We’ve gotten a great response from Jeremy’s tweet about an introductory worshop to Ruby, so we’ll be hosting one on December 3 from 9am to 3pm.  We have limited spots for this so if you’d like to come please shoot us a note at learn@terriblelabs.com.

This first workshop will be an intro to Ruby (and it looks like this will be an intro to programming for some of the attendees). We won’t cover anything Rails specific, but we’ll tailor the content to people who eventually want to level up to Rails.

We’ll go over basic programming constructs (conditions and loops), functions, blocks, data types, data structures like Array and Hash, and maybe a brief intro to object-oriented programming with Ruby.

The format will be something like 15 minutes of lecture/examples with 15-30 minutes to experiment (in pairs) on the new topic, repeat. The goal will be to build out a simple interactive command-line game over the course of the day. We’ll have a handful of experienced Rubyists to help out with the hands-on work.

We don’t have have anything planned beyond this first Nubies workshop. It’s partly a market test for us (and we’ve gotten a great response), an opportunity to develop some content, and see what topics and formats might work going forward. I think the next logical step would be more advanced workshops on OOP with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript/CoffeeScript/jQuery, etc.

Over the past few months we’ve chatted with a bunch of people looking for advice on the technical side of their projects.  We’ve had conversations ranging from hiring technical co-founders to the tradeoffs involved when deciding to use relational databases vs. document databases.

So we thought we’d open our doors (or Gemvara’s) to help anyone with their technical roadblocks.  We’re kicking off our first round of office hours on Wednesday November 16 starting at 1:30pm.  

Click here to sign up!

We’re excited to be sponsoring the first Bubbly Bub & Grub at a Pub in the Hub Club.  If you’re looking to grab some beers and food while catching up with fellow Rubyists, definitely come and hang.  Just make sure to snag a free ticket.

We will all be gathering at The Black Rose in Quincy Market on November 29th from 6pm to 9pm.

A big thanks to Brian Cardarella for making this event happen!

Our very own Cort Johnson was talking startups, the Boston startup ecosystem and failure on the Callie Crossley show with Greg Gomer of BostInnovation. Have a listen below!

I’ve had a bunch of conversations over the past few weeks where every person has asked me the same question, “Do you know any engineers I can hire?”.  Non technical co-founders are looking to partner up with technical co-founders, bigger companies are looking to fill out their engineering staff and funded startups are looking to build their engineering teams.  Engineers are in high demand which means if you’re looking to hire one you’re going to have to work for it!

I don’t think there’s any sure fire way to go out and attract top developers as every company and situation is different.  I will however offer a few observations I’ve made of how some local companies are going about hiring.

Relationship building

When chatting with a few companies and asking how they were able to build their engineering teams, they remarked that they had leveraged the connections they had made while working at previous companies.  One company went back to a previous employer (don’t worry lawyers and employers in MA, they didn’t infringe on their non-solicitation agreements) and recruited engineers they had worked with in the past.

One person who didn’t have the luxury of leveraging a former engineering staff, pounded the pavement, becoming a regular at different developer meetups around town.  He told me that over the course of a year, he was able to develop strong relationships with developers eager to refer him engineering candidates.

Monetary Incentive

With such a high demand for tech talent, companies have been throwing a lot of cash at the problem.  I’m sure everyone is aware that HubSpot is paying $10k for any referred new technical hire that stays at the company for a specific amount of time.  Performable was also playing the same game, offering $12k per developer, before being acquired by HubSpot.  If you have the money and need the talent, throwing cash around could potentially help.

Poach

There has been a lot of angel and VC money flowing into the startup scene over the past few years.  Many of these startups, who have been around for a while, ramped up quickly, filling out their engineering teams but still have yet to achieve the rocket growth they expected.  After chatting with a few engineers at these types of companies, I’ve learned that given the right situation they’d be inclined to join a new team and attack a new problem.

