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No better place to ask – how do I find a CTO?
Hey all, Joey here from Baron Fig. I've posted several times in the past about our journey from Kickstarter-backed project to full fledged company. We're ready to take the next step, and that involves a full-time CTO to work alongside myself and my partner, Adam.
Do you have any suggestions on how to go about finding a well-rounded CTO in NYC with hustle, creativity, and drive? That's a lot to ask for, but it's the only way to get things done.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
About us: To refresh you guys: our startup is called Baron Fig, we make Sketchbooks & Notebooks. Last September we launched a Kickstarter and surpassed our goal by 11x. We ended up pre-selling 8,760 books to 4,242 people from 48 different countries. In March we launched our website with full web store. To-date we've sold 20,000+ books in 17 countries worldwide.
- dylanhassinger 12y agoHire a good lead developer and slowly expand their responsibilities. here's a good example: https://overflow.bufferapp.com/2014/06/06/from-android-contractor-to-cto-my-story-as-an-engineer/ https://overflow.bufferapp.com/2014/06/06/from-android-contr...
- morlokman 12y agoThis makes sense, thanks for the link. That refocuses the question. How do I find a lead developer?
- dylanhassinger 12y ago- ask people in your network for recommendations - go to local tech meetups and make friends - use a site like Odesk to search for your guru. here's a post I wrote on this: http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-web-development-on-odesk-or-elance/ http://dylanized.com/some-ninja-tips-for-outsourcing-web-dev... Also it can really help to find the smartest people you know and take them out to lunch/hire them for an hour just to give advice. They can recommend people, vet possible candidates, and help develop your technical strategy - even though they can't or won't take the full time job themselves. hope this helps!
- theklub 12y agoSee if you can steal Moleskine's top tech employee/s.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- soneca 12y agoBelow is part of my own comment on another thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8379613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8379613): Now, actualy answering the qustion to where find it. I don't believe in startup events or regular networking for this. You hire the more outspken and available developer, not the right one. A good tip that worked for me is to keep an eye for this guys that show up at HN front page with a technical post or a Show HN. Rule out the very experient and famous developers who are regulars to HN front page. Search for the new, unknown guy who did something bright (HN upvotes are a great filter from tech guys for this). At the Show HN rule out the full formed startups, look, again, for the new, unknown guy who built something great as a side project. If you have experience in the field, a good idea and money to fund (and a willingness to go to SV), i think you are in good position to attract the top talent that appear here. Also, look for someone in "Who is hiring" Hn thread (definitely not at "Needs a freelancer?" thread). The prologue of that comment is much in line with dylanhassinger's comment. I wholeheartedly agree with: Hire a good lead developer and slowly expand their responsibilities.
- morlokman 12y agoFantastic insights, thanks for taking the time to answer. I love it.
- soneca 12y agoWell, do consider that I just copied/pasted some words I had already written before! :) But to live up to your comment, I will take the time give my opinion about your specific case. You have a vision, apparently a passion, a successfull kickstarter campaign and, more important, proved traction. So you should be able to attract top talent. So, don't settle for anything less than the person who can build all you envision and share your passion for the business. You communicate very well your success (in your "about us"), but for the CTO I think you might need to communicate your vision to what the CTO will have to accomplish as well (I imagine you are not hiring a CTO just to handle the website and the shop - as they are both looking great without a CTO, but aiming for more ambitious tech-related paths). If you happen to find someone very good ready for full-time job, in a position that wouldn't make much sense to ask him/her to work part-time, still keep it temporary and starting with small projects. He/she will have to earn his position as CTO, no matter how shiny his portfolio might be. Give him a 2-week project, than another, then a 1-month project, always paying him market rate and respecting his time. But don't make the decision to hire the CTO before that test. And take your time to find the right promess. A good way to simultaneously "keep looking" and "waiting for the right person" is to hire contractors, with a lower bar, for things you need built in the short term. Don't promise any CTO position, just regular freelance job for what you need build. Test one, then another, no expectations, no hurry. There is another thread in HN from whoishiring that is "Who wants to be hired?". I would say is a good place to look. The last one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542898 good luck EDIT: Ah! And I loved your product. If you ever need some help with online/inbound marketing (and more specifically if you want to test the brazilian makret for your product), I might help. Sure, starting with some small marketing projects as a freelance to see if we are a good match! ;)
- MalcolmDiggs 12y agoIf you're looking for a chief problem-solver, I'd start by making your problems clear and compelling. Make it worth their time (intellectually) to engage with you. You've got a website, you've got sales, etc... where would the CTO come in? Exactly what kind of technical problems are you trying to solve? What kind of scale are you trying to accommodate? What has failed? What's your dream stack, etc? Pick a place on your site to state these clearly, (a Careers page for example), and link it prominently in the footer or elsewhere... So that someone who's already a fan/customer of yours but also happens to be technically-adept might stumble upon it. (If you have a careers page now, I wasn't able to find it). This ideal person might get interested in the problems you're trying to solve, and offer to pitch in; or they'll send the link to their friend, colleague, etc. I think that's the most organic way of sourcing the right person.
- morlokman 12y agoThis is a great suggestion. Finding someone who is already a Baron Fig user would be fantastic. I like your idea regarding a Jobs page, however, I'm having trouble figuring out what we'd put on there. It makes sense to list the basics, but I'm hesitant to put project details in there if its public. The things we'd be working on are 1–2 years out, and likely not something we'd like to discuss with the public (or competitors!) until we're ready. What would you do in this case?
- MalcolmDiggs 12y agoThat's an interesting point. I think the fact that an eCommerce retailer is working on technical problems that may take 1-2 years to solve would surprise a lot of people. In eCommerce you're going to be fighting against the preconception that all a CTO would be doing is trying to up-the-conversion-rate and adding new products to the lineup (snooze-fest). The fact you're tackling academically rigorous problems is an asset, so anything you can share about it will help you recruit. A lot of people have hot-buttons for the topics that interest them, so pushing them, even in a general way could catalyze interest. If, for example, you were working on a speed/latency/performance problem that might attract a certain kind of person, whereas a big-data or analytics problem might attract someone else.