3 Key Tips For Attracting A Technical Co-Founder

via readwrite.com

In today's uber-connected digital world, software has become the backbone of innovation, and it plays a major role in virtually every business. From high tech to clean tech to healthcare to physical products, almost every business needs someone with at least some technical chops.

High-tech startups need technical co-founders more than just about anyone else. But with demand for technical talent at an all time high, your startup doesn't stand much of a chance of finding a first-class technical co-founder. Instead, you need to focus on attracting one.

The first step is getting into the right mindset: Stop right now with thinking you have the best idea and that this is all it takes. You may very well have the next game-changing idea, but that's missing the point. A technical co-founder wants to build your company with you, not for you...

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

4 Vital Conversations for Any Startup Team

via mashable.com

Countless startup ideas are hatched among friends, colleagues, college roommates and family members. A late-night discussion between two friends could potentially become the next social network or mobile ad platform.

These relationships can be great breeding grounds for new ideas and innovation, but navigating business management with friends or family members can also be tricky. It's tempting to rush forward without anything in writing — after all, you know each other so well, you both want the same thing for your business, why waste time with the formalities?

While you may agree on everything today, issues will inevitably emerge. Maybe a friend gets married and decides it’s time to go back "to the office." Perhaps you’ll disagree over compensation, or whether to spend your whole marketing budget on a fancy launch.

Having some kind of partnership agreement in place from the start can be a helpful starting point to figure out any issues that arise down the road. It doesn’t need to be a fancy document, but your basic discussions should include four things.

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Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds Leaves Zynga

Another key member of Zynga’s team has left the beleaguered social game maker. This time it’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds, as first reported on Polygon. The company confirmed Reynolds’ departure, but did not offer any details about why Reynolds is leaving or his last day. In a statement, Steve Chiang, president of games, said:

“Brian has a long history in the game industry and has been a great partner to the creative leaders at Zynga. I want to thank him for his leadership of the Zynga Baltimore studio in the design and development of FrontierVille, which brought many innovations to social gaming. We appreciate Brian’s contribution and we’re proud of the deep bench of creative leaders who are leading the next wave of game innovation at Zynga. We wish Brian the best in his next chapter.”

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Worst Hiring Mistake Ever: Misrepresenting the Job

via inc.com

Listen up, hiring managers. A study from research firm Development Dimensions International revealed yesterday that many employers often misrepresent the finer details of their company and the open position during interviews, leaving many recruits eventually disappointed with their new job.

Specifically, the survey found that only 51% of new employees "felt confident in their decision to accept the job." DDI found this figure after surveying 2,300 new hires with an average age of 35.

"…[H]iring is a high-stakes interaction and managers are not necessarily capable of discerning what a candidate can really bring to a company. So they base it on gut instinct and a lot of times that gut instinct is wrong," Scott Erker, DDI’s vice president of select systems and co-author of the study, told The Wall Street Journal.

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How Go Daddy Hired 1,400 People in 3 Years

via inc.com

Go Daddy may be best known for its racy Super Bowl commercials, but after having added more than 1,400 new employees in three years, the domain registration and hosting company has also made a name for itself as one of the nation's top job creators.

Lane Jarvis, Go Daddy's chief human resources officer, describes her main recruiting strategies.

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The non-developer’s guide to hiring software developers

via thenextweb.com

If Marc Andreesen is right (and I happen to believe he is) then talented software developers will soon be the most sought after type of employee for just about any company, whether that company’s main business is building software or not. Attracting and hiring great software developers for your company is difficult, but it’s not impossible. Here are some tips to get you started...

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Here Are All The Top Executives Who Actually Run Facebook

via businessinsider.com

So who's running Facebook these days?

Facebook's online press room is next to useless for figuring this out. Only CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and CFO Mike Ebersman are listed there.

But a photo Zuckerberg posted of the Facebook executives who recently took a trip to Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., is a pretty good clue.

Reuters says that the group was Zuckerberg's "senior management team."

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Facebook Is Staffing Up Engineers To Build The Facebook Phone

via businessinsider.com

Facebook has hired more than a half dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who were on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, to build the Facebook Phone, The New York Times reports.

Instead of posting job listings for the Facebook phone online, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team are recruiting employees for the phone by hand, according ot the report. Zuckerberg is peppering former Apple engineers with very specific questions about the iPhone, too — including the types of chips used.

The Facebook phone project has been rebooted a number of times because the company only recently discovered it needed to bring in people with phone-making experience, according to the report. One Facebook employee told The New York Times that Facebook originally thought it could figure out hardware development on its own.

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3 Ways to Recruit Talent for Your Startup

via openforum.com

When business owners are in the process of starting up and hiring their first employees, they look for a select group of people who can help them grow fast and handle that growth. Business owners, like yourself, want those ambitious, driven and skilled employees that are willing to work long hours for cheap. You want someone who is a good fit for your culture and someone you can get along with. It can be a complete disaster when a startup hires the wrong person. It can hurt morale, be a distraction and stunt growth.

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Here's Where All That Talent Microsoft Can't Hold On To Ends Up

via businessinsider.com

Not surprising: Google employs the most ex-Microsoft employees.

More surprising: Expedia employs more ex-Microsoft employees than Facebook.

We did a search on LinkedIn for Microsoft, using "past company" as a filter. From there we tracked down where all the former Microsoft employees are landing.

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Is The Need To Please Hurting Your Business?

via openforum.com

In business, there’s a thin line between people pleasing and good customer service. And in crowded and competitive markets, anything less than a “customer-obsessed strategy” simply won’t do.

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The Power Of The Mastermind - Business Book

via openforum.com

In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill introduced the concept of the mastermind. He defined a mastermind group as "the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony."

People from all walks of life can come together in masterminds for all sorts of reasons: Business growth, personal growth, emotional support, motivation, to work on a specific project and to develop a sense of community. Masterminds go far beyond mere networking—they require commitment and a desire to learn, grow, support others and receive support.

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3 Ways To Find Top Talent For Your Startup

via openforum.com

While the latest unemployment numbers are unnerving, there are still many companies struggling to find the right employees for their organizations—especially when it comes to startups.

There’s no such thing as a typical startup, which is why the startup environment is an adventure, but one thing is certain: The traditional route of placing an employment ad, accepting resumes, conducting interviews and making an offer isn’t the norm. Here are the success stories of several startups and how they found top talent.

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Outsourcing Work on The Internet - The INs and OUTs

via incomediary.com

My first foray into outsourcing was before I even knew anything about internet marketing. I had read a blog post on Tim Ferriss’ blog and it blew my mind that I could hire people in India to work for me…all without leaving my apartment.

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Outsourcing Work on The Internet - The INs and OUTs

via incomediary.com

My first foray into outsourcing was before I even knew anything about internet marketing. I had read a blog post on Tim Ferriss’ blog and it blew my mind that I could hire people in India to work for me…all without leaving my apartment.

Posted via email from Inspiration