If you’re a startup, I’d also take a look at larger companies and agencies.  Many of these developers are super active in the developer community and get involved in the various hackathons and user groups around town.  While hosting a couple of hackathons, I’ve had a chance to chat with several engineers working at larger corporations.  It was really interesting for me to hear how many of these guys are actually interested in joining a startup.  After one engineer made a similar statement at a recent APIs and IPAs, he was instantly bombarded with interest from several big name startups.

Generate ‘The Perfect Storm’

There are several companies in Boston that are great at generating ‘the perfect storm’ and as a byproduct, have had an easier time attracting talent.

The first step to creating the perfect storm is to make yourself the prettiest girl in the room.  Just as you would when trying to raise money, the more hype you can create for your company the more interested everyone (not just engineers) will be in helping you execute your vision.  By being the prettiest girl in Boston, you’ll have an easy time attracting talent.

The second step is to sell a grand vision that solves an interesting problem.  To achieve this, it helps to have an incredible storyteller.  It’s not that you want to sell ice to eskimos but you want to tell the story of how you are going to change the world.  You’re doing this when you’re talking to VCs and angles, so do the same when you’re trying to recruit talent as well.

The final step in creating the perfect storm is to already have great people on your team.  When joining a company, people want to move their career forward and become more valuable.  The best way to do this is to improve one’s skills by learning from super experienced people like the David Cancel’s, Dharmesh Shah’s, Sean Lindsay’s, and Will Koffel’s of the world.  Companies that are able to convey the aptitude of their team tend to be much prettier than the others.

These are just a few observations I’ve made over the past few years.  I’d love to hear any other thoughts people have!

It’s been fun to watch the growth of Boston’s early stage tech community over the past few years. Companies that once had trouble finding the resources to help them succeed are now finding the support they need to be successful. Because so many companies are being nurtured, it’s been interesting to watch a new problem become more prevalent: the retention of good talent.

All of us here at Terrible Labs have had the opportunity to work at several early stage companies in various product, engineering and sales roles. We’ve seen how hard it is to come by great talent in years past and now that the market for A-players becomes more and more competitive, companies should be focusing on creating great environments for their talent to work in.

As we too continue to build our company and team, here are a few things we’re constantly thinking about…

Culture

We’ve seen first hand what it’s like to build a company culture and we know it’s not easy.

Yes, the building and execution of your product is super important and no doubt you will deliver. What tends to be equally as important is the the road the team travels while building the product.

Your goal is to build a team that enjoys not only working together but spending long hours together. In order to achieve this, it’s all about getting out of the office and away from work. Allow your team to step out of their work shell and be themselves. Whether that means going out for drinks, taking a trip together, going out for dinner or singing karaoke, allow your team to share in unique experiences and in turn you’ll have a team that’s closer and better friends.

The journey will be long, make sure it’s enjoyable for everyone along the way.

Learning

The people you’ve hired to work on your team are the ones who are willing to get their hands dirty and solve big problems. People join companies not for the paycheck but because they’re passionate about a space, problem or team.

Make sure the problem you’re solving is well stated and interesting. Your team should light up when they talk about what they’re working on and who they’re working with.

If that’s not the case, empower your team to explore subsets of the problem you’re trying to solve. This doesn’t have to be their full-time job but an opportunity for them to be creative and come up with solutions you may have never thought possible.

Communication

The team you’ve assembled should be stacked with people you believe in and trust to execute your company’s grand vision. No doubt issues and detours will arise, it’s expected at any company. The important part to remember is to treat your team with the trust you’d expect them to confide in you.

When unfortunate speed-bumps present themselves, be open with your team and work on solving the problem together. A lack of communication merely delays the inevitable, difficult conversation and ultimately leads to a more negative response from your team.

Like all successful relationships (because I would know), successful teams are built on transparency and communication.

The Future Looks Competitive

I’m excited to watch as more companies startup here in Boston. The ecosystem is getting stronger each day and the companies more compelling. Just make sure you are conscious of the environment you’re creating otherwise you may find yourself a lonely, one man team.

