Why Your First Developer is Critical

Anthony Thomas tells us how he made the leap from manufacturing to starting a tech team at Sticker Mule. He explains why your first developer is so critical to your founding team.

Here's what to listen for:

00:51 What was your background prior to starting Sticker Mule?
01:39 What was the drive to go from manufacturing into starting Sticker Mule?
03:13 Did you see other companies doing what you wanted to do?
04:02 What was your co-founder’s background?
06:09 Did you start your company as a non-technical founder?
07:42 Should a non-technical person learn how to code?
10:35 Did you build any basic background in tech?
11:40 Are you able to empathize more with developers having learned something about software?
15:09 How did you build a technical team as a non-technical person?
16:56 What interested you about open source?
20:47 What do you think led your first developer to work with you?
22:39 Why did you think the first developer was so critical?
27:42 How are you able to evaluate a developer as a non-technical person?
29:41 How do you guide the roadmap for your team?
34:15 What’s an example of a time you wanted to do feature polish?
35:19 What are some of the biggest productivity killers for your development team?
36:16 What do you mean by incomplete and changing specs?
37:18 What has helped make your specs more concrete?
43:24 What challenges have you faced as you scaled your team?
46:27 What advice would you give Anthony prior to starting Sticker Mule?