3 ms·

It's hard because buyers (midsize+ company executives who can spend 1M+/yr) who are good at software don't need outside help, so you're really looking for buyer

It's hard because buyers (midsize+ company executives who can spend 1M+/yr) who are good at software don't need outside help, so you're really looking for buyers who are not good at software and they hang out at Medicaid summits, not Javascript meetups. To fix this you need a "rainmaker" and that person is the CEO. Since you don't have that person yet, you need to either market yourself to try to attract that person to you, or become that person yourself which is a career change. Of course this is hard, because obviously nobody is handing out million dollar contracts for free. The lifetime value of being a rainmaker is in the 100s of millions of dollars of cashflow, so to beat your competitors you might expect to invest quite a lot even to just get the first few small contracts (which then feed back into your qualifications and help you grow). Also note that the contracts may be unpleasant, the buyers with the money are not hot startups with best practices, but rather lumbering enterprises with decaying systems who have done everything exactly wrong (they don't understand software, remember?)

ravitation 5y ago
This is all true, but the "rainmaker" doesn't have to be the CEO, or just one person, or even work at the company. An alternative is to find an external "rainmaker," an example that I've often seen is small consulting firms that focus on things other than development (e.g. design or organization), or focus on a different type of development (e.g. CAD/CAE), that need reliable partners to bring onto their own projects. This is probably less good long term, but it depends on what you're trying to do as a development shop, and doesn't necessitate career changes.
- dustingetz 5y ago
  external rainmakers will exfiltrate huge chunks of cashflow from the company which is almost your entire profit margin, you really want the rainmaker to be paid in equity (in this case, ownership of the quals/brand/trust which is an asset that can be sold)
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  - ravitation 5y ago
    These are long term problems for a development shop that is 2-3 people, getting work that allows for survival and growth is the problem now. An external partner, as long as they are facilitating the development of relationships and the contract rates are reasonable, are worth quite a lot. Pretty much every successful small consulting firm I've been a part of has leveraged at least one partnership like this, even if they don't perceive it as this kind of "rainmaker" relationship.
iforgetti 5y ago
This is the right answer (at least in our case). I used to be a freelancer and now I run a 180 person development group. Our path was similar to this. In order to become the rainmaker you need to understand the problems the customers are trying to solve and you need to meet a lot of them (think 100x the number you might want to serve). You need to build meaningful connections with each of them. This is a grind so you must learn to enjoy it otherwise you won’t have the stamina. Additionally you need to be excellent at delivering software.
deleted 5y ago
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ravitation 5y ago

This is all true, but the "rainmaker" doesn't have to be the CEO, or just one person, or even work at the company. An alternative is to find an external "rainmaker," an example that I've often seen is small consulting firms that focus on things other than development (e.g. design or organization), or focus on a different type of development (e.g. CAD/CAE), that need reliable partners to bring onto their own projects. This is probably less good long term, but it depends on what you're trying to do as a development shop, and doesn't necessitate career changes.

dustingetz 5y ago
external rainmakers will exfiltrate huge chunks of cashflow from the company which is almost your entire profit margin, you really want the rainmaker to be paid in equity (in this case, ownership of the quals/brand/trust which is an asset that can be sold)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ravitation 5y ago
  These are long term problems for a development shop that is 2-3 people, getting work that allows for survival and growth is the problem now. An external partner, as long as they are facilitating the development of relationships and the contract rates are reasonable, are worth quite a lot. Pretty much every successful small consulting firm I've been a part of has leveraged at least one partnership like this, even if they don't perceive it as this kind of "rainmaker" relationship.

iforgetti 5y ago

This is the right answer (at least in our case). I used to be a freelancer and now I run a 180 person development group. Our path was similar to this. In order to become the rainmaker you need to understand the problems the customers are trying to solve and you need to meet a lot of them (think 100x the number you might want to serve). You need to build meaningful connections with each of them. This is a grind so you must learn to enjoy it otherwise you won’t have the stamina. Additionally you need to be excellent at delivering software.

deleted 5y ago

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