Find, or entice to join after an offer is made? Two different processes.
The first can be solved by getting one's name out there: writing a tech blog, hosting meetups, coming up with novel perks. The second is harder and more objective.
Most startups give mediocre salaries, but people know that. There are two things about startups that damage them, though.
1. Low equity. Once the VCs get involved, equity allotments become so low that their motivational effect is pretty much nil. I feel like the current culture of startup mediocrity has a lot to do with the fact that seriously skilled people aren't interested in the laughable equity amounts they get in post-A startups, unless they can treat it as a 9-to-5 day job and have almost unlimited autonomy.
2. Low autonomy, which surprises people. You're more able to have a global effect on the company in a startup-- that's pretty much impossible for a big corporation-- but the amount of day-to-day personal autonomy people have over their own work and careers is often less in the startups. Big companies can't compete on options and usually pay market (because they set the market rate) so the good ones give their good people decent projects. A lot of startups have micromanagement and, worse yet, an increasing number that have that MBA douchebag culture are popping up (and if you work for a startup with MBA douchebag culture, you get the worst of both worlds between big and small companies; the risk and division-of-labor uncertainty of a small company, usually run by someone too unstable and arrogant to last more than 6 months-- which isn't even that hard to do-- in a large one). New York is full of startups run by MBA types who couldn't hack it in real finance but made enough contacts to raise VC.
I'm pretty sure I'd have no trouble hiring good developers. I'd run open allocation as far as possible, and I wouldn't give out any equity, but replace that with a far more generous profit-sharing program. There wouldn't be far-off payouts with messy tax implications as with options, but bonuses would be 200-500% in good years.
"but the amount of day-to-day personal autonomy people have over their own work and careers is often less in the startups"
That might be true if you work for a shitty, tyrannical founder. In my experience, a good startup will recognize that they need employees to be relatively autonomous and self-sufficient, simply because the higher ups don't have time to babysit. Startups lack the resources for multiple levels of engineering managers, and therefore shouldn't hire people that they don't trust to be autonomous.
> I'm pretty sure I'd have no trouble hiring good developers.
Honest question -- you have a bit of a reputation, I'd say mainly from your Hacker News rants. Do you think that those will help or hurt your recruitment prospects?
Honest question -- you have a bit of a reputation, I'd say mainly from your Hacker News rants. Do you think that those will help or hurt your recruitment prospects?
In the short term, it makes me unfundable (but that's OK, because I'm not interested in raising money right now-- too many douchebags in the game) because I've brought out too many unpleasant truths, but would be neutral-to-positive if I were the one doing the hiring. In the long term, I think it's favorable, because I think (hope) that the culture will evolve to a point where I seem prescient rather than pugnacious. If I'm wrong, and the startup culture devolves, then, I don't want to be a part of it anyway.
I have a lot of respect for your no-bullshit attitude towards VC-funded companies. I don't see why that would appear as a downside to employees. Most of what I've read is you talking about what a shitty deal it is for the employees; obviously you're imagining some kind of fairer compensation and I think that's nothing but a plus.
I agree. But I think that traditional VCs would be reluctant to fund me. I'm a known publicity risk; so they'd have to find a way to sell it as upside (we're so forward thinking that this guy endorsed us). LBJ had a darker view of that dynamic, "I'd rather have him in the tent pissing out than outside of the tent pissing in".
In the long term, everything I've said will seem prescient. But I'm pretty sure my chances of getting VC funding right now are zero. Those chances were never strong, because I wasn't born into that kind of connections, but I've pissed a lot of people off. That's OK, because I'm interested in starting something when the scene is clotted with douches. I'd rather wait 5-7 years for the douche tide to go out.
The first can be solved by getting one's name out there: writing a tech blog, hosting meetups, coming up with novel perks. The second is harder and more objective.
Most startups give mediocre salaries, but people know that. There are two things about startups that damage them, though.
1. Low equity. Once the VCs get involved, equity allotments become so low that their motivational effect is pretty much nil. I feel like the current culture of startup mediocrity has a lot to do with the fact that seriously skilled people aren't interested in the laughable equity amounts they get in post-A startups, unless they can treat it as a 9-to-5 day job and have almost unlimited autonomy.
2. Low autonomy, which surprises people. You're more able to have a global effect on the company in a startup-- that's pretty much impossible for a big corporation-- but the amount of day-to-day personal autonomy people have over their own work and careers is often less in the startups. Big companies can't compete on options and usually pay market (because they set the market rate) so the good ones give their good people decent projects. A lot of startups have micromanagement and, worse yet, an increasing number that have that MBA douchebag culture are popping up (and if you work for a startup with MBA douchebag culture, you get the worst of both worlds between big and small companies; the risk and division-of-labor uncertainty of a small company, usually run by someone too unstable and arrogant to last more than 6 months-- which isn't even that hard to do-- in a large one). New York is full of startups run by MBA types who couldn't hack it in real finance but made enough contacts to raise VC.
I'm pretty sure I'd have no trouble hiring good developers. I'd run open allocation as far as possible, and I wouldn't give out any equity, but replace that with a far more generous profit-sharing program. There wouldn't be far-off payouts with messy tax implications as with options, but bonuses would be 200-500% in good years.