Talent for Tech: Finding developers to build your product
If you or your founding team do not have programming knowledge, then you’ll need to source developers to build your product.
However, before going down this route, make sure you have a technical lead in charge. Even if you don’t have a technical co-founder on board, see if a good friend or family member will help you manage the design work on a temporary basis. This person should oversee the work being done, to ensure the product is being built to standard and that no-one is taking advantage of you. Alex Norman, co-founder of HomeSav, advises that “this is especially important if you’re hiring students who may not have the necessary skills to hit the ground running. They need a solid lead to train them and provide that critical guidance.”
Here are a few suggestions on where to find developers:
Co-op students
You can start by hiring student developers through a formal university co-op program. (A list of programs at Ontario universities can be found here.) Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering at Xtreme Labs, is a big believer of hiring co-op students. “They are always a good pipeline into the rest of the engineering world. If they have a good experience, they’ll come back to work for you full-time. Or they’ll tell their friends in junior years that they had an amazing experience with you and create a good buzz.”
Be cautious however, because going through a formal co-op program will not guarantee you the right talent. Derek Webb, a recent computer science graduate from the University of Waterloo, cautions that “on-campus job boards are not startup-friendly because if a student doesn’t recognize the name of your company, they may not click through to the see the actual job. Especially if your company is sandwiched between a job posted from Microsoft and a job from Google. This happens because students are time-crunched and they filter through hundreds of posts per day.” Webb recommends companies keep their job descriptions fun and interesting, and not post a long list of job requirements and programming languages. “This often scares candidates away. Although the university encourages students to still apply to jobs that do this, many students are deterred.”
There is another important reality when it comes to hiring student developers. The tech boom in the past few years has resulted in many changes to the specializations people hold. For example, the top two mobile operating systems―Android and iOS―were both developed in the past five years. Universities in Ontario are simply not able to keep up with the rapidly changing technologies in the market today. Based on Webb’s experience, universities are instead “teaching students how to think and how to be programmers. It is up to [students] to educate [themselves] on all the different languages and platforms in order to stay current and marketable.”
Chris De Sousa, of technology-headhunting firm Hireglyphics, tells us that the most sought-after developers are those with knowledge of mobile gaming, mobile web, mobile native applications, iPhone and Android apps, and Ruby on Rails. “These are all the technologies universities do not teach!” His advice to tech companies is to “stop quizzing developers on what languages they know” and to “look for talent with a solid educational background. That way, even if they don’t know a language, they can learn it.”
One strategy to attract the best and brightest co-op students is to entice them with the breadth of technologies they can learn while at your company. Since they will not be learning these in school, the hands-on experience will be key, particularly because larger tech companies still have deep-rooted processes and often struggle to adopt the latest technologies. As De Sousa sees it, “working for a larger company can be a risk for young candidates because they may get stuck in a rut where they have not used the newest technologies and later find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their peers.”
Lastly, put your technical lead in charge of recruiting. As Adam Epstein of Huddlers learned, “technical people love technical people. If you can find a strong technical lead, others will be willing to follow and join the pack because they can see that they’re going to have a solid learning experience working with this lead.”
Student associations
Another idea is to approach student associations at universities. A quick search for student clubs at the University of Toronto or University of Waterloo, for example, will show you a listing of the associations as well as contact information. Many students look for practical experience and a little bit of pocket change, and programming in-between classes is a great way to get this. Some of the startups we spoke with had development agencies quote $20,000–$80,000 to build a prototype, whereas groups of students were able to build it for as little as $5,000.
Outsource
A quick Google search for web development firms pulls up countless companies. Outsourcing is a good way to get your prototype built if you do not have time to bring someone in-house. The downside is that these firms can be expensive―some quotes we have heard are as high as $80,000. Epstein recommends “staying away from agencies right off the bat, because you’re paying unnecessary costs like overhead and salary.”
Also, be careful about hiring people who are situated remotely, such as those you may find on Elance. Based on Norman’s experience, “With remote work, things often get lost in translation and this can significantly drive up your costs.”
Others follow the route of hiring independent developers on a contractual basis. Suneel Acharya, formerly with startup TalentBin, advises against doing this since “it’s hard for contractors to feel a part of the company, and this can affect the morale of the other team members. In the early stages of a startup, there should be a lot of focus on building a solid team.”
