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Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

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Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#1
I am a business guy. I have worked at large companies and managed big businesses. I have started tech and non-tech companies as a founder and an early employee. I have raised money. I have written specs. I have sold stuff to big companies and consumers.I have cut deals with big companies and big brands. Some of these deals have panned out. Some have not. Some of these ventures have been successful. Some have been cluster f*cks.

I am ready to do another tech business. I want to find a tech partner who is hungry, smart, interested in contributing to all aspects of the business and humble. Ideally I would like to find someone in the Seattle area. How should I do this?

Re: Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#2
You just took the first step. The second step is to figure out what you want to do. If you don't have ideas of your own, ask them to come forward with their own. Use hackers to find other hackers; too many times I found a guy or a gal with a good business brain between their ears, but things fell apart because they're surrounded with too many of their college buddies and frat-brothers who all want a cut in the deal.

Take care of your people. It is easy for a hacker to put in 18 hour days if he knows you're out there taking care of his bills. The simple act of paying a guy on time can make a world of difference. Even if he is working for equity, don't hesitate to find a grand or two from somewhere, anywhere, and cut him a check on the 26th of the month. Many hackers would be more than happy to work on the startup AND take on side-gigs, it's up to you to go out there and find the gigs, if you can't raise the money yourself.

Try to think very small. Most of us are not out there to grab your money and go. It's much easier for me to bring along two laptops and "settle" in a corner, somewhere in your basement. I will run a few cables around, replace your DSL router with something beefier, and I can stay there until very late at night and come back as soon as I open my eyes. YOU, on the other hand, need to be aware of my expenses; I spend gas driving to you. I go away to eat out twice while I'm at your home or office. If I'm meeting you and your investor buddies in pubs and cafes, I'm probably spending more money than I usually do. Feel free to reimburse me at the first opportunity.

Think of yourself as the manager of a band. The musicians make the music, sure, but they're completely dysfunctional without you. They can keep your commission and do the business side of things themselves, but multitasking is VERY expensive and taxing mentally. You can safely keep a band of musicians in your basement for weeks, even months, and they will do great work, as long as you're catering to their peripheral needs and staying out of their way. What you can't do is treat them as employees who you must micromanage and watch them do "tangible", measurable work.

[Edit: Sometimes people asked me to work with them on a startup, but they already had a draconian work process. Some guy had a quota of the number of e-mails I must send him a day. Where I should store source code, graphic assets and other stuff, and in the end told me I must install a VNC client so he can connect to my desktop. Had to dump him. If he told me I could use his home server to store things, I would have setup the version control and an ftp server myself.

Try to be nurturing and kind and you will juice the most productivity and loyalty out of anyone. Be honest and open. You don't need to give me the minutia of our financial status, if you think you can meet a budget gap by getting another client, go ahead and get that client and let me focus on the work. Don't introduce unnecessary uncertainty in our stability. OTOH, if you think we're tanking, it would be nice of you to give me a heads up.]

Re: Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#5
Finding a techie cofounder off the street at the idea stage is next to impossible. Because if someone really has the entrepreneurial spirit they are already doing their own startup.

You gotta hire. Then at the end of the project, if the guy works out, you can offer him cofounder role. As a "business guy" get ready to pretty much cover all the bills while the other guy codes, no matter if he is a hire or a cofounder. Better to hire and see how the guy works out before you start giving away equity.

Re: Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#6
post #5

Finding a techie cofounder off the street at the idea stage is next to impossible. Because if someone really has the entrepreneurial spirit they are already doing their own startup. You gotta hire. Then at the end of the project, if the guy works out, you can offer him cofounder role. As a "business guy" get ready to pretty much cover all the bills while the other guy codes, no matter if he is a hire or a cofounder.…

The dollar bill & the economist.

Re: Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#7
Check out the Seattle scene for a large group of people in this area: http://www.seattletechstartups.com/

Also, I suggest job ads in places like seattle20.com and Joel's job board.

Do you already have an idea what you are going to do? It would help to get the general technical area on the table - hackers have their pet areas of interest.

Re: Ask HN: How should business guys go about finding great hackers for a startup?

#8
First of all forget the "humble" requirment. Anyone that is senior and has crew knows what his value is and is not going to be impressed with a suit.

Second, if you have a M$FT based idea then you're in the right place. If not you need to look at California. That's where the rest of the talent is.

Lastly, avoid the offshore crowd. They will pick your pocket as sure as if you where there in person. There is no such thing as a $10/hour software engineer

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