How does a startup find the best developers?

Question

I'm based in the UK, so I'm not sure how well this can be answered elsewhere.

In my opinion, the best way to find good developers is through recruitment agents. I'm basing this opinion on the fact that if I was looking for a new job then the first place I would go is a recruitment agent. Unless of course I had a specific company in mind that I wanted to work for.

The problem is, recruitment agents charge a lot of money. Anything from 15-25% of starting salary.

As a startup, this is a lot of money. Whilst you can be very strict on your hiring to ensure you only get the best, it's still a lot of money to shell out.

A large and well known company has the benefit of being able to advertise their positions and attract candidates without the need for a recruitment agent. However, this requires already having a name for yourself which a startup just doesn't have.

So my question is, what other options are there to get good developers to apply to work for you when you're a small startup that they will never have heard of!

Answer 1

Word of mouth. If your start-up is doing something interesting and hiring with a fun environment, let enough developers know and word will spread.

Answer 2

Networking - put the feelers out with friends/colleges in the industry to see if they know of anyone who's wanting change.

Maybe make use of LinkedIn, Facebook, Etc.

Answer 3

I will make the assumption that a tech start up will have at least 1 CTO-esque person. I would want this person to immerse themselves in the development community for the particular platform/framework they are targeting. By involving your self in the development community you can then reach out to individuals that you believe would be a good fit, or reach out to the group at large via other mechanisms (message boards, blogs, JOS, etc).

Answer 4

If you worked at other companies or went to university with "smart and gets things done" developers who you know would be valuable, you could certainly contact them and let them know what you're doing.

You can also try to selectively advertise on sites that your audience would likely visit. By this I mean places like the Joel on Software jobs board, NOT on monster or other sites where everyone with an internet connection will fire off a resume at random and hope that some gullible HR person will accidentally put them in the interview pile.

Another thing you can try is starting a blog for the company where you show all the cool stuff you're doing and how well you treat developers. Used in conjunction with selective advertising, you'll get a lot of interest from good developers with passion.

One last caveat I would add is to carefully consider signing bonuses. A lot of startups I hear about these days offer people large amounts of money to leave their current employers and join them. While this may seem like a good idea, it calls into question the motivation of the people who join your company. If they are genuinely passionate about the start-up and really want to see it succeed, they will join anyway, bonus or not. Also, signing bonuses tend to leave a bad taste afterwards; after the initial rush of getting the money, the employee will realize that they have to work hard and that the company might not make it and so on, and they will start having second thoughts. There have been experiments on this sort of cognitive dissonance; it's been shown that people will be more interested if you don't offer a reward.

Answer 5

In my opinion, the best way to find good developers is through recruitment agents. I'm basing this opinion on the fact that if I was looking for a new job then the first place I would go is a recruitment agent. Unless of course I had a specific company in mind that I wanted to work for.

For most experienced devs, this is a last resort. Most jobs I & my friends get are through mutual contacts.

Answer 6

Ask for their SO Reputation during the interview.

Answer 7

In addition, make sure you pay enough. The best people aren't going to come knocking down your door for crap wages.

Answer 8

I've heard of recruiting costs much higher than than (80% fte in one case).

To attract top developers it's necessary to:

1) have interesting work and

2) have a good package of compensation/location/work environment/stability/career path

If either of those fall down, good luck (you'll need it)

Beyond that though, you've got a visibility problem. The only way to get around this as a small shop is going to be by having some direct channel of information. This part is going to depend a lot on the details of your industry area, but developers talk. You need to talk to them about why your project is great. If you generate some interest at this level, finding people isn't going to be a problem.

I should add that most jobs are found through people you know. This is the barrier you have to try and push through if "nobody has heard of you"

Answer 9

Actually, I doubt you will be able to attract the best talent, if you're a startup. Unless you offer them a really interesting work and/or share of the profits. In theory, you could make your own talent if you, as a CEO or CTO, are already excellent, as excellent people attract each other and excellent people can teach other to be excellent. But in practice, you would have to be really good.

Answer 10

As the guy getting voted down said, pay is probably the best way to get the top developers. Since you probably can't do that as a startup, you need to offer something else of value. While I'm interested in an interesting job, someone has to put the food on the table for my family. I would sooner be bored and taking care of my family than interested and poor. Perhaps you could offer some sort of vesting ownership stake in the startup. This is essentially free from your perspective, because your startup is worth nothing. However, it gives the (however unlikely) hope that one could become rich if one worked hard enough and the company succeeded.

If the vesting ownership option won't fly for various reasons, then you should maybe go to college recruitments. You can get good young people who don't know how much they're worth right out of school. As an added bonus, since they don't have a family they won't mind working start up hours as much. As an experienced dev, if you told me you couldn't pay me much and wanted me to work typical startup hours, I would laugh.

Good luck.

Answer 11

Most likely the best guys started the business. And good programmers are able to select the better programmers from the people applying for a job-offer. If the startup does something interesting that attracts good programmers it helps too.

Answer 12

Checkout startuply.com

The only people on there are people looking to work for startups. My company is currently hiring, and the applicants we got from that site (its free too!) are much much better then the endless hordes of java coders we got elsewhere.

Also I'd argue that the right attitude in a candidate is more important than a particular skillset. Languages can be learned - teaching some new hire how not to be a clockpuncher and be excited to come in to work everyday can't.

Good luck with your hires, hope this helps!

Answer 13

The best way of getting to know who the best guys would be word of mouth, the only problem is, the best coders already have good jobs and the freelancers are not too ken to be employed.

To get such guys interested, you simply have to make them an offer they can't refuse. For some it may be cash, for some flexible working hours, for some equity, for some a certain combination. But the bottom line is, you must first make them believers in your business, unless it's a freelancer who is only interested in cash.

Answer 14

I would suggest advertising on Stackoverflow.com.

Visit the site here: http://jobs.stackoverflow.com/

Mike