This presentation focuses on how to seek, recruit and retain good talent for your software development team. It also examines external human resource factors such as the job market, the competition and software trends.

1. BUILDING
A Software
Development Team
KHURRAM VIRANI
JAKE HIRSCH-ALLEN

3. KHURRAM
VIRANI @viranik
PARTNER
Functional Imperative @func_i
www.functionalimperative.com
INSTRUCTOR
Bitmaker Labs @bitmakerlabs
www.bitmakerlabs.com

4. JAKE HIRSCH-
ALLEN @jakehirschallen
PARTNER
Functional Imperative @func_i
www.functionalimperative.com
DIRECTOR, BD
OODA Technologies @oodatech
www.ooda.ca
SPM
Incentives for Global Health @HealthImpact
www.healthimpactfund.org

5. DEMAND

6. INDEED.COM
Job Trends

8. "Software Is Eating
The World” Marc Andreessen, Aug 2011
Buy A 10x Software Developer: Its
The Best Investment You Can
Make… Venkatesh Rao, April 2016

9. TORONTO

10. TORONTO IS #8
Top 20 Startup Ecosystems
Startup Genome Report 2012

11. TORONTO:
SALARIES
JR. DEVELOPER SR. DEVELOPER
(NEW CS GRAD)
50K 80K
60K 100K

12. Big
Challenge

13. YYZ SFO

14. HIRING
AND
DETERMINING FIT

15. THE THE
GENERALIST SPECIALIST

16. FRAMEWORK
Developer
VS
APPLICATION
Developer

17. Q:
"Should I hire a Rails
developer for my Django
project?"
Depends...

18. "Finding Great
Developers"Joel Spolsky, 2006

19. Great developers
already have
jobs
Go where they
hang out

20. INTERVIEWING
(MOSTLY TECHNICAL)

21. INTERVIEWING JUNIORS /
NEW GRADS
Real World Example:
① Transcript
② Online Portfolio (apps, twitter, blog, github)
③ 30m technical phone screen
④ Code challenge (1-2hr homework)
⑤ 3h on-site technical interview
⑥ Pair programming with Sr. Dev
(on-site half-day session)

22. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Jr. Ruby on Rails Developer:

23. Technical
Questions
Some examples

24. WHITEBOARD: FIZZ BUZZ
Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100.
But for multiples of three print “fizz” instead of the number
and for the multiples of five print “buzz”. For numbers
which are multiples of both three and five print “fizzbuzz”.
WHY CAN'T PROGRAMMERS.. PROGRAM?
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers
program.html
FIZZ BUZZ TEST
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest

26. INTERVIEWING SENIOR
DEVELOPERS
More emphasis on Portfolio
Conversational approach
Solve Architecture problems
Soft skills more important

27. WHITEBOARD: PARKING LOT
Model the software system that would be used to operate
and manage a parking lot that is used for both public and
private parking. Tickets can be purchased and rates can
change…
Remember, Conversation:
“Why are you doing it this way?”
“Have you considered this?”
“What if X happens?”

28. WHITEBOARD: CHAT
Model the architecture to build out facebook chat. What
open source technologies would you leverage?
Remember, Conversation:
“Why are you doing it this way?”
“Have you considered this?”
“What if X happens?”

29. Q:
”What if we don’t have anyone
technical on the team to
conduct tech interviews?"
Find some...

30. Reference
Checks
Are old school

31. CULTURE
MORE THAN JUST
A FOOSBALL TABLE

32. DEVELOPERS ARE
CREATIVE
Artists don't work 9 to 5

33. DEVELOPERS AS
PRODUCT DRIVERS
esp. when the company IS the
product

34. LUNCH
lunch
TOGETHER
together

35. REMOTE
TALENT
NO, NOT
“OFFSHORING”

36. "Why We (Still) "Stop whining
Believe in Working and start hiring
Remotely" remote workers"

37. WHY?
① Don't want to relocate
② Need to relocate: "My spouse is going
to med school"
③ Productivity: "most of our remote
developers work longer hours than our
in-office devs."
④ Collaborative workspaces
⑤ Forces better communication
⑥ Not widely adopted (yet)

38. REMOTE TALE
The Technology Is There …

39. EQUITY
FOR WHEN $$ IS
JUST NOT ENOUGH

40. EQUITY
Very heavily debated topic.
① Fairness > %
② Vesting
③ Slices
④ Shotgun clause
⑤ Equity ! = Currency
⑥ Dilution / Valuation !%#&

41. CONCLUSION
① High Demand: YYZ losing talent to SFO
② Remote talent & distributed teams => Future!
③ Startups: seek generalist, application developers
④ Established companies: seek both generalists &
specialists
⑤ Technical interviews are very important
⑥ Go where the talent is
⑦ Culture is important to attract and retain talent
⑧ Give vesting equity to your founding team

42. REFERENCES
Further Reading
http://alittlebitofjake.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/buy-a-10x-software-developer-its-the-best-investment-
you-can-make/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/20/startup-genome-ranks-the-worlds-top-startup-ecosystems-silicon-
valley-tel-aviv-l-a-lead-the-way/
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2013/02/why-we-still-believe-in-working-remotely/
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.html
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3064-stop-whining-and-start-hiring-remote-workers
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html
http://justinjackson.ca/why-distributed-teams-are-more-effective/
http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-startup-how-do-i-allocate-
ownership-fairly/23326#23326

43. REFERENCES
Further Reading
http://foundrs.com/
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/35%20Founders%27%20Pie%20Calculator.htm
http://berkonomics.com/?p=1214
http://billpayne.com/2011/02/14/startup-valuations-the-dave-berkus-method.html
http://medstars.com/images/docs/modified_berkus_method.pdf
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/10/14/understanding-how-dilution-affects-you-at-a-startup/

44. FIN.
QUESTIONS?
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