Steven Sosnick

Anyone in my network (or knows someone) that’s looking to start out their software career or already has some experience, gimme a shout. Have a client looking to hire. Please note, this is more of an entry level/less experienced position. Not looking for loads of experience. Only drawback is it’s mostly an on-prem gig here in Jax. Upsides include getting to work with modern tech, a plethora of legitimately interesting problems, and you get to work with us too. 😎 That last one might include some mentoring, pairing, and teaming. #payITforward

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3 keys to my first $60,000 deal (5x increase) When the average deal is $5k, it’s every agency’s dream to have a $50k deal. That was true for me. Most of my agency’s projects were between $2k and $5k. I had pitched a few big projects but hadn't landed one. Why? Those other projects didn’t share the must-have ingredients that this one did. The secret ingredients that made this deal work: 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁. This wasn’t the first time I’d pitched them. I had delivered multiple projects before. Senior decision makers trusted me. 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 2 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗜 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁. I knew every department head. I knew the pains of their job and talked with them about solutions. I was also a customer, and knew a lot about their customers’ behavior. 𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘁, 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀-𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲. This was a humongous risk that most agencies won't take. The client’s business is seasonal so my solution had to be in place before the busy time. As the deadline approached I wasn’t sure we’d make it. But we did. 𝘁𝗹;𝗱𝗿 - 𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗶𝗴, 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀. Deliver something smaller first. Consult - understand the business and their challenges. Do the math and make bold promises. How did you level up your client deals? ------------------------------- I'm Jason and I never click the "Rewrite with AI" button. Message me if you run a tech agency and want help building on LinkedIn.

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In 2024 I've helped more Software Engineers from FANG (is it MANA now?) companies move onto their next challenge than I've done before. Awesome. It always feels great to help people get their new job. I think this is for 4 reasons. 1. These companies have gone through restructuring at a rate they have never been through before. Even if Engineers are still in place, they are concerned about long term job stability. 2. RSU's locked Engineers in on high annual total earnings that no one could compete with. With share prices adjusting to market pressure, Engineers have more options. 3. These businesses are now no longer at the cutting edge of tech, consolidating and focusing on core product lines and killing off new or risky product development they are not the centres of innovation they once were. 4. We had remote working and now there is a big return to the office. This works for some. Not all. If you are in the market for hiring the top tier of Engineering talent (not that this is defined by someone working at Apple/Amazon etc) now is a great time to go to market. If you're looking for a new role, although the market is slower than it was in 2021/2022. There are some great businesses looking to hire, especially so since the start of 2024. Get in touch if you'd like to learn more. Happy jobsearching everyone.

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Resharing this because it’s such an important point. 🌟 Titles don’t define your worth—growth and skill development do. A job title might look good on paper, but it’s the ongoing learning and evolution that truly drive career success. Not all companies are the same, and the impact you make as a mid-level developer can easily surpass the weight of a flashy title elsewhere. Stay focused on growth and keep pushing yourself forward! 🚀

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Observation: 9/10 SWE's quit at “reading the docs”. Cut through the BS with this easy trick: Take action and build. Writing code is 100x easier than the docs make it sound. “Reading the docs” gave me crazy imposter syndrome: -Git -WPF -Kafka -OAuth -Angular -GraphQL -RabbitMQ -Kubernetes In ALL cases, I conquered my fears by building. Except for WPF. I gave up on that. And Kafka, that's for another day. Forcing yourself to build/code/deploy melts analysis paralysis. Then you'll say "oh that was pretty easy". Trust me, we aren't building rockets. Practice AND Study build true mastery.

