Ask HN: Where can I find hungry developers who will get in bed with a startup?
I'm 24, have a business background, and a software-intensive business (that requires enterprise selling -> my role).
Where can I find young, passionate, developers who are willing to trust me as a non-technical person? I understand software architecture, produce wireframing and workflows, but all of the people that I know / have met in Minnesota either:
1. Want to moonlight 20 hrs a week (not available during the day, not committed long term, in it for the money) or
2. Suggest that I contract with a software development firm ($, lack long-term relationship).
How/Where can I find developers who want to get in bed with me?
(personally, we've received seed funding but I don't want a partner to work just for money).
5 comments
[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadFirst of all, why are you worried about age?
Anyway, are you looking to hire employees or are you looking for co-founders who will receive some substantial equity stake for joining you? You talk about only finding people who are "in it for the money" but people do have to pay bills... are you offering salary + equity or just salary or just equity or what? In the end, you'll have to sort out what combination is appealing to the people you're looking for.
Beyond that, the answer to your question is really no different than the answer to my question, which is basically going in the opposite direction: "How can I find a hungry sales/marketing/bizdev person to get in bed with my startup?" And the answer really reduces to sales... when you talk to potential co-founders (or early stage employees) you're selling, just as much as when you talk to investors or prospective customers. You have to sell them on you, on your vision, on your ability to build and manage a company, and - perhaps even more importantly - on their role in this creation you're concocting.
If you approached me, I know I'd need to you convince me that you were serious about the project, invested in the project in some fashion (not necessarily money, but something beyond just an idea), committed to the project; and you'd need to convince me that my role would be something where my needs (whether that be financial, professional, psychological, whatever) would have a reasonable chance of being met.
For example, as a "tech guy" I'd want a fairly strong say in any and all technical decisions (duh, right?) but that would also extend to the the point of including discussion of product features, long-term product strategy, and anything that would have a substantial impact on "my stuff." I doubt I'm alone in this regard, as techies go. So if you come across as "I'm the product idea guy, I just need a programmer to slap this together, and just do what I tell you" then yeah, you're going to get guys saying "sure, pay me market rate and I'll build that for you" or "sure, go outsource to so-and-so software development, inc." Come off as "I'm building this thing and I want people to become a real part of this" and you have a fighting chance.
RE: finding business talent, you can look to entrepreneurship programs at universities, soph/jr's have to start building companies as part of coursework, some of them will be brave enough to put FT energy into your technology. (provided they see you've invested energy into it yourself, like you mentioned above)
I want to build something alongside a long-term development team. There's been 6 different people who have put hands on my code, and eventually decide to take another job. So by the time they've started producing a new feature, it's on to the next one.
The initial conversations have started like "I'm looking for a long-term developer who can create, design and execute features for an education-related software start-up. We're a team of 2 business guys and have 20 clients, a seed round of investment and ~100k in revenues. Offering salary + equity commensurate with experience."
What are we missing?
Besides looking at each candidate's code samples, how can we evaluate who the right people are to bring in as a CTO or CIO?
Hard to say. The Devil, as they say, is in the details. But if you've had a number of people come along, stay briefly and then walk away, well... chances are you're doing something wrong. Maybe it just reduces to picking the wrong people, but it's hard to say.
Besides looking at each candidate's code samples, how can we evaluate who the right people are to bring in as a CTO or CIO?
It sounds like your problem is less about coding skill and more about commitment to the project. Unfortunately, going on what you've said here, it's hard to take even a guess at what you should be doing differently. :-(