South Park Commons Blog

> Every company can't have the best engineers. They cost too much and they're a finite resource. Your argument assumes there is an efficient market for engineers, and it also assumes that an engineer’s productivity is independent of the company environment. There are multiple counterexamples of startups that have built great teams for cheap money. There are many reasons why great engineers can be underpriced or under-productive, and many reasons why mediocre engineers can be overpriced. You can get the best engineers if you have the smarts to do so. Currently on the front page are two relevant links: (1) a CEO’s opinion on what that takes for the funnel (not engineering specific): https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/learnings-of-a-ceo-matt-schulman-pave (2) a CTO’s? opinion on how companies fail to catch the best engineers: https://blog.southparkcommons.com/startup-engineering-hiring-anti-patt… It definitely is not easy - and it takes unusual skill to succeed - but that doesn’t make the advice wrong but only extremely difficult. If you lack the skill, then partner up with somebody who does, or find a mitigating strategy, or don’t become a C*O for a startup. Edit: I am an engineer and I hate rah-rah thinking, but if you don’t have enough belief, and you poohpooh all the advice of others, then perhaps you lack the temperament to be a founder. I was a successful founder, but only by joining with others with the skills I lacked as a cynical engineer-type. I think it is…

I don't know a case study but I was personally told by 2 different founders who had 100MM+ exits that their startup ideas were formed (at least partially) from brainstorm sessions. One guy even pointed to me the library where they had the whiteboard session which led to the idea that they exited in the end. The SPC also have a blog that proposes brainstorming from -1 to 1: https://blog.southparkcommons.com/how-to-go-from-minus-1-to-0/