this whole thing reads: don't hire top talent, hire special talent, to us, whatever. The latter sounds even harder than the former. It's hard to see your own weakness, it's rarer to have people to fill an exact particular gap at that particular point in time.
Maybe do away with the mindset of people as off-the-shelf products and think about them more as raw resources and focus more on upskilling. Universities are hopeless on this so the responsibility must fall on to someone.
Good mindset for big corp, not so for small biz. Waiting for someone to upskill and gain momentum for 6-12 months means a lost lump sum of money that can kill your business.
Hiring a candidate who already knows what you need often takes a lot longer than hiring someone who can learn what you need even if you account for the on-boarding time, especially if it's a slightly esoteric thing.
Difficulty in hiring people who know your stack is also a good reason to choose the simplest and most common tech to run on rather than something niche you feel is technically better.
I guess it's something to balance. There is no reason to believe that the special talent will show up in 6-12 months nor that they will find your small biz a good place for them. I have a hunch that many of the people who can fix the weaknesses for your org are gonna be top talent as well with lots of choices
Maybe do away with the mindset of people as off-the-shelf products and think about them more as raw resources and focus more on upskilling. Universities are hopeless on this so the responsibility must fall on to someone.