Ask HN: Expanding into a two-person development team | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Expanding into a two-person development team

9 pointsqixxiq5 comments

I've been the sole-developer for our startup for almost two years now. I'm perhaps a little burnt-out, but our bootstrapped startup is finally profitable enough to hire another developer.

The problem is that either we're failing to find the right developer, or we're failing to convince developers to join us and stay on. We're not in a big startup city and its been very tough finding competent programmers. Through a long six-month search we've found four developers we are happy with but haven't managed to retain any.

The one that we convinced to join, gave us notice today of his decision to leave at the end of the month (he's been with us since start of jan). Its likely that I'm not a good manager - but unfortunately I cant just accept that and move on. Somehow this needs to work.

I've read up all I could on managing staff but mostly it applies to larger companies. I'm in a rather unique situation of having to introduce someone to a large codebase alone.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how they have managed with a similar situation?

I was the sole developer on Forrst from late Dec 2009 through about November 2010. I hit the same point as you -- burnt out from doing it all, but finally financially able to spread the load a bit.

Our app isn't huge, but still pretty complex and comes with a bit of a learning curve. The dev I hired I'd originally met on Forrst, and that provided a nice opportunity to get to know him and his process for a bit before we started discussing working together. It's worked out beautifully so far.

I hear you on managing others -- it's been a learning experience for me, and I know I'm not great yet, but getting better all the time. From my perspective, I've tried to approach this from the standpoint of "would I enjoy working for me". Also, I think it's important to keep things in perspective -- two devs is still really small, and should (to me at least) feel more like a partnership than a more formal manager/employee relationship.

That being said, I'm curious if you've been able to gather any data on why they're not sticking around. Even an informal exit interview over coffee or something. Seems like that could be useful in determining what to do next.

I'm glad I refreshed first, I'm also curious if there's a common theme in why they decide to move on.

Have you tried asking them why they are leaving? If you try to make it clear that you are seeking honest feedback (and not just asking as a formality, or with preconceptions), I suspect they will tell you.

Burning through four developers in six months, with the latest starting at the beginning of January and leaving at the end of February would seem to indicate a significant problem internally.

A very big problem, indeed. I assume since the OP has been able to convince others to join them in the first place that the idea and what they're working on is compelling enough. Therefore if they're leaving so quickly there is most likely something wrong with how they're managing. That is extremely high turnover.

My approach to leading isn't like what I see most others doing, it takes time and a lot of effort but I find it to be well worth it in the end. A lot of it has to do with being personable and understanding who the people you're leading really are and what they care about. You have to be genuinely interested in them, though, otherwise it would just come off as kind of creepy. With that in place it allows you to talk, and that's really all there is to it. Talking.

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