Hiring a Ruby on Rails Developer for a New Startup


So here’s the scoop — I’m starting a new company. I can’t tell you the name (don’t have one), and can’t tell you what it’s about (not ready). I also can’t tell you who is involved (except for me, of course). I can tell you that it will have a strong mobile component.

I realize that’s not a lot of information. I don’t plan on doing this in stealth, but there are some reasons that I can’t announce much right now.

But I can tell you that I’m looking to hire a senior Ruby on Rails Developer.

Here are the details:

  • I say “senior” because I need someone that has the potential of being a co-founder with me. I’m not really looking for “employee #1″ — that’s boring and just doesn’t fit into my plans (although we’ll see what happens.) You might not be ready to be a co-founder right off the bat, but I need you thinking that way.
  • If you have experience with mobile development, especially on the iPhone, that will be helpful. If you don’t, that’s OK. But you’ll have to learn. And want to learn.
  • You have to be in Montreal. You can relocate (I can’t pay for it), but you have to be working from here.
  • You know who Eric Ries and Steve Blank are, although you don’t have to be a zealot of either. (I’m not interested in religious nuts. A smart, strong understanding of what those two are about will be helfpul.) Add Sean Ellis to that list.
  • You’re not exclusively interested in coding in a dark room with lots of caffeine. If you want to live in a tech bubble or tech silo, you’re a code monkey and that’s no good for me. (And yes, I’m being obnoxious on purpose.)
  • Ideally you’ve done A/B testing before, and used analytics properly. And you enjoyed both a great deal. You think. You test. You think. You act. In that order.
  • You do recognize that a 9×5 job and workload just aren’t realistic for a startup. And even if they were, you wouldn’t want them because work = fun.
  • Last, but certainly not least, you want to have a lot of fun in the SUPER-EARLY stages of a crazy startup. And this is as early as it gets.

Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you might have. In fact, I encourage them.

To apply, please email me: byosko@gmail.com. Send me whatever you think will catch my attention (No naked pictures, please!)

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May 18, 2010 Posted in Montreal by

  • Daniel

    Great to see you launching a new venture! Looking forward to hearing more.

  • http://fredbrunel.com Fred Brunel

    Congrats on your new venture Ben, I can't wait to see what it is.

  • http://twitter.com/mdufort Martin Dufort

    Congrats on the new venture.

    I have no clue who Eric Ries and Steve Blank are but I know a couple of things about “mobile” :-)

  • http://philgo20.com/ philgo20

    Why absolutely Ruby if coding hasn't yet started (or has it) ?

    I don't get it. Seems so arbitrary. and unfair to Python guys ;-)

  • http://www.instigatorblog.com Benjamin Yoskovitz

    Coding has already started. Maybe there's a Python guy that wants to learn Ruby though. I'm not opposed to that.

  • http://philgo20.com/ philgo20

    glad to hear development has started, I am just messing around language war ;-)

    You know a great python guy who started learning Ruby don't you ? He was with us after StartupCamp…

  • rebecca

    coding is a job all in its own, some people are faithfully to one code others are not, and if you are not upon your game there goes your lively hood. We will start using ruby on rails soon, check out http://illustrativestyle.com they have some informative info as well.

    I love your site it is beautiful and provides a lot of great content.

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  • http://www.instigatorblog.com Benjamin Yoskovitz

    You should look those two names up. Really pushing the envelope publicly on how to run a successful startup.

  • http://www.instigatorblog.com Benjamin Yoskovitz

    Thanks Fred. I look forward to sharing with you soon.

  • http://www.instigatorblog.com Benjamin Yoskovitz

    Yup, here we go again! Looking forward to pitching you for your thoughts…

  • http://www.jonasbrandon.com Jonas

    Awesome Ben :) Congrats on the new venture!

  • http://www.bergstrom-seo.com Best SEO Company

    Thank you so much for that nicely written piece of text.Why do you need to hire the “best SEO company”? Well, why not hire the best? I mean, if you're going to do something, you might as well do it right. I asked Matt Cutts, and he said that if he was going to hire a SEO company, he'd hire one that used conservative strategies. Bergstrom-seo is one of the top SEO companies because they don't do anything that could get you blacklisted. They focus on adding content
    to your website, on-page SEO (fixing internal linking, page titles,etc,) and getting links back to you. They don't put any outbound links on your site. No outbound links means you can't get blacklisted.

    Thanks~

    Prasen Dutta a community member at Search Engine Optimisation Specialist

  • http://www.startupmatchmaker.com/ SM

    I would suggest you also post your listing on Startup Matchmaker.

    http://www.startupmatchmaker.com/

  • http://www.xyberworks.com/ Custom web design

    Interesting post man. I'm forwarding your blog link to my friends. Keep on sharing such stuff.

  • Rose

    Coding has already started. Maybe there's a Python guy that wants to learn Ruby though. I'm not opposed to that.
    —————–
    rose
    Data entry outsource to India

  • Pingback: Sprouter » How entrepreneur Ben Yoskovitz worked his way to two successful startup exits

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About Ben Yoskovitz
I recently joined GoInstant as VP Product. GoInstant changes how we use the web, making it shareable like never before.

I'm also a Founding Partner at Year One Labs, an early stage accelerator in Montreal. Previously I founded Standout Jobs (and sold it). I'm a hands-on startup guy, helping companies grow successfully from the idea forward. You can reach me at byosko at gmail dot com.

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