bradleyjoyce [dot] com • There is a lot of tech talent in Dallas, just not Startup talent

There is a lot of tech talent in Dallas, just not Startup talent

Dallas has a real problem.

While there is no real lack of technical talent here in the DFW metroplex, there is a HUGE shortage of people that can fill the #2 & #3 technical positions at a startup.

I’m talking about technical co-founders and the first couple of additional developers. The people that will slave away, with little to no pay, in exchange for a huge chunk of equity and the dream of making it big.

I believe there are two primary causes for this.

First, the people that would be willing to join a startup are most likely already working on their own idea, and therefore unavailable to anyone else. They are either going at it full time, or bootstrapping it on nights and weekends while the continue at their day job.

The day job is problem number two. I recently heard a statistic that tech unemployment in DFW is at a super low 1%. The technical talent here have “great” jobs at the plethora of Fortune 500 companies / agencies and they are pulling down a fat salary. They probably have a mortgage and a nice note on their Audi or BMW. They are not prepared to give up their 6 figures to take on the risk of a startup.

That is unless you can pay a market salary. A co-founder of a well funded local startup recently told me that Dallas has been great for them because they have the ability to hire the best talent out of the bigger companies. They have to pay for it, but they can do it.

Most of us that are running early-stage companies can’t afford the market salary, so we’re stuck.

Solutions? I don’t know…. maybe either more local funding (not likely to happen), or more people willing to put their idea on hold to join up with some others. Again, not too likely to happen.

Move? Maybe… Though competition for good people is probably even higher in hotspots like the Valley and NYC, at least there is a higher concentration of people willing to take risks on startups.