An open letter to entrepreneurs, from someone who has worked for quite a few of you.
Normally, I go through a lot of examples and points and then summarize at the end. This one is important to me, though, so I'll give you the summary now. Up front.Your company is your baby. Not mine. You're invested, not me. To me, you're a job. Just another employer. Unless you do something to get me invested.
In my experience, a good number of entrepreneurs don't quite get this. I get that your company is your baby. You've worked for it, lost sleep for it, and probably skipped a meal or two for it. To you, this is personal. But it isn't to me. Not right away, and not just because you hired me. If I'm going to be personally invested in your company, in your idea, you need to give both reason and opportunity to do so. And it's worth it. If you're just a job to me, I'll walk away as soon as a better one comes by. If I'm invested, I'll have to be dragged out.
To that end:
Just because you believe, doesn't mean I do.
Most software developers I've encountered fall into one of two categories. First you have the mercenaries contractors. They work for the people who give them the best compensation. And I don't just mean money. Pay, benefits, environment, all goes into it. But as soon as they see a better place, they're a developer-shaped puff of smoke in the air.
Then, there are the developers who want to work for the company they work for. Because they want to be a part of what that company does. Believe me- those are the guys you want. But you have to give them a reason. And that's the bit that, in my experience, many entrepreneurs overlook. They think that the fact that they know how awesome the company is, then any employee should, too. Automatically.
Look- I'm a software developer and I'm familiar with the territory. A lot gets asked of us, and we take a great deal of professional pride in delivering quality work. But there's got to be a better reason than "Because I said so". If I'm working 50-60 hours a week just because "That's policy", then I'm probably going to have my resume out in a couple of months. Definitely before my one year anniversary. If I care, then I'll do what needs to be done, but you have to give me a reason to care.
I've worked at both extremes of this. One entrepreneur mandated 50 hours a week, minimum, 24/7 support, and made us track our time down to the quarter-hour. For few benefits, and frequent communication that profit sharing and ownership would only come to those who deserved it. Which was, at least at the time, no one. I had taken the job in order to gain a specific skill set. Once I felt I had it, I moved on. I had no investment in the company because the founder hadn't given me a reason to care.
I went to another startup. The CEO gave regular meetings, not just on how the company was doing but why they were doing certain things. He told us quite frequently that his vision was to change a market in order to put more power and more control, and thus more opportunity, in the hands of customers. He ended every meeting with "Welcome to the revolution!" He believed. More importantly, he got others to believe. Nights? Weekends? No problem. Answer questions while on vacation- sure. Why? Because I wanted that company to succeed- still do, even though we've parted ways. And even so, I'm a touch sad about having done so. Because I believed.
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