How to find Strong Engineers for your Startup Idea

Hi Natalia!

Hope you’re doing well. I was wondering if you could share some advice with me.

I am looking to start something and was wondering what I should do find a good technology partner? I don’t know how to code and that’s the one key thing that I need. How do I find a technology partner? I’ve been thinking about starting something for a long time, but the whole idea has been pretty overwhelming. I think I need to take the plunge soon.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks! K

Help me find a good engineer – this is a request I get frequently. At Orange Peel Labs, we put together a small yet remarkably productive team. It allowed us to build Parable from concept to launch in three months. We also shipped a local shopping website with an android app. That’s two separate products in just one year across Web, iOS and Android.

If you are starting a business, be selective and careful about choosing your partners. A poor working relationship can waste precious time that you don’t have. Your business could fail before it starts. To work well, you need to trust your engineering partners. This can only happen if you have already worked with them. Alternatively, take well planned steps to build trust. Let’s discuss your options.

Colleagues and classmates

The best approach is to partner with colleagues. They already respect your work. Invest in relationships with your co-workers. Don’t be the person who simply shows up to work. Build your reputation by delivering quality work. Select jobs based on potential co-workers. You can also draw from a pool of past classmates who have worked with you on projects.

From your network

You can partner with engineers who come recommended from your network but you don’t know professionally. Unless you have an investment, traction for your idea or strong business relationships, engineers will be uninterested. You will have to convince them to buy into your ideas. To get them onboard, you may have to make them an equal partner. Can you afford to risk ownership if the partnership fails?

Find and Hire people

To find engineers get out of your comfort zone. This spring I went to Krakow to give a talk at a startup conference, Bitspiration. Poland is brimming with technical talent. I met strong engineers excited to partner. Your engineering team doesn’t have to be co-located. They do need to have strong communication skills and be responsive.

I come from an engineering background. Early on in my career, I went through the engineering interview gauntlet (and passed!) at Microsoft. If you’re not familiar with technical interviews, check out the Career Cup website to get a sense of the questions asked. If you are looking to hire someone but don’t know how to code, find a friend or a colleague who interviews engineers regularly. Ask your friend to interview candidates. If you don’t have technical friends, look at past work. Previous projects should be well-designed and usable products with attention to detail.

If you are starting to work with a new and unknown team proceed slowly. I recommend setting a trial period up-front before commencing. Break up the work into small well-understood pieces that need to be delivered upon a mutually agreed timeline. When necessary the engineering team should push back and explain technical feasibility of building features. Make them partners by soliciting advice and feedback. There will be a period where you’re learning to work with each other. Within a month or two you should know if it’s working out. If you find that there are frequent misunderstandings and broken promises don’t be shy about discontinuing the working relationship immediately.

Hope you find this guide to finding technical partners helpful. Happy building! Have thoughts on this post? Tweet to me at @nale and let’s talk!