Startup Health Litmus Test Questions for the Recruiter

I enjoy working with early-stage startups.  Some recruiters think I am crazy – the monetary compensation is not usually as high as corporate, I will often work deferred and on contingency, and the risk is great.  The searches are harder because you are looking for extreme talented people who are willing to step away from a lucrative job, bet on their ability to deliver, and work for a deferred or low initial cash compensation.  So why do I do it?  It’s FUN!  The right startup team will be comprised of very interesting, highly intelligent entrepreneurs and I love to see how they put the next best thing together.  And to build the initial team that may one day turn into the next big brand – priceless (almost!).

I have paid a heavy price from some of my earliest involvements with startups,  including extended placed contractor payroll dollars.  Also priceless – lost meals with family, missed child performances, missed paying business deals, stress, etc.  Startups are to a large extent art, and so is the decision to work with one.  I have started a list of considerations I run through now when approached by a startup to recruit.  I will share it here, and please – if you have some items or advice to add, let me know!

• Company Viability Background
• Value Statement – simple, clear?
• When/Why Founded
• Founders’ Background
  • Starts
  • Funding Connections and Experience
  • Successful exits
  • Expertise in current core industry/sector
  • Are Founders “in” 100%?  How long can they last?
• Core Team in place?
• Board Members
• Competition Research
• Current Funding Status
• Possible exits – have they planned?
• Early Adopters, Clients, Partners on board?
• Software Build Framework:  Fast Engineering Iterations  (Agile)
• User Testing – Perspective/Plan
• Marketing Approach and Expertise
• Experience Evaluation with other Recruiters
• Corporate Structure?  Credit Ratings; Personal Guarantee of Financial Commitments
• How consistent and transparent is their communication with ME?
  • Readily available by email, IM, and/or phone
  • Able to put agreements in writing and sign
  • Review and respond to candidate submissions in a timely manner
  • Give me multiple contacts, including CFO or other key finance person
  • Keep me updated on their funding progress and team changes
• Is some payment in equity available?

Seeking android phone advice…

HTC Evo vs. Samsung Galaxy S vs. new Droid X. Looking at the online comparisons. Anyone with any strong experience and/or advice for a new android phone adopter? (Moving from a BB Bold and dumping AT&T asap.)

Skype mobile for Android

Reviewed on AndroidAnarchy.com http://bit.ly/bZjg7v

Talent Makes the Company

Talent is a critical component of any business in any economy.  Is your company working hard to attract and keep the best talent?  Your company’s HR leader needs to be focused on this because it’s PEOPLE that make the difference.

If your company has turnover, WHERE is it (which teams, which managers) and WHERE do they go?  To your direct competitor(s)?  Somewhere else?

Companies that cut costs in a recession, rather than “heads”, fare better in the long run.  This is not a knee-jerk reaction:  It is a less tactical and more strategic approach.  Cutting people breaks trust with all employees, while keeping employees through the tough times fosters loyalty.

When you are considering a new company to work with, look past the base salary and also consider what kind of culture, career growth opportunities, and creative benefits they provide.  Some HR departments allow spouses to call in to handle benefits management.  Some companies have mentoring and leadership training programs, and encourage changing teams, changing offices, and promoting internally to stay challenged in your career. Career path planning and employee retention programs can tell you a great deal about how invested the company is in its employees’ job satisfaction, and its valuation of the people who make the company successful.

PHP vs. Ruby, Take 2

Are PHP and Ruby developers ever the same animal?

Talking to some of my colleagues who work across a lot of languages, I get the impression the Ruby/Rails community has more comp sci background on average than the PHP community.

Most of my clients are developing massive scale eCommerce or communication networks and only want PHP.

Interesting. I’m still seeing a lot of Java interest in that area – but that may just be because my resumé leans that way. Java or Groovy/Grails. And some Ruby/Rails. I don’t have PHP on my resumé (despite having built PHP sites on and off for about a decade – I started with PHP3 but quickly moved to PHP4) so that’s probably why recruiters don’t contact me about PHP

Where does Ruby come in – for lighter weight, rapid web development?

