We are a start up company developing a new product for automating a process with a sales potential in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We have a good part of the skill sets (including experience) necessary to bring the product to market but are stretched thin and have passed the point that we need to begin adding software personnel. We have estimated that beyond the engineer currently designing boards we will need to have 3 programmers of which 2 could be contracted (we have identified a source near Indy). However we believe we must have a key person "in house" to work with these off site contractors and we are looking for someone to write the firmware for a dozen different embedded controllers while working with the contracted programmers writing SQL, VB, and flash. We want this person to have a vested interest and while past ground floor this still offers a great opportunity.

Has anyone got any advise on how to locate possible candidates and how to verify they have the skills we need (and their not just good at writing resumes).

Thanks