Hiring well is hard

Stop assuming that the word 'start-up' makes you more appealing.

There are some incredibly talented developers working for start-ups across the UK and Europe. I have a significant amount of experience in trying to source the top talent in Europe and I can categorically state, the majority of 'top talent' don't work for, and have little interest in working for a start-up. They work for established organisations that offer legitimate career opportunities, stability and the financial backing to give them peace of mind.

...Europe has a shortage of talent

Debatable. I've been first hand witness to startups struggling to hire the best talent to the point where it almost cripples their business. I've also witnessed established organisations having a hard time filling their vacancies. There isn't a talent shortage. There is, however, a shortage of great developers.

Hiring well is hard. It's incredibly hard. That's why recruitment companies exist and that's why recruitment companies make billions annually. That's also why I'm convinced there is a ridiculous amount of money to be made in offering a solution that overshadows the corrupt and unethical business practices the recruitment industry perpetrates.

Want to work longer hours for lesser money and a lot more risk ? For a lot of people the answer to that is no.

Furthermore, large established companies do have a lot of brand value. Getting to say "I worked for Google" and "I worked for X unknown startup that tanked after 2 years but we had a good run" are very different things.

Unfortunately, it's hard to sell risky prospects to people. The going gets even tougher for startups without fat funding rounds because they can't really afford to pay top dollar. Then their only hope is to find fresh but relatively inexperienced talent. Also, a lot of programmers who are interested in startups would also ask themselves "Why should I work with these guys when I could start my own stuff up ?"

For those that love and crave the excitement of working at a startup and making a real difference in your product - well, maybe there should be a place where you can hire such folks ;D (startup idea!)

But I agree most with this idea that you want to hire "the best", or "highly talented". The thing is, no one started out as a great employee, with bags of talent. The rare few that got very good, very fast, were snapped up by the worlds of finance, corporations, or are already Director of Engineering in a start up. (Hint: you can't afford them unless you offer them a painful amount of equity).

Everyone else, early in their career, needs training, mentoring, coaching, regular feedback cycles, a manager that is willing to have the open and frank conversations about what they should and shouldn't focus on to achieve more results. You have to grow talent.

So "good people that get stuff done"... it's a classic Joel on Software type statement. How do you find them? I meet a lot of people who never "get stuff done"... but why is that? Is it because they are lazy? Bored? Incompetant? OK, you don't want these guys. But what about: they are perfectionists and nothing is ever quite right to be called finished? Or do they always find themselves stuck trying to micro-optimize? Or are they always "late" because they got into the design, and realised the use case was wrong, so they fixed the use-case first? This second class have a lot of potential, with little "extra" effort.

It's understandable, but we shouldn't be surprised that not everyone can succeed at that.