StartUs Goes Stammtisch @Sektor 5

For over a year now it’s every third tuesday of the month when Vienna‘s startup enthusiasts put on their best startup mood and join the monthly “Stammtisch” organized by Austrian Startups at the infamous coworking space Sektor5.
September 16th 2014 was not an exception when nearly 140 enthusiasts grabbed a drink and gathered to watch the panel discussion on the topic of “How to hire good developers”.

This time the discussion happened to be very related to the idea of creating StartUs. After spending about 3 months searching for a technical co-founder, StartUs’ founder and CEO David R. Prasser came up with the idea of creating StartUs – an all-european network where startup enthusiasts can look for a job and network with potential co-founders.

Thus this Stammtisch was particularly special for StartUs as David got to be one of the panelists and engage himself in a lively discussion together with Andreas Klinger (Product Hunt), Georg Kaindl (Pagestrip) and Floor Drees (Rails Girls Summer of Code). The panelists started off by discussing the overall lack of developers in the Austrian startup scene. It was pointed out that startups shouldn’t limit their search to university students and alumni because you can also find good developers who finish HTL or are graduates of certificate programs. Networking and visiting IT communities, co-working spaces and hangouts may payoff more than posting job offers online. Moreover due to the growing work mobility it is necessary to extend your search to the outside of Austria’s boarders.

The discussion about the search for candidates has slowly emerged into a discussion about how to pick a good developer and what actually makes a developer great. If you are an early stage startup looking for a co-founder rather than a co-worker here are some suggestions for you:

•    collaborate with people who potentially could start their own business
•    have something unique to offer so people want to work with you
•    “let developers hire developers” because in such a way you will involve people with relevant skills

Not to forget that before approaching developers you have to remember that coding is not just about learning a language and ways of writing it down correctly. Coding requires a high level of creativity because a coder has to first build the whole tree of connections that only later emerges into a website, app or else. And the art of doing it distinguishes a GOOD coder from an average one.
Last but not least we would like to congratulate Sektor 5 to its 5th birthday and wish to continue sharing the startup spirit with enthusiasm!

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Picture Copyright: Teresa Hammerl