HACKER Q&A
📣 rubyn00bie

Any Successful Co-Ops of Software Engineers


Salutations HN!

I’ll keep it simple, has anyone known of or been a part of a co-op of software engineers? And if so, how did it go?

I’m curious because it seems like the vast majority of early capital raises seem to go to paying for software development, and a small group of engineers could (in theory) output a few million dollars worth of value. It might not be attractive to VCs but it could probably form a business that lets coop members lead very comfortable lives.

  👤 nis0s Accepted Answer ✓
There are many private companies that operate under this model, and they’re usually small to medium sized (<250 people). The success of these companies often depends on their area of expertise and leadership.
👤 raw_anon_1111
You mean your standard consulting company that works on a project basis? This isn’t anything new. I worked for a startup founded by two non technical brothers who brought in an outside consulting company to do all of the work and then they brought in a CTO to bring it in house and I was one of his first technical hires.

You’ll be competing with cheap outsourced developers where only the tech leads and project managers are paid American wages.

You are basically doing staff augmentation which is the fifth level of hell

👤 988
A recent thought:

It might interesting to set up an open source group that provides an ecosystem of re-usable tools and libraries that interoperate well, and solve problems that are otherwise solved with with repetitive flakey internal implementations by several players in an industry.

Sort of like Apache Software Foundation, Spring Framework (for java), Boost (for c++), but higher level and industry-specific, e.g. for finance, some libraries and tools for handing FIX protocol, parsing file formats from market data vendors, also tooling for change management / releases etc. I am sure each industry has its collection of common use cases, like geology tools/libraries for mining, or handling genetic data for bioinformatics/pharma, etc.

The group, though, should have a corporate-friendly outward branding, be composed of people actually working in the industry, and somewhat selective with membership. A goal, perhaps not mentioned on the website but known to members, would be that the organization exists for the benefit of its members getting hired in the industry, consulting work, hiring each other when practical, books, training, etc. on using the libraries and tools.

In a way, it's really not anything too original, and I am sure close to how many open source groups have always operated in practice, crossed with a something like a guild/union/professional network. The main thought would be to do this for what seems like a "missing middle" of industry-specific stuff where there are maybe tens or hundreds of potential client companies, so not totally generic like kernels/compilers/spring/boost, but not a big enough market to attract a VC backed company, but big enough to offer cushy jobs for a few dozen people who would never have to do leetcode interviews ever again.