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HOT question: How much HubSearch swag should I pack in my suitcase tonight? LIKE this post if you plan on stopping by Admin Central during INBOUND!! *The map is in the comments so you can find us 🙂

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There is 1 piece of the puzzle that 90%+ of SaaS companies do poorly during an interview process. If you can't do this well, you have no shot at landing top talent. I am talking about the DEMO It's your chance to show off the product to a potential employee. The opportunity to build a picture of how awesome it would be to sell/Market/Design etc. It usually happens towards the end of the process and should be an awesome opportunity to close. But sadly, most demos do not go so well. Candidates come out with more questions than when they went in. A super positive process can turn on its head. Lots of reasons for this but one of the easiest fixes is make sure that you have the right person doing the demo use a sales guy/gal who demos the product day in, day out. Too often because it is an interview, 'Users' of the product get pulled in to demo. People who use the product, know all of its flaws and have never sold it. Have you ever had a bad demo experience? #recruitingforSaaS #SaaS #demo

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Mental health tech companies need skilled software engineers, but most software engineers are not mental health professionals. If you’re starting a tech company you obviously need tech engineers to help build it, but your engineers should be collaborating with mental health professionals on your leadership team to make sure the tech is aligned for mental healthcare. The details matter for tech, and the details matter for mental health too. Software engineers and mental health professionals need to be working together to build a well-rounded and safe platform. If you don’t have this collaboration between your engineers and your mental health leadership, it will have a big impact on your company - and not in a good way. You can’t have tech without engineers, and you can’t have a mental health company without mental health professionals. Let them work together to create, and maintain a healthy system, and a platform that’s helping advance mental health.

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This doesn’t mean coding is dead (sorry, Jensen Huang). Instead, what we are seeing is how deeply polarized the tech market has become in 2024 and how wide the gap is growing. Fewer tech jobs = fewer tech companies hiring. And traditional SaaS companies are at the center of this shift. Because: 1) VC money isn’t flowing like it used to. Historically, most of the VC capital raised by tech startups went to hiring and customer acquisition. Now, with funding rounds slowing, there’s less cash to fuel headcount growth. 2) Growth has stalled. Many SaaS companies are paying the price for their “growth at all costs” phase, especially now that the ZIRP era is over. There's a ton of zombie companies out there—still walking, but essentially dead. Some are going for “life raft” options: selling at lower multiples, turning to private equity, acqui-hires, or raising funds at steeply diluted valuations. And of course, this means no expansion, hiring freezes, or worse—mass layoffs after the 2022 bubble burst. Now, on the other side of the gap is AI, grabbing all the money, headlines, and triple-digit growth. But even within AI, there are two distinct markets. 1) Core AI infrastructure – AI-focused hardware, software, and services. 2) AI-embedded companies – Businesses that natively integrate AI (like LLMs) into their applications. In 2024, every company is calling itself an “AI company,” slapping AI into their apps or pitch decks to ride the hype wave. This approach works for now—they’re raising capital, iterating, and searching for product-market fit. But in 5–10 years? Many of these companies might not be sustainable. Their AI offerings are often easy to replicate, and their competitive edge fades quickly. Moat-less. The good news is, we are starting to see more enterprise spending in the application layer and I think more value is being created. Agentic applications are really moving the needle now. Which is critical - the entire AI movement rests on the future of application builders. AI infrastructure, on the other hand, has more staying power IMO. These companies—especially those working on hardware—are playing the long game. Yes, they’re capital-intensive, but the opportunity is massive. The proverbial diamond mine of AI is far from fully explored. And as history shows, the ones selling the tools to dig the mine will often be the biggest winners. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts. P.S. Great data from Bigdata.com and Linas Beliūnas

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Ditch the Commute! 15 SaaS Companies Crushing Remote Work in 2024: The future of work is flexible, and these top SaaS companies are leading the charge with awesome remote-first cultures: 1.) Zapier (automation platform) 2.) GitLab (version control) 3.) Cloudbees (software delivery management) 4.) Automattic 5.) Doist (task management) 6.) HubSpot (CRM platform) 7.) SurveyMonkey (online survey tool) 8.) Slack (communication platform) 9.) Zoom (video conferencing platform) 10.) Dropbox (cloud storage) 11.) Mailchimp (email marketing platform) 12.) Stripe (payment processing platform) 13.) Canva (graphic design platform) 14.) Airtable (collaborative work management platform) 15.) ClickUp (project management platform) Considering a remote role? Research the company culture and benefits to ensure it aligns with your needs. Look for strong communication practices and support systems for remote teams. **Do you work for a remote-first SaaS company you love? Share it in the comments! #remotework #saas #careerdevelopment #hiring #recruiting #flexibility

