Building the Right Team at Every Stage of Your Startup
Recently, I discussed with a colleague whether to hire or develop talent in a startup. There are interesting points on both sides, but some factors are more important than others.
For the sake of this article, let’s assume you have a good business idea and enough funding. Now you want to spend that money hiring freelancer or developing employees.
I differentiate between having very small (1-3), decently sized (5-8), and large teams (9+ developers). While having technical skills is beneficial, successful enterpreneurs often prove that exceptional technical skills are not always necessary to found a lucrative business.
In a small team, experienced developers are important. They have developed other applications and know which tools, languages and frameworks to use. They might even have hosted and maintained similar systems before. If this knowlege doesn’t exist in your business, there is a risk of using the wrong tools for the job. Learning these skills takes time, but you might not have that due to pressing deadlines.
Finding a senior developer at the beginning might not be feasible. Here, freelancers are a good alternative.
Medium sized teams should consist of a mix of senior and mid-level developers with up to two juniors. Senior developers remain important; if you cannot hire them, get freelancers instead. You must ensure that the freelancers transfer operational knowledge effectively so your team can have a smooth handover.
As your venture grows beyond these intermediate stages, replace freelancers with employees as they are decidedly a better long-term investment.
Large teams still need experienced engineers at their core, but the majority of the engineers should be mid-level. The majority of tasks will likely be of medium comlexity and size. Adding too many senior developers might mean they aren’t enough challenging tasks for all of them. Furthermore, finding consensus becomes harder as everyone offers opinions.
It is notoriously difficult to find truly good engineers, even when you offer high salaries or leverage technical recruiters for active sourcing. At some point, you likely need to compromise on the seniority level required to fill your vacancies fast enough. In these scenarios, I like to hire people with potential and a good mindset – smart people learn fast.
This principle can guide your strategy for adding more teams to your expanding organization.