By this, I mean trust your developers and allow them to think and move at their own free will. Placing restrictions on your developers and micromanaging them causes serious negative consequences that ultimately hurt both the developer by destroying their morale and the company because they will not get the performance they want from that employee.

Many companies have given their employees the freedom to make major decisions within the company, and this proves to be highly successful because those employees tend to be more innovative since they have the creative freedom therefore the results are much more desirable.

This isn’t to say you should just let your developers do whatever they want without any oversight, but to just give them some freedom. Limiting developer freedom within the company seems to be a common trait in the central valley and hopefully that can change one day. If the central valley wants to be more cutting edge like the bay area they need to make some adjustments such as this to spin up more of a desire for developers to work here.

If you’ve ever worked at a tech company you know there are two kinds of people:

The kind who go to college, get their degree, apply for a job, get the job and *just* do their job. They come in at 8, go home at 5. Never buy new books to learn new languages and features. It’s just a job to them. These are career programmers.

Then there’s the guys who stay until 8, pushing hard to get their task done. Going home, writing more code. Buying new books all the time possibly to learn new languages. Just a general love for programming and the web in general. These are the passionate programmers.

A lot of companies tend to want to hire the first type of person because they feel it provides them with “security” because they will obey rules, never come in late, and can be molded to be whatever you want at a lower cost. I think that represents a problem and causes more harm than good. I personally believe one passionate programmer is worth two to three career programmers. You should always push your team to be on the cutting edge and learning. Always!

Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with people who love to just write code for their job and make their company a lot of money. But at the same time, I want my fellow programmers to also push themselves to the limit. I want them to succeed in coming up with new and innovating ways to tackle a problem. As Google says, I want my fellow programmers to do the impossible. And then some. With a career programmer this is very difficult because of the lack of dedication to code as a lifestyle.

If you want a solid team that believes in your product, hire a team of passionate programmers. Let your company flourish in people who love code.

Some people have their opinions on why Fresno companies can never meet the level of atmosphere of what you get in the bay area, but I think there are a few that are common across the board.  But that’s not what I wanted to talk about today.

With all of the programmers I’ve met over the past few years in the valley especially with the explosion of Twitter I find a lot of people complaining about the same thing: lame work environments, restricting internet access, more and more rules every year, bad management of teams, removing perks like sodas, etc.

I want to address some of the things I see over and over and give my two cents on some of the topics, hoping that maybe some local companies can ‘get it’ and try to create better environments for programmers.  The first one I want to start with today: Loyalty.

Loyalty, Build It

Building loyalty between management and developers is key.  You have to not assume that you are doing your employees a favor by employing them.  They are engineers.  They are architects.  The software industry is usually always booming so you should do what you can to be loyal to your employees.  If you are loyal, you will most likely gain a loyal employee base as a result.  And we respect that.

When you create an ecosystem of loyal developers, you can always know that when things take a turn for the worse for you, they will be there to stick with you through thick and thin.  There is nothing worse than a company shitting on their employees only to wonder why everyone starts jumping ship once things turn sour.

One thing to show your employees your loyalty to them could be to let them know how great of a job they are doing and how much you appreciate them and their hard work.  Just a simple thank you even can boost someones confidence and loyalty to you.  It’s the little things that count sometimes.  Or making sure you pay top notch for great talent.  Don’t lose good programmers because you didn’t want to fork out the extra $5,000 per year sometimes that talent is a lot more valuable to you than not.

When you create a loyal employee you create a happy employee.  And when you have a happy employee you get results.

Well, Microsoft has had a program for a while now to meet these needs.  Originally Microsoft created the BizSpark program which enabled entry level startups to obtain all of the tools neccesary to get their startup rolling without spending large sums of cash just on licensing and software.  This is such a great idea, because you basically pay Microsoft $100 for 3 years worth of free software.

Now they introduced WebsiteSpark which is a similar program but provides more tools for the designers as well.  This includes Microsoft Expression on top of the other development tools included with the BizSpark program.  Users will also get access to free services from partners and a designer showcase for your web application.  Very cool, kudos to Microsoft for trying to help the smaller guys.

By the way, to gain access to Microsofts BizSpark or WebsiteSpark program all you need to do is find a sponsor and pay the $100 fee after your three years of being in the program.

Now, just need to get that great idea…

The CVBI is holding a “Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week” in late September, the 21st through the 25th to be exact, where a lot of great events lined up to bring everyone together in different ways.  The event happening on Wednesday will be the one I’m definitely going to attend, which is aimed at bringing us geeks out to discuss our ideas and anything else we want.  It will be a great event on skill sharing and just meeting other talend located here in the valley.  For more information and to RSVP there is a Facebook event already created here:

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week, “Geeks, Innovators and Entrepreneurs, unite!”

I hope to see some of you guys out!