Certainly for rapid web development but I don’t see it as only suitable for smaller sites. Despite the age of Ruby (almost as old as PHP), it’s only been with the arrival of Rails (about five years ago) that Ruby/Rails has moved from a fringe general-purpose programming language to a (fairly) popular web programming system. That means you’ll see a lot of buzz about it but in reality, it doesn’t have huge market share.

I’d say Ruby/Rails is a strong competitor to PHP, particularly in terms of speed of development and, with JRuby running on the Java stack, access to a lot of enterprise-grade libraries and projects. I personally prefer Groovy/Grails which is more recent and closer to Java in syntax (as well as being built on enterprise standard technology like Spring and Hibernate) while still retaining the speed of development of Ruby/Rails.

Does a PHP developer have deeper – or just different – coding ability?

Given that PHP has only sprouted OO features in an evolutionary manner (and it was only with PHP5, in mid-2004, that it became in any way mainstream) whereas Ruby was designed from day one as an OO language, I suspect that the two communities have very different approaches to problem-solving in general.

I’d draw a parallel to the CFML community. Allaire released Cold Fusion 1.0 a month after PHP1 appeared and CFML didn’t get useful OO features until it was rewritten from its early C++ codebase to Java (CFMX 6.0, May 2002 – although CFMX 6.1, July 2003, was the first release where true OO programming was possible). Even today, after three more major releases – and with two free open source CFML engines available as well – CF developers are still only gradually adopting OO practices, unless they’ve come in from a C++ / C# / Java background and already programmed that way.

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To find out more about Sean Corfield, CEO at Railo, U.S., visit:  http://getrailo.com

PHP vs. Ruby

Below is a great answer to my PHP vs. Ruby question from Geo.  Just had to share!

I asked:

Are PHP and Ruby developers ever the same animal?
Most of my clients are developing massive scale eCommerce or communication networks and only want PHP.
Where does Ruby come in – for lighter weight, rapid web development?
Does a PHP developer have deeper – or just different – coding ability?

Geo answered:

Val,

There are actually 3 points here.

• Ruby
• Rails
• PHP

The issue that happens with rails is that most people introduced to Ruby have been introduced via Rails.
Rails is a framework that utilizes Ruby as language of implementation.

Now Ruby vs PHP. Not that one is better than the other, but PHP has a much more extensive library of extensions and modules, and it’s object oriented model has been implemented over time. Ruby on the other hand has been designed from the ground up as an object oriented language, and definitely has a very modern well thought out syntax. Ruby’s community and as well as libraries are growing, but it is no where near the number of PHP’s. As a language Ruby is slower than PHP, but this is a bottleneck that can be worked around. The real issue is with Rails and its tightly coupled architecture.

Rails, like I said is a framework – a contract on how an applications architecture’s base will be implemented. 9 times out of 10 Rubiest think framework first ( Rails ) vs Language first; THEY WERE INTRODUCED TO RUBY VIA RAILS. 9.9 times out of 10 perl,php, and python people think language first. The success of Rails has brought about an implementation of it MVC structure to perl, php, and python which has enabled perl,php, and python use to ADOPT BEST PRACTICES via Frameworks like symfony,zend,cakephp, django, joomla framework ( not the cms ). Now because Rails is such a “turn keyish” type of framework, issues start to occur when sites start to grow, and what happens is that because so much was done for you at the framework level, meaning “Oh, look in Rails you don’t have to worry about X, it is handled automatically”, that when issues start to occur you are not familiar thoroughly with the architecture ( internals of RAILS) that is becomes extra work to handle high loads. Some, bottle necks in Rails are, ( RAILS FANBOYS, notice how I said SOME):

• Application startup and bootstrapping
• Active record and database implementation layer
• Caching without having the application bootstrap

These issues are also in CakePHP which is the closest implementation of Rails in PHP, they even copied the mistakes! Symfony, Zend, and Joomla Framework are much more loosely coupled, with Zend coming out as the loosest. To deal with very high traffic, TWITTER had to start scrapping away RAILS in certain parts and start developing with scala and even c++. Many Rails fanboys started crying when this happened.

