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I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as

I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer brings to the table is probably not going to be the kind of experience that makes or breaks a startup. Experienced devs can bring much more value at later stage companies, where they can focus on the thing they are good at, rather than at an early stage startup where the founders have a million different responsibilities.

SmellTheGlove 5y ago
> I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. Well, this is in response to a post that said they had an offer, so my presumption here is that the startup needed that experience or they wouldn't have offered the role. > And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer The original post didn't specify whether they were a developer, only that they were 15 years older than the other co-founder. I'm making my own assumption about that translating into 15 more years experience (not accounting for breaks, back to school, whatever).
jokethrowaway 5y ago
Having a developer with experience or one without is the kind of thing that can break a startup. If you try to get a single junior developer to ship the product... well, good luck with that. I can count on one hands the people in my circle who could do that fresh out of university. You definitely need at least a mid developer who shipped something else - of you can just outsource the tech side. When my startup was incubated there were plenty of biz founder with a junior who couldn't ship something simple (even a wordpress with some plugins would have worked!) or ended up outsourcing their development (which ended up being a way to make some income when my startup didn't go anywhere).
gedy 5y ago
> And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer brings to the table is probably not going to be the kind of experience that makes or breaks a startup. Hard disagree here, as many many junior devs treat startup/greenfield work as their personal playground for trying esoteric tech, prematurely building their own platform, etc.
andrew_ 5y ago
I would argue that your take doesn't apply to T-shaped engineers, or engineers that have been in the industry through a multitude of technology shifts and trends.

SmellTheGlove 5y ago

> I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. Well, this is in response to a post that said they had an offer, so my presumption here is that the startup needed that experience or they wouldn't have offered the role. > And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer The original post didn't specify whether they were a developer, only that they were 15 years older than the other co-founder. I'm making my own assumption about that translating into 15 more years experience (not accounting for breaks, back to school, whatever).

jokethrowaway 5y ago

Having a developer with experience or one without is the kind of thing that can break a startup. If you try to get a single junior developer to ship the product... well, good luck with that. I can count on one hands the people in my circle who could do that fresh out of university. You definitely need at least a mid developer who shipped something else - of you can just outsource the tech side. When my startup was incubated there were plenty of biz founder with a junior who couldn't ship something simple (even a wordpress with some plugins would have worked!) or ended up outsourcing their development (which ended up being a way to make some income when my startup didn't go anywhere).

gedy 5y ago

> And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer brings to the table is probably not going to be the kind of experience that makes or breaks a startup. Hard disagree here, as many many junior devs treat startup/greenfield work as their personal playground for trying esoteric tech, prematurely building their own platform, etc.

andrew_ 5y ago

I would argue that your take doesn't apply to T-shaped engineers, or engineers that have been in the industry through a multitude of technology shifts and trends.