Part II — Technical Leads
Getting it right
Part II of Advice for Non-Technical Founders
If you read Part I we discussed what I called a technical lead. What is a technical lead? A technical lead satisfies the following criteria:
- They work for you. Not outsourced, not part-time, not for free. The work for you for money.
- They are responsible for your code, your data, your integrations, your security. They know where your code is, what it does, who has access to it, and can/will review it for completeness and security.
- They have signed a work product agreement and NDA.
If you are non-technical founder you absolutely need a technical lead to sanity check your vision and to properly evaluate scope. This should be your first hire and it is critical that you nail. Here is a list of recommended criteria:
- 8–10 years of dedicated experience. Look for full stack developers that have put in multiple years at one company which means you may want to stay away from developers that worked for custom software firms. Why? Because you want someone who can build code to last (or has lived through code that hasn’t lasted). They are going to make their beds every day and you want them to sleep in it every night for many years to come. Software engineers who work as consultants or for custom software shops like newness and change. They want to continually use new technology and tackle new problems. Your venture is just starting, you need people that want to build and stick with it for years. Also, steer clear of code academies and recent grads. To be sure, I love code academies and boot camps, but only as a go-to source for junior developers. Also, be wary of UI/UX developers, while this group will make your product usable and look good, they tend to suffer from iceberg mentality. They see only the tip of the iceberg, not the gigantic effort that sits beneath the water. In summary, look not just for solid experience, but look for dedicated experience.
- Familiarity with either the specific industry or vertical your company is operating in. For example, if you are building logistics software for the automotive industry, you are going to want to find a tech lead that has experience either with logistics or automotive. Ideally both, but at least one. Why? Because a) they will better understand your vision and b) they may help you make it better.
- Local. This should seem obvious, but I’m surprised at how often it isn’t. You absolutely need a guy or gal that is local. This job cannot be remote, out of state, or offshore. Period. Full stop.
- Family. This may run counter to the stereotypical startup demographic, but you want a person that has a family. The best technical leads I’ve hired have always been men or women that have young families. Why? Because younger software developers have options and drama. They have job options, travel options, and relationship options. Who can be counted on every day to deliver? People with a mortgage, a baby, and taxes to pay. These people will get bought into your vision quickly and will stick.
When we talk about these criteria the most common reaction is “Ok, that seems excessive, how do I find that person?”. If your company is early or if your team is young, try to hit at least 2 of these criteria. It’s going to be hard and, as discussed in Part I, attracting talent is your first leadership test.
This is probably a good point to pause and highlight an important reality: You shouldn’t be building a technology company without sound engineering and software fundamentals. You cannot overlook this hire or think that you can outsource it. Sadly, I think I a lot of founders do. Despite that, many do become successful but their journey will be hindered with more pivots, more missteps, more delays, scope creep, poor planning and missed expectations.
Where do you find solid developers? Here is another hard truth: They don’t grow on trees and they aren’t cheap. They also are not looking for a job, they are usually stuck in a job. This process takes time. Create a strategy and know that it may take a few months. Work your personal and professional networks talking about your idea and the right people will show up at your door.
Should you use a recruiter? Not for your tech lead. Recall, this is your first leadership test: Can you attract talent? Passing this test says a lot about the potential for long-term success. Recruiters are great in a pinch or when you need volume, but this is your tech lead, you should be on your own for this one. Good ideas + passionate leaders = Talent Magnet. Turning to a recruiter at this stage is a sign that either your idea or your leadership skills are lacking.
Next step: Contract-to-Perm
If you found someone that fits the mold, and I can’t stress this enough, work our a contract-to-perm hiring process. Strong technical people are too expensive to get wrong. Ensure that you don’t get burned here by creating a contract-to-perm relationship. An ideal Contract-to-Perm process is a win-win for both you and your tech lead.
No matter how you slice it, your tech lead is going to be expensive, but this is an investment, not an expense. The key is not to find a good person cheaply, the key is to find the right person expensively. I’ve found the best way to de-risk your investment is by creating a heavily incentivized contract-to-perm relationship. Make the contract for 3 months and lay out clear expectations and tangible deliverables. And pay for it.
After almost 20 years working as a developer or with developers I know one universal truth: You will never look at your top engineers and think “Gee, we pay those guys too much.” Never.
Your top engineers will produce 10x more than your average engineers, so do everything you can to ensure that you only hire top talent as your lead software engineer. I fully subscribed to Netflix’s Five Talent Tenets here, specifically #1: Hire, reward, and tolerate only fully formed adults.
Securing a tech lead is a prerequisite for building your company and in Part III we will cover the next logical question: Should I hire a CTO?
Cheers,
Mike
@msengbusch1
