2. “I
got
an
idea.
Let’s
create
a
startup”
A
friend
of
a
friend
3. Early
2006
• I’m
not
happy
with
Java
offerings
for
the
client
side
• Met
two
seasoned
developers
who
were
not
happy
with
JavaScript
• Adobe
acquires
MacroMedia
and
releases
a
promising
RIA
framework
Flex
2
• Let’s
learn
Flex
and
write
a
book
about
it
14. Recrui'ng!!!
“Ideas
are
a
dime
a
dozen.
People
who
implement
them
are
priceless.”
Mary
Kay
Ash
15. How
we
Aaract
Talent
from
Overseas
• Ability
to
work
flex
hours
• Ability
to
work
in
your
own
town
• CompeKKve
pay
• Work
with
seasoned
developers
16. Hiring
•
We
don’t
hire
teams
•
We
don’t
hire
juniors
(too
expensive)
People
must
be
capable
of
doing
independent
work
and
communicate
well
•
Each
person
goes
through
phone/skype
technical
interviews.
If
we
are
not
VERY
impressed,
we
offer
a
candidate
paid
test
assignment
•
17. Retaining
Good
People
• Between
consulKng
projects,
they
work
on
our
product
• People
need
to
be
moKvated:
pay
+
flexibility
+
challenging
work
• Moving
people
from
development
to
maintenance,
if
it
beaer
fits
them
• Encouraging
people
to
aaend
trainings
and
conferences
18. Firing
• Didn’t
become
producKve
in
2-‐3
months
• Prima
donnas
• People
who
don’t
care
21. How
do
we
do
Time
Tracking?
We
don’t.
Developers
send
us
daily
reports:
22. Managers
Manager’s
role
is
to
produce
realisKc
esKmates,
deliver
on
Kme
and
protect
developers
from
mean
clients.
23. If
a
manager
can’t
tell
if
people
were
working
unless
he
saw
them
working,
he’s
incompetent
and
has
to
be
removed
from
the
project
(fired,
promoted
et
al.)
38. Our
Product
Company
(front
office)
•
We
have
sales,
customer
support,
HR
• During
4
years
everyone
was
working
from
home.
• Two
months
ago
we
rented
an
office
in
Tampa,
FL
for
5
people
of
the
front
office
team.
39. Our
Product
Company
(back
office)
• No
specs
for
development.
Fail
quickly.
• Sprints
for
maintenance
• Wiki
arKcles
describe
processes
• QA,
CI,
releases
twice
a
month
40. Hardware
• First
development
server
was
running
on
Verizon
FIOS
in
my
basement
in
NJ
• Now
we
have
two
data
centers
(leasing
cabinets
in
FL
and
NYC
).
Once
a
year
we
double
the
capacity/bandwidth
• We
buy
2-‐3
y.o.
hardware
for
25%
of
original
price,
works
well
41. Smart
UI
+
Workflow
AutomaKon
• More
than
50%
forms
are
autocompleted
(Geo
locaKons,
public/proprietary
DB/Web
services,
educated
guesses)
• All
paper
forms
are
turned
into
PDFs
• OCR
• Digital
Signatures
43. Epilogue
In
10
years
most
of
the
of
small
IT
companies
will
work
remotely.
Large
corporaKons
should
find
a
way
to
work
in
the
same
mode
or
else...
44. Some
URLs
• hap://faratasystems.com
• @yfain
• yfain@faratasystems.com
• hap://yakovfain.com
Read
this
book
for
free
now
at
hap://enterprisewebbook.com