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*Bracing myself for the response I might get for asking this* Software Engineers: Would you ever consider working on an EQUITY ONLY basis (ie no salary, just owning a portion of the business, the value of which would increase as it progresses and scales)? Assuming: - The product is really interesting and so is the work - The product is in the "tech for good" space and would be a really positive contribution to parts of society - Seed funding is confirmed to be coming with several backers keen & they will able to offer a salary in the near future - The product is super early stage, you would be writing the software from the ground up, but the concept, design and business model once funding is received are all solid I know that there will be many who would never consider this under any circumstances and I totally get why, but just curious to hear if any of you would if it was for a product you believed in enough? And would you look at it on a full-time basis or a part-time basis? It's something I got asked about and so I thought I would throw it out to Linkedin to see what you all think rather than assuming that I know the answer on your behalf. #startup #founder #softwareengineer

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Good news for SaaS hiring, jobs? Saastr (via Adam Schoenfeld) reports: "Even the (Forbes) Cloud 100 felt the 2022-2023 SaaS correction. Last year, 33% of the Cloud 100 had *reduced* headcount over the previous 6 months. Only 55% had a net increase. 13% were neutral. This year is different. 80% have increased headcount in the previous 6 months, only 11% reduced. 9% are neutral. Open roles have increased massively. Up 66% Y/Y from ~4,400 to ~7,300 for this group". ------- Much of this growth is concentrated among a relatively small group of high performers. And, a small number is expanding in APAC. However, we know APAC expansion typically follows sustained company growth in the US. So we may well start to see flow from this rally in the back end of the year. Anecdotally I'm hearing about headcount growth plans for Jan 2025.

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"I don't like leetcode style interviews!" See I wasn't making it up! Kurtis Nusbaum tells us more about why engineers don't like leetcode and the types of interviews that lead to a more enjoyable and effective interviewing experience.

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Very often, the main thing the higher priced developer is better at is: Being less expensive. Assume you hire a $20/hour developer to handle web page, and after a few back and forth interactions, he gets the approval, ten hours of work. $200. You hire the $70/hour developer, who has done it before, knows exactly what is needed, and gets the approval in an hour. $70. Hourly rate is only one factor. Ability to get the desired result efficiently is really the gold standard, at least to my clients. #dallas #value #softwareengineers

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I've talked to 50+ crypto projects over the last few weeks and they're all looking for help onboarding KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) Many are hiring agencies, BD people, assistants - just to fail miserably Here's what they don't get: Before we get into how to onboard KOLs, just know: KOLs won't fix your problems If users can't understand your product, if your value prop is not strong enough... then go work on fundamentals and then work with KOLs KOLs work great when they amplify sth that's already great Now, back to onboarding KOLs 1) Outreach Most of the teams I've talked to use cold outreach, copy-pasting the same DM over and over again If that's you, you need to stop that NOW - nobody likes spam This is how you win and set yourself apart: - Try to get a warm intro if possible (this is where agencies can help) - Personalize your outreach! - Own your pitch! 💡No agency can do a better job than you at pitching your product! 2) Why your project is a great fit Make it obvious why their followers should care about a project like yours! Share metrics that show traction, Social proof (investors, PR articles, etc) Demo about how to use your product 💡Onboard them to your product as if they were users! 3) Remove friction from generating content Ok so now they buy that your project is legit, but now are thinking how painful could it be to generate content? (yes many of them are lazy) 💡Share some of your own content that has worked, content from other projects/KOLs can work too 4) Landing a good deal Lastly, negotiating a deal that makes sense for both sides is what will make or break this process Make sure incentives are aligned 💡Remember: No deal is always better than a bad deal! That's all - there's not much else to it tldr 1. Personalized outreach 2. Make it clear why your project is a fit 3. Remove friction from generating content 4. Land a good deal If you'd like me to go deeper into KOL deals, please reply to this post and I'll follow up with you