In all, there are very competent Ruby programmers out there that aren’t tied to Rails, but nowhere near the amount of PHP.

Geo

Web Developer Opening – Flex & PHP – SF Bay Area

Web Developer – Flex & PHP – SF Bay Area

Internet and mobile application development company, well-established and growing fast with exciting innovation already underway for  2010!

Need to rapidly build a cracker-jack engineering team in the Bay Area.

Work for a brilliant management team.

Now seeking Bay Area local developers / engineers in the WebDev (LAMP stack) Application space.  Looking for the “top 10%”.

Creativity and skillset diversity sought, as well as high energy and ability to work well in and with teams.

Ideal candidate has small business and/or successful startup experience – not just enterprise background – and is passionate about their work.

Work with a small cutting-edge team on rapid-turn-around projects.

Qualifications:

 

• 5+ minimum years of work experience in software/web development
• College degree in CS or similar is strongly preferred
• Strong PHP skills
• Java skills
• AJAX
  • JavaScript,  XHTML, CSS
  • Flex/Actionscript
  • Familiarity with UnixOS
  • PostgreSQL  (Postgres / ORDBMS)
  • Great skill at writing clean code;  able to test code.
  • Ability to read and create from tech specs and ideas
  • Web and desktop UI experience
  • Strong written and oral communication skills

 

Desired:

• Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP) experience
•  VoIP
• XML protocols (Jabber / XMPP) – message oriented middleware
• Agile experience
• C++
• Flex IoC (Inversion of Control)
• Actionscript/Flex unit testing framework experience
• Ability to write unit tests

 

Good benefits; market compensation; some equity.

Full-time only – no contractors or part-time.

No relocation.

Must already be authorized to work in the United States.

Be available to start work ASAP.

Please include a personalized introduction with your resume so I separate you from the “auto-responds”.

Let me know you meet the above qualifications, and highlight your specialties – that will save me time and give your application priority.  I appreciate it!  -  Val@nerdsearch.net

ATT Adds Android – their press release Jan 6

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30353

Dice Offers Free Resume Critique

Just caught this ad from Dice on my mass mail.  Has anyone tried their resume service before?  What’s the catch to this “free” offer?  If you try it out,  tell me about your experience.

Free Resume Review for IT, High Tech, Manufacturing & Engineer Professionals:
In this economy, you need a resume firm that speaks your language. We have 15+ years of “talking tech” and even guarantee interviews. Don’t chance your career to a so-so resume. Make sure yours is worthy of your talents! Submit your resume now for a free review. Free Resume Critique  http://www.getinterviews.com/dice/

Startup Mentality

I am most intrigued by working with startups, where passion, talent, and creativity reign.  Risk pressure is always present, however.  I know why I jump in as a recruiter, even though finding people who are often required to work for equity and deferred cash makes my job much more challenging:  It’s exciting to meet developers, executives, and others who are ready to take the startup plunge for the first time, and great to know a network of folks who become addicted to repeating the cycle. This is the world of game-changers.   If you are teetering on the edge of catching the startup bug, here are a few good links I found to nudge you a little closer:

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Startup:  http://www.instigatorblog.com/top-10-reasons-to-join-a-startup/2007/05/23/

How to evaluate a startup:  http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=709

How to start a startup:  http://sonyjoy.com/15-mantras-for-every-startup-that-aims-to-make-it-big/

I currently have some startup opportunities in Palo Alto, CA, for server-side and UI developers, LAMP environment, eComm and social media sectors.  Contact me at val at nerdsearch . net.

Valerie Fahs-Thatcher