

No better place to ask – how do I find a CTO? - morlokman

Hey all, Joey here from Baron Fig. I&#x27;ve posted several times in the past about our journey from Kickstarter-backed project to full fledged company. We&#x27;re ready to take the next step, and that involves a full-time CTO to work alongside myself and my partner, Adam.<p>Do you have any suggestions on how to go about finding a well-rounded CTO in NYC with hustle, creativity, and drive? That&#x27;s a lot to ask for, but it&#x27;s the only way to get things done.
Any help is greatly appreciated.<p>About us: To refresh you guys: our startup is called Baron Fig, we make Sketchbooks &amp; Notebooks. Last September we launched a Kickstarter and surpassed our goal by 11x. We ended up pre-selling 8,760 books to 4,242 people from 48 different countries. In March we launched our website with full web store. To-date we&#x27;ve sold 20,000+ books in 17 countries worldwide.
======
soneca
Below is part of my own comment on another thread
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8379613](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8379613)):

 _Now, actualy answering the qustion to where find it. I don 't believe in
startup events or regular networking for this. You hire the more outspken and
available developer, not the right one. A good tip that worked for me is to
keep an eye for this guys that show up at HN front page with a technical post
or a Show HN. Rule out the very experient and famous developers who are
regulars to HN front page. Search for the new, unknown guy who did something
bright (HN upvotes are a great filter from tech guys for this). At the Show HN
rule out the full formed startups, look, again, for the new, unknown guy who
built something great as a side project.

If you have experience in the field, a good idea and money to fund (and a
willingness to go to SV), i think you are in good position to attract the top
talent that appear here.

Also, look for someone in "Who is hiring" Hn thread (definitely not at "Needs
a freelancer?" thread)._

The prologue of that comment is much in line with dylanhassinger's comment. I
wholeheartedly agree with: _Hire a good lead developer and slowly expand their
responsibilities._

~~~
morlokman
Fantastic insights, thanks for taking the time to answer. I love it.

~~~
soneca
Well, do consider that I just copied/pasted some words I had already written
before! :)

But to live up to your comment, I will take the time give my opinion about
your specific case. You have a vision, apparently a passion, a successfull
kickstarter campaign and, more important, proved traction. So you should be
able to attract top talent. So, don't settle for anything less than the person
who can build all you envision and share your passion for the business.

You communicate very well your success (in your "about us"), but for the CTO I
think you might need to communicate your vision to what the CTO will have to
accomplish as well (I imagine you are not hiring a CTO just to handle the
website and the shop - as they are both looking great without a CTO, but
aiming for more ambitious tech-related paths).

If you happen to find someone very good ready for full-time job, in a position
that wouldn't make much sense to ask him/her to work part-time, still keep it
temporary and starting with small projects. He/she will have to earn his
position as CTO, no matter how shiny his portfolio might be. Give him a 2-week
project, than another, then a 1-month project, always paying him market rate
and respecting his time. But don't make the decision to hire the CTO before
that test.

And take your time to find the right promess. A good way to simultaneously
"keep looking" and "waiting for the right person" is to hire contractors, with
a lower bar, for things you need built in the short term. Don't promise any
CTO position, just regular freelance job for what you need build. Test one,
then another, no expectations, no hurry. There is another thread in HN from
whoishiring that is "Who wants to be hired?". I would say is a good place to
look. The last one:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542898)

good luck

EDIT: Ah! And I loved your product. If you ever need some help with
online/inbound marketing (and more specifically if you want to test the
brazilian makret for your product), I might help. Sure, starting with some
small marketing projects as a freelance to see if we are a good match! ;)

~~~
morlokman
Wow, thanks for sharing the additional thoughts! I appreciate it. :)

Glad you like what Baron Fig is all about! My co-founder Adam and I are having
a good time learning, working, and pushing the company forward. Thank you for
the kind words.

I like what you're suggesting in terms of slow assimilation of a new person
into the mix, it's definitely a sensible strategy in making sure we don't
commit to someone (or them committing to us) when it isn't a good fit. Along
with this idea, it makes sense that we don't even look for a CTO, but rather a
Lead Developer (as suggested elsewhere in the thread) who can grow to fit the
CTO role.

Great link, thanks for dropping it in. Going to dig in and do my thing. ;) And
thanks for the marketing offer! Feel free to shoot us an email (on our site)
if you'd like to continue that discussion.

Thanks again!

------
MalcolmDiggs
If you're looking for a chief problem-solver, I'd start by making your
problems clear and compelling. Make it worth their time (intellectually) to
engage with you.

You've got a website, you've got sales, etc... where would the CTO come in?
Exactly what kind of technical problems are you trying to solve? What kind of
scale are you trying to accommodate? What has failed? What's your dream stack,
etc?

Pick a place on your site to state these clearly, (a Careers page for
example), and link it prominently in the footer or elsewhere... So that
someone who's _already_ a fan/customer of yours but also happens to be
technically-adept might stumble upon it. (If you have a careers page now, I
wasn't able to find it). This ideal person might get interested in the
_problems_ you're trying to solve, and offer to pitch in; or they'll send the
link to their friend, colleague, etc. I think that's the most organic way of
sourcing the right person.

~~~
morlokman
This is a great suggestion. Finding someone who is already a Baron Fig user
would be fantastic.

I like your idea regarding a Jobs page, however, I'm having trouble figuring
out what we'd put on there. It makes sense to list the basics, but I'm
hesitant to put project details in there if its public. The things we'd be
working on are 1–2 years out, and likely not something we'd like to discuss
with the public (or competitors!) until we're ready. What would you do in this
case?

~~~
MalcolmDiggs
That's an interesting point.

I think the fact that an eCommerce retailer is working on technical problems
that may take 1-2 years to solve would surprise a lot of people. In eCommerce
you're going to be fighting against the preconception that all a CTO would be
doing is trying to up-the-conversion-rate and adding new products to the
lineup (snooze-fest). The fact you're tackling academically rigorous problems
is an asset, so anything you can share about it will help you recruit.

A lot of people have hot-buttons for the topics that interest them, so pushing
them, even in a general way could catalyze interest. If, for example, you were
working on a speed/latency/performance problem that might attract a certain
kind of person, whereas a big-data or analytics problem might attract someone
else.

~~~
morlokman
Interesting perspective. Internally we don't consider ourselves an eCommerce
company, we just happen to have our eComm capabilities up first. Thanks for
bringing this to my attention. Knowing our path, it seems like a no brainer to
us, but as you said to the outsider there's quite a different picture. This is
the first time we've had to elucidate our intentions, it helps to have a new
perspective on it.

------
dylanhassinger
Hire a good lead developer and slowly expand their responsibilities. here's a
good example:

[https://overflow.bufferapp.com/2014/06/06/from-android-
contr...](https://overflow.bufferapp.com/2014/06/06/from-android-contractor-
to-cto-my-story-as-an-engineer/)

~~~
morlokman
This makes sense, thanks for the link. That refocuses the question. How do I
find a lead developer?

~~~
dylanhassinger
\- ask people in your network for recommendations \- go to local tech meetups
and make friends \- use a site like Odesk to search for your guru. here's a
post I wrote on this: [http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-
web-dev...](http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-web-
development-on-odesk-or-elance/)

Also it can really help to find the smartest people you know and take them out
to lunch/hire them for an hour just to give advice. They can recommend people,
vet possible candidates, and help develop your technical strategy - even
though they can't or won't take the full time job themselves. hope this helps!

------
theklub
See if you can steal Moleskine's top tech employee/s.

