First, accept that you likely can't evaluate that person's skill. Hell, highly skilled people often have trouble evaluating someone else's skill until they've w

First, accept that you likely can't evaluate that person's skill. Hell, highly skilled people often have trouble evaluating someone else's skill until they've worked together for at least several weeks or months. Once you've got that idea out of your head, it's time to figure out ways to get shit done while minimizing the risk to yourself/your company. One great way is to start off with contracts, see how things work out and re-evaluate from there. If you have the budget, do a phase two that will require the candidate to hire/supervise another developer to get a task completed. I'd avoid asking developer friends for help as hurt feelings will tend to spring up out of success or failure. I've learned that when you're starting a company, one good friend is worth one hundred good employees.