In 1661, in the ghats of the Sahyadri mountains, a Maratha force of ~1000 archers and musketeers led by Chattrapati Sivaji overpowered and defeated a Mughal army of ~30,000 soldiers, cavalry and elephants. This victory is attributed to what has since been popularized as “Guerilla Warfare” by the likes of Che Guevara during the 20th century.
Guerilla Warfare
Guerilla warfare is a battle strategy that uses unconventional tactics to enable a small group of well-organized, highly motivated, and specially trained “guerilla fighters” to overpower a large conventional army against seemingly unbelievable odds.
There are some uncanny similarities between the operations of such guerilla forces and some highly effective software development teams. Late entrepreneur, Steve Jobs used to talk about 100x better developers. There are countless legends in the open-source community of hackers pulling off impossible tasks to create some of the most used software today. For eg: The first version of Git was built by Linus Torvalds in 15 days to manage the codebase for the Linux Kernel.
At EmptyCup, we cherish such people and aspire to such a disproportionate impact ourselves. EmptyCup’s core product was built by just a 2–3 person team with what now seems like an inhuman effort in hindsight. That is the kind of work we want to do and the kind of team we want to build.
So, what does it take to build such a team of Guerilla developers?
The Guerilla Mindset
There are certain qualities that set the Guerillas apart from the rest:
Ambition. Guerilla fighters are not scared by the impossible task. They’re excited. They don’t see the risk. They see glory. Guerilla developers don’t think their weekend project may be too much. They’re hungry to prove(even if only to themselves) that they can do it in a weekend.
Mission. Che Guevara wrote in his book “Guerilla Warfare”, that for the Guerilla fighters to really defy the odds in battle, they need to know every effort for peace was made and failed. Guerilla developers don’t want to perform those impossible sprints just for their ego. They need to believe their sacrifice is in service of a truly meaningful vision.
Leverage. Guerilla fighters feel empowered by the great leverage they have over their enemies in difficult terrain like the mountains or forests where they are trained. Guerilla developers also enjoy mastering technologies that give them the leverage to accomplish alone what it takes whole teams elsewhere.
Team spirit. Guerilla fighters cherish being part of a squad where everyone is ready to risk their life against impossible odds for their mission. Guerilla developers also cherish the sacrifices their teammates make every day to realize their common vision. That team spirit inspires them to push themselves to excellence.
Finding Guerillas
Being Guerillas ourselves, we are trying to build a team at EmptyCup in a way that we can relate to.
Challenge & Ownership. No online tests or technical interviews. They are both artificial and wrong. We have seen that someone may be a great hacker but may be bad in an interview. So, we will evaluate through a challenging take-home assignment that anyone who is interested (regardless of qualifications like GPA / branch) can take up on their own. Guerilla developers work for the challenge.
Vision & Leadership. We do not offer a big brand or brag about a zillion-dollar fundraise. Instead, we offer a seat in the control room during the countdown of a rocket launch. We will articulate EmptyCup’s vision clearly both in our campaign messaging and in person with the interested developers. Guerilla developers are inspired by the mission, not money.
Culture & Sacrifice. We will not try to attract developers with stellar compensation packages. We will only offer a par salary. That is how even the leadership team is treated at EmptyCup. Instead, we will articulate why working at EmptyCup is different from an average MNC job and how the right culture can change career trajectories. Guerilla developers want to be inspired by their team, not play politics.
Freedom & Mentorship. Developers can use their own stack for the assignment. The tool doesn’t matter. The hand that operates it does. We have allowed one month time for the assignment so that developers can work whenever they have the best leverage. On top of this, we are ready to offer mentorship through our Slack channel and useful learning resources. Guerilla developers can use their freedom for maximum leverage.
If you have a Guerilla mindset and want to work on an original product within a missionary team that is focused on changing one of the toughest and biggest industries in a meaningful way through groundbreaking technology, come join EmptyCup.
