Would you pay 2x for a 10x developer?

Would you pay 2x for a 10x developer?

Posted on 21. Dec, 2011 by forouzani in Management

A 10x developer is a developer who produces code that is significantly higher quality, and is 10 times more productive than the average developer. Recognizing this massive difference in quality and productivity – would you pay 2 times more to hire a 10x developer?

Regardless of what you might think, the real answer for almost all startups is “no”. Google does. Microsoft does. And many other companies do too – they realize the value of great talent and the difference they make in a company.

But startups are different. The role of a startup is to get top talent (in engineering that would be the 10x devs), without paying above market rate. A good VP of Engineering will be able to attract top developers for the engineering team, without having to pay 2x. Of course retaining top talent once you have them on board is also challenging – smart people recognize their potential, and sooner or later will want to be awarded accordingly.

Here are some of the observations I have made over the years:

  • Most tech startups with 10 or more staff have one 10x developer – and this person is NOT always the team lead. If the team has 2 10x developers – they usually progress at a a very rapid pace – the productivity of these teams is amazing (to speak in Agile, their velocity is quite high).
  • I am yet to see a tech team with 3 or more 10x developers.
  • I can’t even count how many startups I have worked with where there was massive technical debt caused by poor judgement and bad architectural decisions, because the tech team didn’t have enough experience. They were missing a 10x developer (startups don’t have an “architect”).

Having worked with so many different teams brings a key advantage – I know quite a few 10x developers living in the Greater London area. To answer the question… Would I pay 2x for a 10x developer? Yes I would. I believe talent makes all the difference in any company, especially a startup.

Now onto launching a startup with proper funding – to use my 10x contacts to build the ultimate A Team :)

Tags: ,

Leave a Reply