Hiring vs Training

Fred Wilson - Union Square Ventures

Hiring Mobile Engineers vs Training Engineers on Mobile

(original post from Fred's blog AVC)

Fred Wilson is one of the most famous venture capitalists in the world today for two reasons. First, his firm USV makes solid investments. (They were early investors in companies like Twitter, Tumblr, and Kik.) Second, he has posted quality content to his blog every day without fail since 2003, giving him one of the strongest blog followings on the internet.

Scenario:

• Many Web first companies in the USV portfolio have struggled to adapt to "mobile first"
• The usual, and sub-optimal approach often taken is to build specifically mobile teams
• Mobile managers/designers/engineers are in high demand and short supply
• Two teams end up building what should be one product
• synchronizing teams is hard
• The harder but more effective approach is to train your existing team in mobile.
• not possible for very young startups
• getting the right training for the right people can be hard

Wilson's conclusion:

The fundamental issue here is whether or not to hire from the outside, or invest in your current team. Jerry Colonna once advised Wilson that the best companies to invest in and work for are those that invest in their employee's development. Get your best people to learn new tricks.

Takeaway:

• Invest in your team. You create longer term value when you invest in the people you have already. It's not always the easiest thing to do, but it's highest quality option.
• Hiring (and outsourcing) causes friction. Smaller teams have fewer communication barriers. A highly skilled small team of full stack engineers is better than a scattered team that works on loosely related projects.