Startups would be wise to consider 'middle-aged', 'experienced', or 'old man' developers when forming their team. Sure, they may cost more than a couple of coll

Startups would be wise to consider 'middle-aged', 'experienced', or 'old man' developers when forming their team. Sure, they may cost more than a couple of college kids, but you are basically getting 4 employees in one: 1) A normal application developer who can code to whatever stack you are using. 2) A system level developer who can push aside whatever application stack you are using when that stack becomes problematic. She can do this because she has been building these applications before the stacks existed. 3) A process consultant. 4) A business consultant. Numbers three and four are the keys here. I typically turn over 5-6 mid-sized projects a year. Even if the 'old-man' developer you are looking has only worked on large projects chances are they have completed at least half a dozen in their career. This right here is what you are paying for. The ability to pick their brains about what processes and practices were successfully internally and why. What clients were successful and weren't and why. What kind of long term problems you are going to run into based on your short term decisions.