Liveblog: Techcrunch Geek n Rolla Event 1

Yesterday's Geek n Rolla was a day-long conference for entrepreneurs building web and IT businesses. It was organised by TechCrunch, and took place between 10:30 and 18:00 on 21st April 2009.

I was there, and liveblogged the event. You can still see the as-it-happened page at http://www.steveparks.co.uk/liveblogging_geek_n_rolla.

In this, and the next few posts, I'll be giving a full overview of the day, including all my liveblog posts, plus links to the slides and videos from the event...

Inma Martinez, Stradbroke Advisors

The wi-fi wasn't yet working for me during this session, so it's not live-blogged.
Inma Martinez has worked in finance, tech and startups, and now runs a consultancy advising tech startups on finance - Stradbroke Advisors
You can read a short summary of the session at: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/04/21/geeknrolla-european-startups-need-to...

11:03: Andy McLoughlin, co-founder, Huddle

Speech about hiring a great startup team. He says its key to build a 'team of peers' and make them like a family. The initial team may not make the grade, and you shouldn't be afraid to change them. Being in a startup isn't for everyone - some people really do want to work for a bank! Meeting the perfect candidate is like falling in love.

11:07 How to build a team of peers
Andy continues with how they have built their team: Everyone is involved in hiring everyone else. This fosters a sense of family and buy-in. They have a 3 stage process: (1) A telephone call to screen candidates for about 20 mins. (2) a paired technical test with a huddle team member for about an hour. (3) A general interview for about 30 mins. After this its decision time - and unless everyone agrees, the answer is no.

11:11 Huddle's tips on building a business family
Andy says that Huddle 'bets on openness to build trust'. They keep the team in one building to foster better communications. Publishing regular targets and roadmaps is important - and they have a weekly standup meeting to update on progress. They involve the engineers and product team on sales calls - and involve everyone in product planning. They also allow everyone 10% of their time to 'hack' and create cool stuff.

11:16 How to find great talent?
Andy from Huddle says: they use freinds recommendations, direct applicants, blogging, speaking at events, twitter, networking events, job boards and social networking sites to get the word out and get applications. He says recruitment agents are 'bastards and full of s**t' - and if you use them you should create a preferred supplier list. If they want to be on it they have to agree max fees and other terms. he also says it's worth using interns - but be careful not to fall foul of European law on minimum wage etc

11:20 Twitter from @DigitalAndy
"Here's my recommendation on cheap recruiting, www.gurulite.co.uk I am not affiliated, just highly recommend!"

11:21 Employees leaving
Andy then spoke a little on breaking up with employees. It's heartbreaking if people want to leave, but inevitable. If you love them let them go. When they hand in their notice it's already too late. Try to look for early signs of unhappiness and solve them. Paying below market rate is a false economy. You should have someone go on an HR course and properly manage people leaving the company.

11:24 Create a Place you'd like to work
In order to attract and keep the best people you need to create a place that they really would like to work in - so start by making it a place that you would really like to work in. That means great people and nice surroundings. At Huddle they invested in a really good coffee machine because they found staff were spending a fortune on cappucinos. They run fun and creative games and activities, and have regular outings that involve partners. One I loved - they eat together regularly. It's a great way to break down barriers and build a family atmosphere, with respect and loyalty. Finally, they have made everyone a shareholder - so everyone is working for the success of the company long term.

The TechCrunch writeup of Andy's presentation is here: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/04/21/geeknrolla-building-strong-teams-mea...

The writeup of Geek n Rolla continues in my next post.