SWF Seeking Technical Soulmate

By On · 23 Comments · In Virtual Startup
maren kate

SWF = Sassy Woman Founder

As I write this I am watching an epic pigeon battle outside of my window… though it has little relevance to the topic of finding a CTO for my company Zirtual the pure determination with which extra dirty pigeon fights his much larger opponent is akin to the real-life uphill battle we’re waging to find a killer technical co for our company.

It’s hard, but so what?

One of my favorite quotes goes like so:

“Anything in life worth having is worth working for.” – Andrew Carnegie

This sentiment couldn’t be more true and people who don’t realize it’s magnitude scare me a little. Currently the market in San Francisco for technical team members is hotter than a $2 pistol on the Fourth of July. This is partly because of the booming tech economy in the Bay Area & partly due to the fact that great talent can often find cushy jobs with big paychecks at more established companies – so why take a chance on a scrappy startup?

Most people see this mountainous challenge & back off. They either let their startup dreams fizzle or complain so viciously that the negativity they give off scares any potential partners off (this dance is also often played out in the dating world).

Ever since I moved to San Francisco I have had people shake their heads at me and say something disparaging about my prospects of starting a web company with no superstar programmer on my team & with minimal experience in tech myself.

They said it when I joined the Founder Institute last year, they said it after I made cut after cut and finally graduated and they say it now as Zirtual is up, running & Ramen profitable.

These comments used to worry me, but after I’ve crawled through so much broken glass to get to the point I’m currently at the challenge of finding a killer CTO actually excites me – it’s just one more hurdle to jump on the road to my ultimate goal.

So…

I’m going to ask you – my dear, dear reader – a favor. If you know anyone who you think would be an amazing fit for the position of Zirtual CTO (a founding position with a nice equity offer)… please, please send them my way.

You can find the position specs listed above & any retweets or sharing (social or otherwise) would be deeply, incredibly appreciated.

I know my technical soul mate is out there somewhere – it’s just a process of kissing enough geeky frogs to get to the geeky prince charming i.e. technical co-founder of my dreams.

Quick overview

  • Can hop in and get started coding right away
  • Has been coding for a long time, seriously talented & interested in becoming the coding cornerstone of our startup
  • Is willing to or lives in the Bay Area
  • Is willing to do whatever it takes to make Zirtual a huge success

Help connect me with my technical soul mate here.

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  • http://twitter.com/adamstruve Adam Struve

    Just a little tip: The person you’re looking for will see SWF and think Flash file and not Sassy Woman Founder.

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    Ah true – it was a play on the old dating ads in the newspaper that would
    say “SWF” for single, white, female – then post their ad :) I guess my
    attempt to be clever is just confusing.

  • Coder in Sweden

    I’m willing to live in the Bay Area if you get me a sofa to sleep in and plane tickets from Sweden to there :)

  • http://twitter.com/adamstruve Adam Struve

    I didn’t mean it was confusing or anything.  Just if someone contacts you and mentions flash files then you can give them +10 points.

  • Coder in Sweden

    What is you need to get coded, in broad terms?

    What is your level of understanding of coding?

    Do you have any requirements visavi programming languages and other technologies?

    What’s it pay?

  • Craig

    Try posting on the “Who’s hiring” thread for July on Hacker News.

    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2719028

    Can’t hurt. And you should submit this blog entry to the site. 

  • Lee

    I read it as “single, white, female”, and want to congratulate you on epic linkbait; you’re appealing to exactly the caliber of rosy-palmed geeks you seek. Probably no better way to market this story than how you did, but be wary of applicants who seem more interested in flirting than interviewing, that shit will halt your business real fast. Unless the “position” really does come with “benefits”, in which case I’m at a loss for words.

  • Dave

    I read it as ‘single, white, female’ too.  Very nice article.  Many people would kill for the popularity this article will get.  You should definately use every advantage you can in this business.  The article really sounds interesting.  It’s well written, shows your successes w/o arrogance, etc.  Unfortunately those people who likely find it the most compelling are also already in a startup.  Hopefully you’ll find one who wants to leave their startup for yours. Good luck.

  • Ingmar
  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    Ha – it does not :) but good point!

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    I will for sure :) thanks!

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    Will do :) thanks!