We had another fun night at Gemvara working with the RunKeeper HealthGraph API.

As we talked about in the last blog post, we’re still trying to figure out how best to run these hack-fests.  For the next couple months we’re going to meet up every other Wednesday night at Gemvara from 6pm to 9pm to continue working with the RunKeeper API.  

On November 16th we’re going to get together for a final presentation night where we can recap on the apps we’ve built and demo them to the greater Boston community and to the RunKeeper team.

I know Jason Jacobs (CEO of RunKeeper) is willing to leverage the RunKeeper press machine to highlight apps built during APIs and IPAs, so if you’re interested in getting some exposure for yourself and your app, come out and get involved!

Sign up for the next one on 10/5…

This past Wednesday, we were psyched to have team EverTrue out which included Brent, Eric, Jesse, Drew, Courtney, Andrew and Anthony.  These guys spent their time building an app that incorporates charitable giving with exercise.  Keep your eye out for their RunKeeper app, I’ve got a feeling that when they present in November the demo will be very cool!

Patients Like Me was also well represented by Jeffrey Chupp and Jeff Cole.  Jeffrey continued to work on his app for recording one’s sleep while Jeff was working on a map overlay that allows Runkeeper users to compare segments of the same route over time.  He’s currently looking at his morning commute by car, but this easily transfers over to cycling, running and other activities.

Dave and Dolphy of Isobar were out for the first time and started working on a Java wrapper for the Health Graph API.  I’m excited to see this get done as it will really help encourage more Java app development with the RunKeeper API.

Will Mernagh from Iora Health also made it back out to continue working with Joe Lind on the Ruby wrapper, BabyTooth, which is getting very close to completion.

Yifei Zhang of TapForge was also out working on front end design for the chartiable giving/challenges app that Jeremy Weiskotten has been building.  This app is really shaping up and I’m excited to start using it when it’s done!

My talk from Boston RB last night on Test Driven Development. Check out the slides below.

Video recap of our first APIs and IPAs event. This quarter we’re building on RunKeeper’s Health Graph API.  

Thanks to Arestia Rosenberg for filming and editing this video!

This past weekend we hosted the first APIs and IPAs event with RunKeeper.  Before I get into the recap I just want to thank Winter Wyman and Silicon Valley Bank for sponsoring the day and Gemvara for letting us use their beautiful new office space to host the event.  Also, congratulations to Greg Rublev for winning Winter Wyman’s $200 Amazon gift card!

We had a solid turnout of developers who were interested in learning more about RunKeeper’s Health Graph API and building apps for the RunKeeper community.  There was a large contingent of Ruby developers who banded together to focus on a couple different problems in the RunKeeper ecosystem.

Joe Lind and Will Mernagh spent a majority of their efforts building RunKeeper’s Ruby Wrapper, Baby Tooth.  Jeremy Weiskotten’s team focused on building an app (still needs a name) that leverages the game layer to help RunKeeper users raise money for charities by completing fitness challenges.  And finally Jeffrey Chupp led a team working on an app that uses RunKeeper to track a user’s sleep.

Check out the video from and Jeffrey, Joe and Jeremy’s presentations.  Thanks to Arestia Rosenberg for filming and editing!

We ended up running out of time to put the polish on all of these apps so we’ve decided to spend the rest of this quarter working with the Health Graph API.  Every other Wednesday night at Gemvara (starting 9/21), we’ll be getting together from 6pm to 9pm to finish apps that have already been started and potentially create a few more.

If you weren’t able to make it out on Sunday, feel free to sign up and swing by, we’d love to have you.

Also, as this was our first foray into a hackathon style of event, we’d love to get the community’s feedback.  Are you interested in learning more about local startups’ APIs and building apps on them?  If you came to the event, what did you like, what didn’t you like?  If you didn’t make it out we’d love to hear your 2 cents as well!  Please leave us your thoughts in the comments!