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Ask HN: Team for Hire?

by wilwade on 10/7/16, 2:03 PM with 102 comments

• by alberth on 10/7/16, 5:11 PM

  MailChimp?

  Just the other day HN had an article on them. They are in Atlanta, so not far from you.

  They are looking to hire 150 new employees within the next year.

  >> "[MailChimp] now employs about 550 people, and by next year it will be close to 700"

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12642824

  Since OpenTable sends email confirmation for restaurant reservations, your team might bring interesting insight for MailChimp since it's possible you might be a current customer of them.

• by eganist on 10/7/16, 2:16 PM

  http://nooga.com/174179/opentable-to-leave-chattanooga/

  Interesting. I know there are Very good reasons for not relocating to either Los Angeles or San Francisco, but what were the specific reasons (aside from family/homes, if any) you and the team had for opting not to relocate?

  Further to this:

  2) Were team members offered raises as part of a relocation package?

  3) Were team members offered the opportunity to work 100% remotely?

  4) Has OpenTable approved this message?

  5) Regardless of #4, are there certain conditions others would need to be aware of such as non-competes? I know NCAs are fairly (if not entirely) powerless in California, but I'm not aware of the laws impacting them in Tennessee.

  Edit: per user @rfc's jogging of my brain, Stripe has a program for hiring full development teams. @wilwade, this might be worth applying to. I know I posted it in another comment, but it's worthy of top-order visibility: https://stripe.com/blog/bring-your-own-team

• by sailfast on 10/7/16, 4:51 PM

  If you can't find a group that will hire you as a team, perhaps you should start a consulting / product firm. There's overhead / non-dev work to setting up shop and starting a business development pipeline to get revenue in the door of course, but if you want to stick together, build great things, and keep your culture that's a solid option if others fail.

• by seagreen on 10/7/16, 5:59 PM

  Sorry to hear that OpenTable's moving out of Chattanooga.

  I was in Chattanooga from 2013-15 and have nothing but good things to say about their team. Most notably they ran a functional programming meetup that covered pretty advanced topics but was still inclusive to beginners. I'll remember the encouragement I got there for a long time.

  If anybody who cares about the Chattanooga tech scene reads this: do your best to keep the OpenTable team intact. A lot of the programming community's enthusiasm is either directly coming from or being encouraged by them.

  DISCLAIMER?: I was in Chattanooga a couple weeks ago and they gave me a bunch of useful, free advice on my current project. This isn't really a disclaimer though because IMO it just reflects even better on them.

• by archon on 10/7/16, 7:32 PM

  As another Chattanooga dev, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I would be very surprised if any startup here has a need for or ability to employ a team that large. Especially since the larger employers here (TVA, Blue Cross, Unum, Covenant Transport, USX) are all .Net shops.

  I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I believe you would be better served to either find individual jobs here, or be willing to relocate. (And just to be clear, I'm not pushing the relocation thing. I love this city and wouldn't want to move either.)

• by 33a on 10/7/16, 3:52 PM

  Have you all considered starting a worker owned cooperative?

• by chattamatt on 10/7/16, 5:04 PM

  Please know that this post does not represent the views of all of us at this office. While I appreciate the effort to place us as a team, I feel this effort in particular does not represent the professional nature in which we conduct ourselves, and was posted without the permission of all of us on the team.

• by timdorr on 10/7/16, 3:23 PM

  Are you willing to move down to Atlanta? If so, I know of some potential options here in town. Glad to make the intro.

• by rfc on 10/7/16, 2:19 PM

  I spent a few minutes searching but couldn't find the link. IIRC, Airbnb was testing out hiring full teams. It was a pilot program and I'm not sure if it's still going on. If you know anyone there, I'd reach out to ask.

• by tbrooks on 10/7/16, 7:34 PM

  Chattanooga is a beautiful town. I almost moved their in January. The city has a lot to offer and it could be one of the next great tech hubs.

  I decided not to move because I didn't think the local economy offers a lot of choice for software engineering jobs. When I visited people remarked, we've got VaynerMedia, we've got OpenTable, we've got CarbonFive, etc. etc.

  This news sucks because I really want to see Chattanooga grow into a techhub, but it also confirms the suspicions I originally had. :/

• by pknerd on 10/7/16, 3:05 PM

  a bit OT. Since you are already a team, utilize spare time to make some awesome product. Someone will eventually hire you :)

• by micah_chatt on 10/7/16, 6:33 PM

  I know of a tech startup in Chattanooga with the budget/funding that is willing to take on this team (cough: current employer) https://twitter.com/kenmcelrath/status/784418953141493760

• by pbreit on 10/7/16, 4:37 PM

  Eventbrite is hiring engineers in Nashville.

• by rubyfan on 10/7/16, 8:04 PM

  When you say "backend," specifically what do you mean?

• by stray on 10/7/16, 2:23 PM

  Have you talked to the folks over at Lamp Post Group?

• by phaitour on 10/7/16, 3:08 PM

  have you tried elevator? goelevator.com/

• by Klarbichu on 10/7/16, 2:38 PM

  You'll find success faster if you split up and join the talent pool sooner rather than later.

  If you're trying to get hired as a team, that sounds new, so employers might not have heard of such a thing.

  It's the first time I've heard of something so preposterous. Maybe if it was a progressive state like Colorado, I could understand, but Tennessee? I can't stand the hot, humid summers myself. Then you have chiggers and scorpions to worry about. ;)