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Is your startup lacking funds to finish a project? Many startups were facing the same problem and some of them came up with an easy enough solution: giving equity away to a web development company to finish the project.
Such a move is not solely related to financing issues, some startups decide to bring these companies into play early on into the project for convenience sake. However, one shouldn’t rush into reaching a deal, since a lot is at stake, both for the startup and the web development company.
Adhering to the eight simple rules we list here, any startup can come up with an alluring offer for the web dev company to accept the deal and work for an equity:
The startup should strive to suggest a minimum viable product that is as simple as possible. An intricate MVP could doom the project to failure from the very start by driving away the web development company altogether.
Make sure that the specification is done by a knowledgeable person. A layman on the job can only make matters worse since a bad specification could spell disaster! If you put an expert to the task, developers will know exactly what their job is and startups can keep track of their work. Specification should really be a surprise-free zone.
Having done the specification right, the startup can estimate the total cost of the project and the size of the startup’s equity the web development company gets. If the equity isn’t large enough, the web development company might reject the project altogether. They have to feel satisfied in terms of the compensation they receive for the risk they take.
For a startup wishing to legally protect their ideas it’s a must, but web development companies might not be soon keen to sign an NDA. The problem is that web developers deal annually with hundreds of projects which are bound to be similar. This could cause them problems with future clients, so they are reluctant to sign an NDA. The best solution would be for the two parties to reach a mutual agreement on the type of NDA needed or whether it is wise to draw it up in the first place.
It has to be kept in mind that in this case, web dev companies act like investors. They will not exclusively look at the quality of the project offered, but other business related issues as well. The startup has to be ready to prove they have a team that can make the idea happen. They have to answer numerous questions, such as how big can the company get or what are the principal risks to the business.
It is highly likely that major web development companies will not consider the small equity worth the trouble. Occasionally, however, these companies do have developers with a low workload and they might consider assigning them to a startup’s project. Startups have a greater chance of success approaching medium-sized web dev companies whose policy is more flexible.
Although the project is handed to the web development company, it is not wise for the startup to give them full control. They should delegate a team member to oversee the project and help the developers if case any problems occur.
In order to entice the potential web development company, a startup can offer them to maintain the application. This will normally occur after the next round of investment. The web dev company would service the app and get paid for it. In this way, they would effectively get a new client, thus lowering the initial risk level.
Finally, it is important to remember that a lot is at stake, even the future of the entire startup, when it comes to hiring a web development company. None of the rules listed here are on their own a deal-breaker. However, if a startup bears in mind all eight points, they could prove to be a deal-maker for them.
It has been an exciting year for Serbian startup companies.
Many old ones have proven worthy and numerous others have sky-rocketed to startup stardom. As previous year, it is noticeable that nearly all of them are designed for a regional and global market, using Belgrade, Novi Sad and other Serbian cities as human resource hubs.
We have compiled a list of ten great startup companies which owe their success to Serbian hard-working programmers, ingenuity and a tad of good luck:
The founder’s childhood love for fishing culminated in this online booking platform for fishing charters. It has been functioning for a couple of years, but last year the business really picked up. No wonder, since visitors can book fishing trips all over the globe, from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Key West in Florida.
Uber is definitely the leader of taxi technology, but it’s globally, rather than locally oriented. The Belgrade founders of Car:Go have created a mobile app that is aimed at the developing Balkan market. It is already operating in Serbia and Croatia, with plans to expand to Montenegro.
A Belgrade startup teamed up with Ford to install 20 smart benches across London. Citizens of England’s capital can use solar energy to wirelessly charge their smartphones free of charge. Furthermore, they can also donate money to a charity through contactless payment.
“Winners never stop learning” is the motto of the first major Serbian online learning platform. It offers more than 3.600 courses on various topics, from mobile development courses to a correct spelling course (this one is for free!).
Not all successful startup companies are located in Belgrade. Rendered Text is a Novi Sad startup famous for its “Semaphore” that eases the testing of Ruby apps and is used by Google and Intel. They have not only become profitable during the previous year, but launched “Boosters”. This is a feature that speeds up automated testing ten times.
Shootset platform brings together stock photographers and their models. Started in 2016, it initially covered only Belgrade area, but it soon expanded to the whole country. It now has over 2.000 users. The founders of this marketplace platform plan to offer their services to freelancers all over the world.
Styrofoam’s days are numbered! Four Serbian entrepreneurs have gathered to do away with detrimental Styrofoam as a food container. Their crowd-funded product named The WooBox, is a 100% recyclable food packaging made from wood and wool.
Truck Track is a platform and a mobile app that was designed by a Belgrade startup to improve trucking companies business. It is all-encompassing system, covering dispatching, invoices and even safety.
Selfikon is a social network and a mobile app for sharing selfie photographs and live videos.
Today it has over 100,000 registered users. As the company says, is the only social network in Europe to implement the augmented reality face masks, while also providing an option for companies to brand the masks.
Hunch is an advertising automation service. It uses an innovative technology to help the business acquire and grow their customers online. This way they become more successful in their online advertising on the most important digital platforms. Above all Facebook, Instagram, Adwords, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Let’s examine what are the roles of an Advanced Senior Engineer and Staff Engineer.
