On Hiring

The cheat code for firms that employ software developers is this:

The reason more employers don't do this is because they don't realize how much more productive great developers can be than even merely "good" ones. But some good developers, and most great ones, know this secret.

We're stubborn when it comes to growing locally to protect and develop a local community. To that end, Bamboo will never offshore development services. Taking it a step further, We're extremely proud Ohioans and have no intention at this point of hiring outside of the Silicon Heartland.

Highlights

• Pay for greatness
• Get out of their way

Impact on business

Writing software, it's not uncommon to see scenarios like this:

• Need to implement a new feature
• A good junior might take 2 weeks
• A great senior might take 1-2 days

The great developer can accomplish the same thing (and likely still with even better quality) in 10-20% of the time required by the good developer. This scenario is common. The business obviously benefits:

• If billed hourly, significant reduction in cost, even if the senior charges 2x the rate of the junior (in software consulting firms, the gradient is likely much smaller)
• The feature is implemented much sooner, enabling the business to iterate much more rapidly

This effect is multiplied further when, instead of having just a great software developer, you have a great Software Consultant... somebody that can do other things well like DevOps, architecture, and project management.

So this is the essence of Bamboo's ultra-lean approach. In fact, it's the most important requirement for following an ultra-lean approach.

But when it's taken to heart, amazing things are possible.

How to pay?

Payment for talent isn't just in salary, though that's very important. Other things that are highly valued are:

• Freedom to do good work (independence, gained from Bamboo's ultra-lean strategy)
• Freedom to build an ideal work environment (remote working affords this)
• Ability to see more direct rewards for high performance (aggressive bonus systems tied to business profitability)

Prefer partners to employees

Partners have skin in the game. Partners have exceptional expertise. Partners have a reason to stick around. Partners come with a built-in "direct rewards for high performance" incentive.

It's better to work alongside a group of excellent and motivated developers than it is to manage a group of excellent developers and try to keep them motivated.

This is our long-term goal.