  • Anonymous

    Hello Maren, sorry if the “hackers” are getting down on you. I can’t really excuse it, but maybe I can at least explain it.

    I don’t know if you know this, but some vendors in the tech industry use promotional models who don’t actually know anything about the product, but are supposed to attract the “young male” demographic. Generally, any use of these “booth babes” is taken as a sign that you don’t actually respect the customers and think they can be easily manipulated. So, the hacker crowd just sees a cute girl with no tech background trying to sell them something, and they avoid you. It’s a defense mechanism.

    I’m not saying this is fair to you, at all. But maybe you can understand where our paranoia is coming from?

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    I definitely can understand it :) It doesn’t really get me down – at this
    point there are few things that do. It’s just frustrating since I feel like
    I’ve earned at least a few stripes at this point – but not in the coder
    community which is understandable.

    That’s why I’m doing things like trying to learn the basics of coding so I
    can speak the language & so I’m more knowledgeable in the predominately
    male, predominately tech-savvy world I live in.

    Either way – thanks for the explanation it does help!

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    Also, for those of you who’re in the know – I’d love constructive criticism (some of which i’ve gotten on HN) to make this posting more appealing and/or more likely to win the heart of a truly awesome CTO… thanks!

  • Andrew Wilcox

    Maren, congratulations on a well written and heartfelt job posting.

    In my experience, what people are often looking for once their minimum salary/equity/benefits requirements are met is the right level of challenge in a job: not too unchallanging because then it would be boring (even if it would make a lot of money), but also not completely beyond their capabilities (for fear of being a failure).

    Naturally it can be hard for a non-technical person to write a job description that explains what a job would actually be like for a technical person who took the job.  For example, if I were looking for a job myself, from reading your posting I feel like I have a good sense of what kind of person you are, what your company does, and what you’re offering, but not whether I (or someone I knew) would find the particular work interesting or not.

    If you’d like, I’d be happy to help you craft a job description that would be more descriptive from a technical point of view, so that someone could envision for themselves what doing the work would be like.  I’ve been a programmer for 20 years, I’ve helped hire programmers, and I’ve read many job postings from a technical point of view :) .  Please feel free to contact me directly at andrew.wilcox@gmail.com

  • Jeremy Dunck

    Very often, non-technical founders are not in a good position to answer these questions.  I make no comment about Maren, but I’ve overheard some painfully-done interviews where the need is technical, but the screener is not at all technical, trying to bluff it.  

    Any good dev will see right through that, and in the end, the most likely outcome is a bad hire.

    I’ve thought about ways to address this problem (there are *many* nontechnical founders trying to make a technical play), but thoughts aren’t fully-formed.  The closest I’ve seen, for now, is http://www.hackruiter.com/ – the folks doing that are smart and have thought about it more than I have.  But they’re bottlenecked on process right now as far as I know.

  • http://www.VirtualZeta.com Maren Kate

    I’d love that! Thanks so much for the offer Andrew!

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  • Emmet Gibney

    I was in a somewhat similar position as yourself a little while back.  What I did was I moved to Vancouver and started taking programming classes.  Do I want to be a programmer?  No, I do not.  However, it allowed me to meet a lot of people who do want to be programmers and do want to be “CTO” types.

    If you show that you are at least willing to learn the basics of programming and development you’ll earn a lot more respect from your potential future partners, and you’ll be able to understand their world a lot better.

    You’re already in a major tech center.  There must be all sorts of options for where you can learn programming HTML, CSS, PHP etc etc.  Chances are there are people taking these courses that are on their way to being superstar programming types that can’t find work yet because they are unproven.  Take a chance on someone and they’ll take a chance on you.

    I know a lot of programmers up here in Vancouver that are very very smart people and can’t find work because they have no on the job experience yet, in spite of their skills.  If you were willing to work with some people up here in Canada I can certainly put you in touch with some of them.  Chances are they will be infinitely less expensive as the red hot San Francisco market.

  • kamalakararao

    good one likes every one, i think so

  • http://livingonimpulse.com Markus

    I would recommend posting “unusual benefits” in there to them as well. Like what the hell are they gonna get that they won’t get at m*fkin google? Environment, flexibility, handmade cookies, sass quality? Connect with their geeky rebel side. Also this is the type of post might get you a stalker. Let’s hope he can program like hell before the restraining order kicks in!