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An early startup that we don't have the capacity to help asked what they could be doing to hire some good early engineers. Below is what I shared. I don't think companies want to hear that there's no secret stash of candidates and that it takes hard work to make hires. But it's the truth and also worth it! === I'm not sure if you're already doing this but I would suggest making a list of all the companies and teams that employ these engineers and systematically reach out via LI or email to engage them about this opportunity. Reaching out to ~10-15/day of the best engineers in the space will get you 3-5 high signal intro calls per week that over a few weeks/months should get you the few hires you're looking for. In addition, you can post the roles on LinkedIn and/or other engineering sites and also encourage referrals from your team. Regarding the latter, you can try to offer referral bonuses and also set up sourcing jams where you get some pizza or virtual Doordash and everybody mines their networks for good engineers to contact. This is what a recruiter would do to make these hires. Let me know if any of this prompts questions. Hope this helps and good luck out there. Hiring is most definitely a grind!! But also worth it when you're able to find and hire great people.

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Hey folks, I need some advice. -- What are the top 3-5 things you do when making an API? Does your team have a standard way of writing APIs? Do you do api design reviews? Thanks for your help 🚢 #ApiDesign #SoftwareEngineering

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Do genAI code assistants offer short-term coding satisfaction at the expense of long-term technical debt? Every engineering manager has a plan in place to use copilots or have their devs use them extensively in their teams Auto-completes and suggestions at lightening fast pace is like pair programming with a super smart developer looking over your shoulder But these smart assistants can generate code with zero context on architecture or how the code talks to external systems or user behavior patterns or the codebase evolution. Why that matters. Unless supervised they can build code that: - Is incompatible with external interfaces like databases, APIs etc, - Duplicates functionality, - Disregards existing design, - Generates code that causes memory leaks or performance issues All making existing code base complicated, harder to maintain, extend and debug over time. So what could be going wrong with them? - Maybe not ideal to accept code you don't completely understand - Maybe not ideal to use them to generate entire functions or implementations but just improve structure, style, or best practices - Maybe they are just safe in the hands of developers with context - Maybe they make good developers better but can't compensate for skill So are engineering leaders worried about adding technical debt that they don't know in this new world of superstar dev assistants? #copilot #technicaldebt #softwareengineering #leaders

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How Aaron, co-founder of Fintech Ember, scaled their team by 30% in 3 months without spending on traditional agencies: When Aaron reached out, they’d just secured funding. Great news, but they had to ramp up quick: - Increase engineering team talent - Increase product team talent They needed 9 high-quality hires, fast. But they had 3 big problems: 1. No internal talent team 2. Pressure to scale fast 3. High stakes for quality Recruiting was falling on leadership. Growth targets were big. Past experiences with bad hires were scary. It was crucial that we nailed this for Aaron. But we knew we could fix their hiring problem. We needed to do 3 things quickly: 1. Install a dedicated talent lead, sourcer and co-ordinator 2. Integrate with their hiring managers 3. Align with the brand to attract talent excited about the vision The difference to traditional agencies: not just a recruiter. We gave Aaron a support system with recruiters working constantly. But that’s not it. In just 3 months: - 9 high-quality hires, scaling Aaron’s team by 30% - 2 weeks average time to hire, hitting growth targets - £81,340 cost saving vs traditional agency fees Here’s the best bit though... Leadership was buzzing with the quality of hires, saying: “The quality bar has really been raised.” And Aaron was buzzing too: “The results have been fantastic. We scaled our team by 30-35% with high-quality hires, all without overwhelming our time or resources.” Securing funding should be exciting for a business. Don’t let the worry of hiring take that excitement away. P.S. if you’re a fast-scaling startup struggling with: - No internal talent team to manage recruitment - Pressure to hire quickly without compromising on quality - Concerns about the costs of traditional recruitment agencies - The challenge of attracting top-tier candidates to your mission - A lack of seamless collaboration with past recruitment partners And you want to scale your team efficiently, raise the quality bar and save on recruitment costs? DM me

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