It’s time for a company takeover!
Well not literally, but professionally, since the path from a Senior Engineer leads to the ownership of entire projects and even organizations. In order to become a Staff Engineer, a programmer must first gain the title of an Advanced Senior Engineer and our blog post reveals the necessary steps involved for both of these high-ranking posts.
After spending years as a Senior Engineer, it won’t be hard to spend roughly the same number of years as an Advanced Senior Engineer. Exact numbers vary, but one year is a minimum, and one can expect to work at this post for three years or even longer.
This is not without reason since these engineers exhibit not only ownership of the entire project/product, but take initiative to identify and solve important problems. They coordinate with others and set directions at project level, constantly taking part in the decision-making process.
At this stage, the issue of technical debt arises and has to be identified and tackled by Advanced Senior Engineers before it gets a chance to grow into a debt that requires up-front work to get involved.
When it comes to the work itself, excellent judgment is something that the programmer has attained so far. It is a much-needed skill since Advanced Senior Engineers act as a resource to unblock and enable the entire team. They are the go-to experts in the entire company for at least one of the areas (Rails, Ember, etc.).
Since they possess an understanding of the broad systemic architecture, they assume a new role of researching and even proposing new technologies, which will be essential in their next engineer career step.
Multi- is the keyword to the tasks a Staff Engineers undertakes. Like managing one project/product wasn’t enough, now multiple teams and projects are put in the care of this position. Since not many programmers advance this far, there is no fixed period one spends as a Staff Engineer.
Basically, they are expected to exhibit ownership across the organization. By now, these programmers have made an unambiguous impact on the entire company’s future technical path. Their role is crucial when it comes to developing long-term strategies for complete and critical areas of business.
All the tasks they had as Advanced Senior Engineers are multiplied so they act as a resource on several projects/products and across several teams as well. They not only research new solutions, but are responsible for their successful implementation. The improvements they create have to prove stable, scalable and in general perform well across major business-critical systems.
They have to recognize more complex problems, break them down and swiftly come up with solid solutions. Staff Engineers are masters of debugging and technical guidance since they are the highest instance their fellow programmers address.
Last but not least, Staff Programmers are regarded as the driving force for multiple teams. Their cross-team work consists of hearing and guiding debates in order to produce a decision which they will feel confident enough to back. They provide teams with clear directions for the period of six months or a full year and identify the areas which need most care and planning.
Both of the posts we discussed require the ability to look into the future, of the industry, all the while coordinating and guiding other programmers. This is no coincidence since the positions we write about in our final blog post have to assume responsibility for whole organizations and even the industry in its entirety. Stay tuned, just two more steps left before we reach the programming crème de la crème.
The journey continues!
In our previous blog we have seen the arduous path a Pre-Apprentice must take just to become a Software Engineer, the lowest professional job in the industry. In the following paragraphs we will show you what a novice engineer must achieve in order to firstly become an Advanced Software Engineer and then a Senior Engineer.
The biggest advance in this position is the fact that a programmers’ world no longer revolves around themselves and their tasks, but they start focusing on their projects and peers. Yes, you read it correctly, their projects, since they tackle projects as a whole. They work from task to task, and actively seek guidance from others, since the danger of going down a rabbit hole still looms.
This position lasts from two, up to four years, which is one of the longer periods in the industry. No wonder, since advanced programmers are expected to learn how to write correct and clean code (with guidance), constantly staying in line with the stated best practices. In addition to that, they are expected to take part in technical design of features, as well as specialize in one or more areas (e.g. Ruby, Go, Javascript development).
Professionally, making the same mistake twice should by now have become a thing of the past, although the learning process is still ongoing. The programmer’s education is now self-directed and he does not rely on the feedback of senior engineers that much.
In essence, although an Advanced Software Engineer co-owns an area of project/product, he/she must still be eager to learn and ready to take initiative since those are crucial element in progressing to a Senior Engineer.
Now things really get serious. A Senior Engineer is in charge of a whole team and is responsible for projects with well-defined tasks. He is the go-to guy whom others approach for guidance. Taking initiative is therefore key to this role, since Senior Programmers have to understand and make design decisions and tradeoffs in their area.
Beside the technical issues, like not spending more time than necessary debugging, they also have to communicate with non-technical team members to give technical advice. Knowledge of industry trends, the company’s infrastructure and build system is also a must.
Since Senior Engineers possess a strong record of ownership of their projects, they are expected to contribute to common code because they have end-to-end responsibility. In addition, they are expected to identify problems and/or risks not only of their own work, but as well of others.
The leadership part of a Senior Engineer’s job is based on the ability to communicate. They should convey technical decisions through design docs, tech talks, blog posts etc. Apprenticeship programme is still important, but now a Senior Engineer assumes the role of a mentor to young programmers, pairing up with them and providing them with feedback and reviewing their design and code.
Senior Engineers have to mediate as well, bridging across various functions and departments, such as Product, Design, Analytics, etc. Communication-wise, their most important role is the aforementioned one of identifying problems both for their own and adjacent work, and discussing them in order to find the best solution as early as possible.
