technical stage. Buying two hours of credible assessment is cheaper than a mis-hire by an enormous margin.
Assess what you can assess
You can evaluate communication, ownership, how someone reasons about trade-offs, and whether they can explain technical decisions to you clearly. That last one is genuinely predictive.
Use a work sample
A short, paid, realistic task tells you more than any interview, and lets a technical reviewer give you a clear read.
A clear definition of the work, structured evaluation criteria, and credible technical judgment matter more than whether every hiring decision is made by a technical founder.
For more guidance on technology hiring, explore the rest of the JobMedium articles.