For bigger projects: referrals are really the only way to go. For smaller projects: spread out the risk. Chop your project into digestible chunks, and hire 5-7

For bigger projects: referrals are really the only way to go. For smaller projects: spread out the risk. Chop your project into digestible chunks, and hire 5-7 devs in parallel to chip away at it (one little chunk given to each dev at a time). Eventually narrow it down (based on their performance) to just one or 2 devs.