All in all, a Senior Engineer is the person whom everybody looks up to if a problem arises. However, to be the best of the best and earn promotion, most Senior Engineers decide to take up some type of Tech Lead responsibilities. As an alternative, they can demonstrate a notable degree of people leadership by assuming mentorships, which indicates that they are ready to become Advanced Senior Engineers.
But more on this post in our next week’s blog.
In this week’s blog we find out how a Pre-Apprentice can become a full-fledged Software Engineer.
“If you are going through hell, keep going”.
A phrase attributed to Winston Churchill aptly describes the path a novice in the IT industry takes to become an Engineer of Distinction. This uphill struggle costs both money and time (measured in years), but the end result will hopefully prove worthy. In our latest series of blogs you’ll get a unique chance to find out how all the stages of a programmer’s career look like, beginning with the apprenticeship programme, through the various engineering jobs to become the Principal Engineer of the company and finally conquer the entire industry. But be aware from the very start, not all programmers get to the final stage!
Having previously grasped the basics of programming, a programmer is now ready for his/her first post at an IT firm. However, no one will instantly give them free rain, because they first have to undergo an apprenticeship programme. It typically lasts from two to four months and they get assigned to a mentor, who is usually someone of the Senior Engineers. There are no ownership responsibilities yet and they will have to closely adhere to the programme designed by the firm and fulfill all of its requirements. Their mentor acts as sort of a “boss,” since the feedback they are provided with is essential to their advancement.
Basically, their only task at this point is to learn as much as possible before moving on to the next stage.
Congratulations! If you become an apprentice, you get the official confirmation from the company that you know practically nothing. Joking aside, the second stage of apprenticeship can last up to six months and although programmers still have to work under supervision, they do get some small tasks. Usually, they will be delegated with internal tasks in client projects and their work on these will be closely monitored by the mentor. However, their primary goal still remains learning and self-development through observation and mentor feedback. Having completed the apprenticeship, they are finally ready to become true Software Engineers.
Although still considered a learning position, being a Software Engineer brings in a whole new set of responsibilities and opportunities for a young programmer. This is reflected in the minimum one year trainees are expected work in this role, but this can be prolonged up to three whole years.
Programmers not only get to work in a team, but they receive the same status as the people they are learning from. The process still involves accepting feedback graciously, since they are still focused on their own tasks which become more complex over time.
They now receive well-defined sub-tasks which they are expected to complete. Of course, close guidance and technical mentoring ensure that they don’t fall in danger of becoming stuck or blocked.
They still have to heavily rely on guidance, since they are not yet ready to learn in a self-directed way. At this stage, productivity skills are in focus, such as source control, editors, the build system and other tools, as well as testing best practices.
In essence, a Software Engineer is expected to acquire a broad knowledge of CS concepts, all the while focusing on growing as an engineer, learning existing tools, resources and processes.
Only after all these requirements have been met, regardless to the period elapsed, the programmer is ready to assume the role of an Advanced Software Engineer and for the first time co-own an area of projects. You can read more about this and higher posts in our next week’s blog.
So… You have just founded your own firm, defined the product or the service you are selling, and even did some market research to see who your potential buyers are. The only thing needed before the money starts pouring in is the trivial issue of web development.
Well, things might just not be as simple as one might think, and your startup won’t be the first to misunderstand how web development functions. We have compiled a list of eight most common misconceptions about web development you are likely to have:
Most products and services are connected to the Internet in one form or another, and even if you operate fully offline, you still have to have a website, or even a web application. This segment of your business is far too important to be neglected.
Don’t be a stinge. It is not wise to trust your web dev to a single individual with shady credentials just because his rate is incredibly low. Web development companies already have a pool of proven contractors that get assigned specifically to your project, which in terms guarantees best results possible.
Wrong. Getting your company profile online is merely the first step in the painstaking process of getting people interested in your product. Any change in your business has to be reflected online since your clientele changes as well, and the impact has to be adjusted accordingly.
Although this would be the easy way out, like we have said earlier, web development is far too important to be based on aping your rival’s web presentation. Online innovation is just as important as the idea behind your startup, and it has to be original.
The general misconception is that things posted online become viral overnight. The process is more complex than that, and patience is the keyword when it comes to online marketing success. Most often, the customer is the one that needs to find you.
Startups don’t just spring up in a vacuum, they have their business ecosystem, and it is wise to acknowledge this fact in web developing. If you are part of a startup hub or cluster, be sure to let you potential clients and partners know this, try not to present yourself as a lone gun.
Since you are new to the market, it’s not wise to hold anything back. Give the web developers your full profile, including a portfolio and the human resources at your disposal. Write a blog, let everybody know what are you doing and what are you up to.
Since you will be hiring a web development company, don’t expect them to lower the rate just because your company is in its initial stage. Quality costs money and it is no different in the realm of web development.
Finally, don’t be discouraged if you find that any of the eight misconceptions apply to you. They are simply stepping stones to success of your startup and its web development strategy.
