Great startup engineers are hard to find
I recently met with a non-technical founder. He had a great vision, design partners ready, strong sense of product direction. In the past year, he had worked with two different CTOs, both of whom churned out after a few months. He had rebuilt the app twice, was ready to go to market, and was completely stuck. He had met with 40-50 technical cofounders on YC cofounder matching, and still was struggling to find his partner.
I've worked with plenty of brilliant engineers over the years, but almost none of them are drawn to pre-seed startups. Why is that?
"The $400k Problem"
- In high-end US tech, the best engineers can easily make 300-500k. After a few years of a salary like that, going back to $100k salary isn't really an option
- To join your startup, they'd need to give up childcare, potentially downsize their house, move out of their nice neightborhood, and give up their (still covid-era) cushy quality of life.
- Many, if not MOST engineers dream of being a startup founder. But only a small fraction of them will ever take the leap - and those that do aren't necessarily the best.
- In fact, there's a selection bias: the engineers most eager to join pre-revenue startups often aren't the ones you want. The best engineers are patient - they'll wait for the right opportunity at the right stage.
Your Dream Cofounder
Check me on this (email me: noah@10xdevelopers.ai) but here's my GUESS of what your ideal CTO looks like:
- Minimum 5-10 years experience
- Mixture of big tech and startup experience
- Absolute rockstar engineer, top 1%
- Works with AI tools
- Willing to work 60 hour weeks
- Willing to accept <100k/year in exchange for 50% equity upfront
Just going to be honest: This person does not exist. People like this make 500k+ at Anthropic.
What does exist
- Minimum 5-10 years experience
- Mixture of big tech and startup experience
- Absolute rockstar engineer, top 1%
- Works with AI tools
- Willing to work 60 hour weeks for the first few years
Willing to accept <100k/year in exchange for 50% equity upfront- 30k/month cash
- OR 300k/year salary
I know these people, they are incredible engineers who could easily make 500k-1M TC at big tech companies, but will instead float around early-mid startups in areas they're passionate about. I worked with these people at Loom, Airbnb - hyped up companies with great energies and cultures. At Loom, we accepted lower compensation in exchange for good vibes and being part of something great.
We still made 200k/year.
These people just don't join seed startups, in my experience.
But they will join you, if you are VC-funded.
Hot take: you don't need them to get funded.
The curse of experience - "I've seen this movie before"
- Most startups fail. No matter how glamorous an outcome a CTO role can seem, the best engineers know the stats: 95% chance this business fails.
- I've worked at 5+ different startups in my career. Some did well, but I was incredibly lucky. After a few experiences, you adjust your expectations. 50% of nothing is still nothing, it's a big risk. Most engineers probably don't even trust themselves to properly vet your idea.
- The pattern they've seen: founder promises, runway burns, everyone laid off.
What the best engineers actually want
- Interesting problems without existential risk
- Good pay without 4-year vesting gambles
- Impact without 60-hour week
- Ongoing green-field work.
You need to have funding for me to join full time.
— Sam, ex-Meta engineer, lover of startups
How to Actually Access Senior Talent
- Network, build long term relationships. Hire mid/junior talent and coach them.
- Pay up. Expect 150k/year minimum for a software engineer who values their time appropriately
- Find a unicorn
- Work with us to get funding-ready