

We want to date, not hire... - devrim
http://blog.koding.com/2012/06/we-want-to-date-not-hire/

======
GuiA
You built a great team of a whopping four persons over two years using
serendipity, congrats.

As you're starting to maybe realize, this approach doesn't scale.

You think you're special, that your employee requirements are way higher than
any other startup's, because you're just that amazing and world changing.
Mathematically, you're probably not, and every startup out there thinks the
exact same.

Ultimately, you're going to have to suck it up and just hire people who can do
the job. Those emotional stories about how Koding came together are great— you
want to "date" (what a silly word, but let's reuse it) your founders. But
wanting to build a full team like that is just delusional. There's only one
"best engineer I've ever met" in the world.

Some reading for you:

[http://careercarrot.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/looking-for-
roc...](http://careercarrot.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/looking-for-rockstar-
engineers-is-like-playing-tetris/)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem>

~~~
nkurz
I'm not sure. They sound happy and optimistic, whereas you sound cynical and
jaded. Perhaps they have different goals. And while the solution to the
secretary problem is well worth the understanding, I'm not sure how applicable
it is:

    
    
      1. There is a single secretarial position to fill.
      2. There are n applicants for the position, and 
         the value of n is known.
      3. The applicants, if seen altogether, can be ranked
         from best to worst unambiguously.
      4. The applicants are interviewed sequentially in random
         order, with each order being equally likely.
      5. Immediately after an interview, the interviewed 
         applicant is either accepted or rejected, and the
         decision is irrevocable.
      6. The decision to accept or reject an applicant can be
         based only on the relative ranks of the applicants 
         interviewed so far.
      7. The objective is to select the best applicant with the
         highest possible probability.
    

Is this really how you do your hiring? I won't argue with 1 through 6, but I
find that 7 doesn't factor in the danger of a really bad fit. So I always take
the second to last candidate to cut my losses. :)

~~~
GuiA
>They sound happy and optimistic, whereas you sound cynical and jaded.

Well of course, they're founders so they have to be happy and optimistic, and
as an engineer in SV I get people like them wanting to recruit me every day so
I have to be cynical and jaded :)

I think the secretary problem applies very much. Ultimately, they're looking
with people that a) have relevant skills and b) will fit in the culture.

If, as they claim, they tried all conventional methods of hiring over the past
few months (and they have actually met a significant number of people and not
just two guys at a random meetup), then they are probably unrealistic in their
expectations. Ultimately, past your first or second engineer, you're looking
for someone to get shit done, not someone to braid your hair with.

------
unwind
The koding.com home page ("landing page", whatever) is one of the stupidest
designs I've seen in a while. It has a huge image hidden partially off the
screen at the bottom, but the scroll bar (and mouse wheel) do nothing. That
makes me go "fuuuuuu", pretty much.

It turns out they have invented a new way to get content onto the screen,
you're supposed to let go of your mouse and press one of the arrow keys so
slide the image into view. Double-you tee eff?

Combine that with their attitude, and it makes we want to ... do something
else, basically. :)

~~~
devrim
ok - fair enough :) one of our teammates shares your opinion exactly as you
worded it :)

~~~
adaml_623
And you will listen to him or her from now on?

~~~
devrim
we will need little more feedback than that :) it's "soooooo stupid" that i
edit my comment on hackernews, and it doesn't take me back to the story.

but that's not the point...

------
nkurz

      Users were coming in, we were so happy – and one day,
      someone created a Linux Group on Koding, and he sent
      me a message “do you need help?” I replied in a few
      seconds, otherwise servers would have crashed before I
      could hit ‘send’ I said “yes, but we’re also broke :(”
      he replied “who asked for money?”. That’s how we met our
      awesome sysadmin, Aleksey.
    

Sounds like a good approach. Great post!

