How To Find The Perfect Engineer?

Building a Company Vol. 1

Welcome to the first edition of “Building a Company in Public”, where I’ll be sharing my lessons, experiences, and progress so far!

After reading the Ultimate Guide on How to Become the Next Facebook, I came to the conclusion that we need to make ONE, EXTREMELY-STRONG hire.

Tip: “Keep the team small until Product Market Fit is achieved. A good number to think of is 3-6. If 3 it would look like: a CEO who is engaged with potential customers, and 2 engineers. If 6 it would look like: a CEO who is engaged with potential customers, 3 engineers, a designer, and an operations person. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND not going beyond 6 team members before you have PM Fit. You will only burn money, destroy morale and slow yourself down.”

Who is this Person?

This person is an engineer who will set the bar for all future engineers OR at the bare minimum they will be able to output a ton of code.

This person will be:

• Very smart

• Likely stays up all night programming

• Flexible (we like to pivot a lot)

• Desire for leadership (not as important)

• A pleasure to work with (the most important)

Where can I find such a person?

• MIT Campus? (Should I fly to Boston??)

• Online forums?

• In my local coffee shop?

• Are they a technical blogger?

• Should I cold-DM top contributors on GitHub?

• Ask my friends "Who are the 3 most talented engineers you know?" and then repeat that process ad nauseam?

• Make engineering TikToks? Memes on Reddit??

Any suggestions are welcome! 😊

Fortunately, I'm in no rush. And I'm always exploring alternative paths :)

Two Quick Sales Lessons

• Inbound vs Outbound leads. A lead is simply a person you want to target. Inbound means “they come to you”. Outbound means “you go after them".

  • If “they come to you”, then obviously that gives you more leverage. The strategy behind inbound is “marketing” aka “finding where they’re spending their attention (IRL or Online) and then filling that space (with yourself, content, ads, replies, engagement, etc).

  • If “you go after them”, then you gotta be more proactive and not be scared of rejection.

• Target vs Mass sales. Target sales means you’re reaching out to a specific group or person. Mass sales means you’re throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks.

  • I feel like I'm (naturally) better at target sales but I've actually had quite a quite bit of success with mass sales. Like making a broadcast and talking with random people (who turn out to be surprisingly good).

At the end of the day, my goal is the same. Find that one person.

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My Approach to Dating

My approach to hiring is eerily similar to my approach to dating.

I have a saying.

"The first girl I date will be my wife."

I really believe that.

(I have no interest in a 3-month relationship.)

How do I know if they're the person?

Well there are no lists. No criteria they have to "fulfill".

Really, it's intuition.

I can sense if they want to be with me, and I can also sense if I want to be with them. 

When both those conditions are met, then it's a match.

Otherwise, it's not.

(Usually it's one or the other or neither.)

And keep in mind —

I'm not the easiest guy to date. (solo World Traveler, hello?) 

No but seriously, they have to be able to tolerate + accept + appreciate my independence. 

I mean,

At the end of the day...

It's just a matter of time.

END.

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Thanks for reading!

As always, I’d love to hear your replies! 😊

Leo A