9/21 Monday: Pecha Kucha Night, Fresno (vol 4)

Presented by Creative Fresno
Pecha Kucha (Japanese for “the sound of conversation”) is an opportunity for people to discover, showcase and discuss the innovative and creative ideas flowing through the community. The high-energy presentations utilize images, sounds and words within tight 20×20 parameters. Each speaker has 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20 slides at 20 seconds per slide) to present their idea. Fresno is one of nearly 250 cities worldwide holding Pecha Kucha Nights. It is a place for designers to meet, network and show their work in public.
Location: The Starline (Tower District)
Time: 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Contact: Kiel Famellos-Schmidt kielts@gmail.com
www.creativefresno.com

9/22 Tuesday: Fresno Scrapers

Presented by the Institute for Applied Anthropology (CSUF)
Ever consider the process of making an innovation actually ready for the end user? Attend a Fresno Scrapers lunch meeting and you will want to run your innovation through this process. Engineering and design time can be positively impacted by including the end user in the process. This working lunch meeting takes a single innovation presented by an entrepreneur and looks at it from multiple angles, specifically exploring the way in which the solution will be used and the problem it will solved.
Location: CVBI Launching Pad (1630 E Shaw, Ste 163 (near Spaghetti Factory))
Time: 11:34am – 1:30pm
Contact: Dr. Henry Delcore hdelcore@csufresno.edu

9/22 Tuesday & 9/24 Thursday: Business Planning Course

Presented by Central Valley Business Incubator
A unique opportunity for the public to attend and participate in the popular Business Planning Course offered by the Central Valley Business Incubator. Stop by to audit the class during Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week. Get a glimpse of what it takes to grow an idea into a wealth-generating business.
Location: CVBI Launching Pad (1630 E Shaw, Ste 163 (near Spaghetti Factory))
Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Contact: Travis Sheridan travis@cvbi.org
www.cvbi.org

9/23 Wednesday: Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summit

Presented by Central Valley Business Incubator
Industry clusters have proven to be very useful. Innovator and entrepreneurs should have a united voice as a viable industry. This “Summit” is intended to bring innovation out of the woodwork. The focus will be on gaining a clear understanding of the needs this “industry” cluster. Topics to dissect are: access to capital, scalability, commercialization of innovation, market penetration, workload/skill sharing, challenges to early adoption, obstacles to growth.
Location: The Downtown Club (Kern & L Street, Fresno)
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Contact: Travis Sheridan travis@cvbi.org
www.cvbi.org

9/24 Thursday: Central Valley Venture Forum

Presented by Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Central Valley Venture Forum (CVVF) represents a once-a-year opportunity for deal makers and influencers in the Valley. This forum is sure to provide you with a year’s worth of valuable business contacts in the most power-packed 8 hours you could imagine! The CVVF features local, statewide, national and global business, investment, economic and policy experts, and the opportunity to present pre-registered plan to potential venture capital investors.
Location: Clovis Veteran’s Memorial Building
Time: 8:30am – 3:00pm
Contact: Nancy Kobbata nancyko@csufresno.edu
www.valleyventureforum.com

9/25 Friday: Tour of Innovative Spaces (Cargo Bay & WET Incubator)

Presented by Central Valley Business Incubator & Cargo Bay
An invitation to tour two of the most innovative small business and entrepreneur-friendly facilities in the area. Come and experience the energy of Cargo Bay and the internationally recognized Claude Laval Water & Energy Technology (WET) Incubator.
Location: WET Incubator (Barstow & Chestnut)
Time: 9:00am – 11:00 am
Location: Cargo Bay (Temperance & 168)
Time: TBD
Contact: Travis Sheridan travis@cvbi.org
www.cvbi.org
www.cargobay.com

Also another idea could be Nerd Dinner.  This is a similar idea except to have some dinner and chit-chat as opposed to getting slightly tipsy.

I’d like to know your suggestions if you have any.

As this article over at The Business Journal stated, one of the goals for the winner was to provide economic growth for Fresno and promote growth and diversification for the valley.  So it seems a little insulting to find out that Vine Global is leaving the area to relocate to Scottsdale, AZ for an extended amount of time to be closer with a customer.  I understand sometimes part of the business is to build great relationships with your customers and provide the best service you can but this seems to be part of a larger trend that is occurring in the valley.

If you weren’t aware I wrote another post regarding another startup based on the Fresno area called PlasticJungle.  They were recently funded from a Venture Capital firm in which following the round of funding, decided to move most of their operations out of Clovis to the bay area.  While I disagree with these moves since I want to see new and innovative businesses grow here in the valley, I understand that the business here is not as optimal as places like the bay area.

But when is this trend going to end?  What will make Fresno and the central valley keep technology companies from wanting to relocate?  I personally would like to see more of the government stepping in and providing incentives for businesses to stay here but we all know that isn’t going to happen.

PlasticJungle Founder and COO Tina Henson I think made a good point, that we are best to focus on what assets we have here.

This is something that’s been bothering me for a while.  If you weren’t aware, there is a local startup located here in Clovis, CA called PlasticJungle. They are a small company filling a big void right now: gift cards. But what they do is allow you to buy/sell discounted gift cards.

Everyone wins right?  Well yeah, but not the central valley.  Recently it was announced by PlasticJungle that they’ve secured a round of Venture Capital funding which would allow them to grow and expand their services. The problem is they’re packing up and moving to the bay area.

There goes the quick glimmer of hope for any Fresno developers hoping to work for a hot local startup.

Is it wrong to be upset?  No I don’t believe so.  The central valley is so niche itself that when something does make it big here we tend to applaud it and put it in the spotlight. But at the same time a big congrats to PlasticJungle for their continued success.

Maybe this is just another feint echo from a guy hoping that boom of startups does finally hit the valley one day.