Let's make a sharp distinction between "A-Grade people" and "10x engineers"
Someone might not be a 10x engineer, but still have enough programming/development savvy to build out your startup idea, especially if it's not a tech-heavy idea. In this case you don't need the top .01% and it's silly and counterproductive to search for one. In fact we could even go so far as to say that if your idea isn't technologically "sexy" and you think you have gotten a top 0.01% engineer on board, you might be deceiving yourself. With that out of the way, who would ever, ever, recommend that you "don't need A grade people"? Someone might not be top a percentile engineer, but an A grade person, to me, is someone who is bringing the same drive and motivation to your startup that you are, as well as a level of adaptability and a willingness to admit where their area of expertise ends. "A's hire A's, B's Hire C's" always seemed to me to be largely about intellectual honesty and integrity, in the sense that someone who is an A will be happy to hire the smartest person they can for a job, smarter than themselves I mean, feeling not intimidated but enriched. On the other hand a B is of the type who guards jealously the domain and knowledge they have gained and will hire a C to have someone who they are confident won't surpass them in the organisation. I suppose what I am saying is: Don't try and cofound with 10x engineers unless you need them (and if you really do need them, the technical problems you are solving should attract them anyway) Don't try and cofound with people who won't bring passion, hustle and an applicable skillset of some kind Don't try and cofound with people who will bring politics into your startup. Cheers, Richard On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 9:25 AM, Geoff Langdale <[email protected]>wrote: > Good article overall. > > But I've got one nitpick: what's the obsession with finding "A-grade > people" or "10x engineers'? > > The vast majority of people looking for "technical co-founders" here and > elsewhere don't need A grade people. There are really only so many such > people to go around and obsessing about hiring such people isn't going to > help most non-technical co-founders. Many startups just aren't all that > technically complicated and aren't going to be well served by hiring A > players - in the unlikely event that they can actually acquire such people, > they are likely to either wind up with a bunch of bored engineers and/or > get a ridiculously over-engineered solution (thank you @NeckbeardHacker for > this one): > > A developer had a problem and thought "what would > @*hipsterhacker*<https://twitter.com/hipsterhacker>do?" Now he has a problem > and a Haskell-based continuous deployment system. >> > > Frankly I'm a bit tired of the "A player" meme and everything that goes > with it; all that "A players hire other A players, while B players hire C > players" type guff. Like you need to hire Ken Thompson or Butler Lampson as > lead engineer for your LAMP stack startup for fear that you might otherwise > up someone who hires a bunch of poo-flinging chimpanzees. > > Geoff. > > > On Thursday, 13 December 2012 13:46:25 UTC+11, Alex North wrote: >> >> At last week's PushStart mentor live event (which was great, thanks Kim) >> I was asked pretty much the same question, in various guises, by everyone I >> spoke to. >> >> I know it's a hard problem and there's no easy answers, but I've written >> up my >> thoughts<http://alexn.id.au/2012/12/13/how-to-find-someone-technical-to-build-your-idea/>afterwards >> for anyone interested. >> >> Of course, it's easier to be blunt from behind a keyboard... >> >> Alex >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
