This document discusses building a software development team. It covers topics like hiring developers, conducting interviews, developer salaries, company culture, and equity compensation. Some key points include: - Hiring focuses on both generalists for startups and specialists for established companies. Technical interviews are important. - Remote work is the future as it allows access to more talent while driving better communication. - Company culture and equity are important for attracting and retaining developers beyond just salary. Vesting equity over time is common. - Toronto is a growing startup hub but loses talent to larger markets like San Francisco due to higher salaries elsewhere.

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

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

3. 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

4. DEMAND

5. INDEED.COM
Job Trends

7. "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

8. TORONTO

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

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

11. The
Struggle

12. SFOYYZ

13. AND
DETERMINING FIT
HIRING

14. THE
GENERALIST
THE
SPECIALIST

15. FRAMEWORK
Developer
APPLICATION
Developer
VS

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

17. "Finding Great
Developers"Joel Spolsky, 2006

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

19. INTERVIEWING
(MOSTLY TECHNICAL)

20. 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)
INTERVIEWING JUNIORS /
NEW GRADS

21. Jr. Ruby on Rails Developer:
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

23. WHITEBOARD: FIZZ BUZZ
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
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”.

24. Have more of your Sr.Devs interview them
Conversational approach.
More focus on past experience than writing
FizzBuzz
Discuss design patterns they like and solve
architecture problems, instead of SQL
statements
INTERVIEWING SR.
DEVELOPER

25. COMMON QUESTIONS
① But no one on my team (yet) is technical
enough to conduct a technical interview…
What then?
② Should I hire a developer that knows
language/framework X when we use
language/framework Y?
Eg: Python/Django <==> Ruby/Rails

26. MORE THAN JUST
A FOOSBALL TABLE
CULTURE

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

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

29. lunch
together
LUNCH
TOGETHER

30. REMOTE
TALENT
NO, NOT
“OFFSHORING”

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

32. ① Don't want to relocate
② Don't need to relocate
③ "My spouse is going to med school"
④ Productivity: "most of our remote
developers work longer hours than our
in-office devs."
⑤ Collaborative workspaces
⑥ Forces better communication
⑦ Not widely adopted (yet)
WHY?

33. Works super well with collaborative
workspaces.
Search online for remote full time
positions today and you won't find
much.
... But in a few years almost everyone
will be doing it and it will be a no
brainer.*
REMOTE TALENT

34. REMOTE TALE
How?

35. EQUITY
FOR WHEN $$ IS
JUST NOT ENOUGH

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

37. CONCLUSION
① High Demand: YYZ losing talent to SFO
② Remote talent & distributed teams => Future!
③ Startups: seek generalists
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

38. 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

39. 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/

40. QUESTIONS?
FIN.