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Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

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Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#41

Post by tapasfr »

tpae wrote: post #25

Please checkout our startup: https://www.superteam.io/ We're currently accepting closed beta testers. We're a platform designed to create teams with freelancers. Our mission is to make freelancing easy as possible, through team collaboration and specialization.

I signed up. Are there any early incentives for signing up early?

Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#43

Post by rodolphoarruda »

Seven years ago I had the chance to work on the development of a set of products for "team building", all interconnected as part of a "portal". So instead of looking at the market and hiring a new team, the purpose of the products were to constantly assess the current population of an organization and define possible group arrangements. You have to imagine Myers&Briggs combined with other similar assessments to score individuals according to their: analytical skills, logic, decision making style, proactiveness, care to others etc. This is something useful for large organizations having to reallocate people, form new teams for geographical expansion, for ad-hoc work, for projects, even for downsizing. One of the product managers at the time was trying to sell it to Universities, proposing that academic coordination could be building student cohorts with specific characteristics: high performers, collaborative, innovative/visionary, and even low performers, who'd be managed via a different pedagogical approach and faculty support.

The "portal" company ended up being acquired by an American Educational group and used by a couple of brands for some time until it was finally frozen 3 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#44

Post by sokoloff »

fecak wrote: post #14

I've almost hired full teams for my clients a few times as a recruiter. There tend to be a couple issues with this model. For one, what if the hiring company interviews the team and wants 7 of the 10? The team has to make a decision to either look for work where they can all be on the team, or abandon members. The other issue is timing. The team members need to all be available at (or around) the same time, and they…

> There tend to be a couple issues with this model. For one, what if the hiring company interviews the team and wants 7 of the 10? The team has to make a decision to either look for work where they can all be on the team, or abandon members.

Exactly. We've been approached a few times by intact teams all wanting to join. My approach has always been that I love talking to people in this situation, but that our contracts, interviews, and offers are all between the company and the individual and that while we may have an initial project in mind where they'd all work together, that that was not guaranteed to hold true over time.

I'll also ask them individually if a case like the 7/10 above happens, would they prefer to get 7 offers or 0 offers? (I don't want to be the source of telling Alex, Becky, and Charlie that I didn't think Dave was strong enough to join the company if they don't want to hear that.)

Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#47

Post by iamthepieman »

the issue with this is that the fundamental unit of hiring is an individual person. You can hire by hour or hire by unit of work but this is typically called contracting, outsourcing or, quite simply, supply chain. Platforms already exist for those things and, just like in typical hiring platforms, the unit on those platforms is a small undividable amount.

Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#48

Post by icebraining »

anovikov wrote: post #31

Hiring freelancers is itself almost a scam; hiring teams means scam, squared. Easiest way to fail your startup. Hire only locally, people you know. Don't use any online platform for that, you are going to get ripped.

From your profile: "I do freelance Flex, JS and Java work"

Self-hating mood?

Re: Ask HN: What about a platform for hiring teams instead of individuals?

#49

Post by anovikov »

mattmanser wrote: post #33
anovikov wrote: post #31

Hiring freelancers is itself almost a scam; hiring teams means scam, squared. Easiest way to fail your startup. Hire only locally, people you know. Don't use any online platform for that, you are going to get ripped.

What "scam"? I'm working as a freelancer for a startup that's doing great, thanks.

The market for custom software developers is built in a way that tricksters inevitably outcompete honest people. I.e. any sufficiently attractively looking profile on a freelance developer on any freelance site is likely someone to actually, avoid. They know what they are doing very well, that is their bread, they do it whole their lives, and there is absolutely no chance an outsider can beat them i that game.
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