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

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81–90 of 164 posts

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

#81
Wait, isn’t HN a platform where one could find teams?

Let’s try it...

If you are a team good at the things in my profile or on my LinkedIn, and would be interested to become full time employees in exchange for a guaranteed global scale “customer” problem to solve for one of 5 largest global banks – I will hire you.

If this works, we’ll report back here that HN can be a match maker between companies and entire dev teams.

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

#82
Some thoughts.

This kind of service might be much more valuable to huge corporations rather than startups. BigCo, Inc. is more likely to have enough cash lying around to hire an extended team all at once. Also, BigCo, Inc. is more likely to suddenly need X, Y, and Z skills to build upon recently acquired product ABC, where hiring a team with said specialty makes sense.

My uncle has been working on the same team for roughly two decades. They've migrated between companies together countless times. I think the main reason they've been able to keep the gang together is because they have a very niche specialty (within the domain of DSP hardware). This kind of service may be more valuable for finding those kinds of niche teams, rather than general BFF web devs.

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

#83

I think cost is going to be a problem. If you want a team of good people, it will cost $100,000+ per individual. That's before benefits. With benefits, it will be well over $200,000 per person. For a team of five people, this will run you over one million dollars per year. Now, if you have a lucrative opportunity, and you hire this team, then either the team will figure out they can take the opportunity without you,…

Some problems the team could not tackle on their own. The opportunity may be the value of the problem space the company brings to the table.

For instance, if your team is interested in fixing global banking, you might want to get hired together at a global bank where you can own the problem and outcome.

I’m in the market for hiring teams.

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

#84
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…

I've heard of a company in Ottawa hiring students who worked on a final project immediately after graduation. They would set up a subsidiary, and give them a project manager to help guide the new projects.

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

#85
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 looked at the website and I couldn't figure out what you actually offer.

Is it just a way to organize a team of freelancers? Or do you also provide client leads?

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

#86

You can't validate an idea by posting on HN and decide what to do by reading the (overwhelmingly negative) comments alone. You would get the same negative responses if you were Travis Kalanick ("hey guys what do you think of starting a ride share app") or Brian Chesky. You have to "get out of the building" (Steve Blank) and talk to your potential customers.

While you may not get validation, you will get a critical analysis of your idea from multiple perspectives. I've already seen some responses with amazing insights that would've taken an inordinate amount of time to gather.

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

#87
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, but I'm not sure I understand your comment. Where does it say anything about the rules of this proposed idea? Isn't this a hypothetical?

To take the proposed model to it's logical extreme, what if you only want 3/10, 2/10, 1/10? Now you're suddenly back to hiring individuals again. The whole point of hiring a team is that you aren't evaluating individual performance or skills; you're evaluating the groups' performance and skills. If the team is good, the people who can't immediately be helpful will re-train so that they can provide skills that are use…

Right, only wanting to hire 7/10 means the company thinks they're better at evaluating team members in a single interview than the team is at evaluating its members after working together. Or they just can't afford a team that large, and it's not the right one for them.

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

#88
post #41
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?

Thank you :) We currently don't offer any early incentives, since we're going to be a free service.

If you are selected for our closed beta, you will receive recognition within our platform as early user. Details coming soon!

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

#89

If there's a team of demonstrably awesome people, we already have a word for incorporating them wholesale into a company - acquisition. If a team is truly great they are indeed more valuable than the sum of their parts so they would be selling themselves short not to shoot for a more lucrative acquisition. Ultimate I would expect a platform such as this to either turn into an acquisition tool or be filled with medioc…

It’s surprisingly hard to find the acqui-hire candidates. Teams strive to present a healthy face until they’re dead.

Maybe we need an anonymous matchmaking platform, no reputational risk to the team for signaling ‘pivoting’ to getting aquihired before they run out of runway.

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

#90
post #68
post #64

I'm on the demand side of this question. When I hear "hire a team" I think "that will cost more". With early stage business/startup capital is scarce. We're hiring one off, using contractors for focused products that ship. Modules of the whole. 100% of the solicitors of team things all have the same juggling and sorting I have to do with individuals. But the cost is more. And the work expectation is more. We'll build…

> Great! Now I've spent a bunch of time and money to build expertise in my problem domain yet nobody is on MY team. How's it different hiring individual contractors?

It is faster and costs less to evaluate one person on one narrow task than to evaluate a team on a large task.

The resulting work can be incorporated into the main by the existing staff faster.

And a startup has this pattern more often than the large project pattern that needs a team.

Once you grow, it's a different game.

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