

Ask HN: Where can I find hungry developers who will get in bed with a startup? - mnentr

I'm 24, have a business background, and a software-intensive business (that requires enterprise selling -&#62; my role).<p>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:<p>1. Want to moonlight 20 hrs a week (not available during the day, not committed long term, in it for the money) or<p>2. Suggest that I contract with a software development firm ($, lack long-term relationship).<p>How/Where can I find developers who want to get in bed with me?<p>(personally, we've received seed funding but I don't want a partner to work just for money).
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mindcrime
_Where can I find young, passionate, developers who are willing to trust me as
a non-technical person?_

First 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.

~~~
mnentr
Re: Age - I've found that younger people are hungrier to be successful, will
admit when we don't know something, have less obligation (relationships,
mortgage) and are willing to work longer hours as we establish a foothold with
our company. We're also

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?

~~~
mindcrime
_What are we missing?_

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. :-(

------
vandalizeit
Learn to program. There is nothing like a programmer who can sell.

~~~
mnentr
Is a salesman who can program of any value?

