How these New York startup giants hired game-changing developers

by Patrick Hechinger
September 21, 2016

Entrepreneurs are often seen as tech rockstars due to their grandiose keynotes and lavish lifestyles. But just like their frontmen counterparts, entrepreneurs often overshadow the true geniuses who are crafting the product.

If a gifted drummer or bassist is the backbone to a song’s success, it takes a knowledgeable listener to recognize their contribution. And the same can be said for the unsung engineers who craft a brilliant piece of software.

For every Jobs there’s a Wozniak and for every Daltrey there’s a Townshend.

But unlike these unheralded band members, your dev team needs to grow as your company finds success. So how do you find that perfect balance between staying lean and hiring who you need to take the company to the next level?

We spoke with established New York tech companies to find out how they transitioned from a lone engineer to a small dev team while keeping everyone on the same page:

Answers provided by COO and co-founder, Alex Poon

What was the transition like when your company went from a lone engineer or co-founder to a team? 

"Transition is never easy. Bringing others on to work on your protean company is like teaching someone else to care for your child. We didn't have any documentation or procedures. We did a lot of the on-boarding and education through tribal knowledge, and early teammates were somewhat left to sink or swim. Luckily, most of them swam."

What were you looking for in new hires during those early days? 

"Given the limited infrastructure and broad needs at the time, we looked for strong generalists who could explore, experiment, and be flexible enough to do what it takes to succeed. And of course, they had to be self-starters."

How did you craft a lineup of developers to meet all of your needs?

"We leaned heavily on referrals. We weren’t hiring 200 people. Bringing in top engineers with high chances of being a fit with the team was much more important than quantity."
 

Answers provided by CTO Liming Zhao

What was the transition like when your company went from a lone engineer or co-founder to a team? 

"I am fortunate that on day one, the founders recruited a very solid founding engineering team which stayed with us up until today and are motivated by seeing Compass achieve its future successes. However, Compass did go through that process of having a few people that owned everything to a team of 50+ Engineers with team structures and clarified ownerships. The key of a smoother (or less painful) transition is being transparent with the team and acknowledge any system or structural shortcoming up front, which is only natural in a rapid growing startup. Sometimes it's fixing an issue from a failure, and sometimes it's anticipating a upcoming issue and addressing it preemptively."

What were you looking for in new hires during those early days? 

"In the early days we only hired very experienced, full stack engineers (or those at least willing to work on all problems and have demonstrated they were learning skills)."

How did you craft a lineup of developers to meet all of your needs? 

"In the early days, we hired very experienced, fully skilled engineers. Later on, once we had a working business model, clear technology direction, and a corresponding team structure, we spent effort on hiring high-potential, fresh graduates who were willing to learn, try a lot of things and grow. This is because we had built the capacity to train and grow our young people."
 

Answers provided by co-founder and SVP of Product and Engineering, Mark Kornfit. 

What was the transition like when your company went from a lone engineer or co-founder to a team? 

"Deeply satisfying. Working with a team of smart people that truly care about our mission, and that are far better than us at what they do, is an infinite source of inspiration."

What were you looking for in new hires during those early days? 

"We were looking for builders. People that are obsessed with creating new products, that want to make a difference, and that identify with what we're trying to achieve."

How did you craft a lineup of developers to meet all of your needs? 

"We've always been on the lookout for great developers and referrals are always the best source of talent."

Another struggle of scaling your dev team is knowing if your product is performing as well as it should. To learn more about harnessing software analytics, check out what New Relic has to offer. 

Jobs at New Relic

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