Do programmers need brokers? Finish）

But Guvench argues that his clients do not need help finding jobs, but that they need help to guide the choices. "Tom Cruise and need to help find a job, but he has a broker," he said. This raises another potential question: Will 10x's fledgling business be robbed by a Hollywood broker? (for example, Cruise's brokerage firm C.A.A into areas such as video games and sports) Guvench said he had considered the situation. Last year Uta's representatives approached them on nine floors. Guvench arranged a meeting with the Hollywood team at his home in San Francisco. "We are afraid of them," he said, fearing that the other would rob 10x of their jobs.

As a result, the gang found 10x not to rob their jobs, but to send business to the door. "We need to recruit programmers," they said. We can't find it. Can you help me? Guvench realised that Hollywood didn't pose a threat. In most cases "they are in a very different world." ”

Uta CEO Jeremy Zimmer told me that this was not entirely true. In recent years, his company has struggled to gain a truly effective understanding of Silicon Valley's ecosystems-which is why they flew to Jinkin. Zimmer said he liked the idea of a tech star who needed a broker. "The mainstream technology platform has so much power in hand that even a little bit of subversion is significant," he added, "but I think it's too early to say we're going to do it." ”

Hollywood's brokerage firms have been acting as actors, and people who have now extended to the industrial chain, such as writers and directors, have even started selling the entire film project to a team called "packaging". 10x also hopes to extend this practice to the technology sector. Guvench told me that ideally, if a company with a proposal to find 10x, they can provide "concept, design, development, user experience, testing, optimization, branding and marketing," and other services. As a result, corporate customers get the products they want and avoid the cost of recruiting full-time employees. Guvench said: "This is a winning strategy." ”

10x recently found the first non-tech customer: Brand marketing expert Mark Mian. In addition to working for Interbrand San Francisco and freelancing, Mian runs a gym. Mian met Guvench in a technical hippie society. Mian told me that years of marketing work had made him feel tired and exhausted. His specialty is "humanized technology". He doesn't like 44 hours of work a week, feeling entrepreneurial lifestyle "no respect for the inspiration of this female," he said: "This is unpredictable and moody, but once the call to the gun you have to go." He contacted Guvench, hoping to repackage 10x as a brokerage firm that accepted all talent. 10x accepted him.

According to Guvench, 10x is catching up with a wave of "macro trends". The dual effects of the digital age and the global recession have led to the rise of independent contractors. Some people call this new World "gig economy" (note: In the economic form of temporary workers as the main body, let's call it part-time economy, temporary economy) "or" 1099 economy "(Note: 1099 forms are for freelancers and contractors to fill in the form of tax returns). "I think that's the way the future works," Guvench said. Main also agrees. "I think everyone needs a manager," he told me, "not just the creative crowd-everyone needs it." It's cool to have a power advocate and a close friend. We can all be rock stars. ”

But the MIT David Autor is not so sure. He says the rock star model only makes sense with people who have "unique talents that most of us don't have". A talented farmer is like a surgeon: "I'd rather have 1 really good surgeons than 3 mediocre." This is what economists call indivisibility. "Like Tom Cruise and surgeons, the needs of the best programmers are likely to be strong," he said. The rest is more fungible, Autor says, which usually means that most of us may choose an employer who will make us unaffected by market changes.

Hollywood's star system, in many ways, does not work that well: it raises the cost of production, making the studios less willing to take risks, leading to the emergence of lackluster creative projects. Programmers are not movie stars-at least not yet. "Movie stars have their own brands," Okta CEO McKinnon said. "Someone went to the movies just because there was Tom Cruise." But programmers don't have that. No one is going to buy just because the product is James Gosling (note: The father of Java). "Of course, a geek like me might. But most people don't. Because they bought a service. ”

Solomon told me that he and Blumberg recently took stock of the company's finances and found that their clients ' income had doubled in 2013-2014 years. 10x has a wide range of technical expertise: virtual reality start-ups live Nation, and an NBA star who wants to make a social chat app. However, Solomon admits that the list is somewhat random-most people find 10x via Google or customer (meaning 10x is about the same as other recruiting services and headhunters). He has recruited a sale to promote 10x. "We're still trying to find out which companies and start-ups we need," he said.

As for Authorbee's Stephen Bradley, he hasn't found his star programmer yet. Nanis not fit for the job-bradley hope this man will one day become the CTO of Authorbee. "We had a phone call, and I thought he was an excellent candidate, but it wasn't quite right for me to ask," Bradley told me.

Nanis doesn't matter-he's just starting a new freelance job, calling himself "mired in it." He will develop a social platform for selling art called available works. The platform was launched by Asher Penn, who runs a publication called Sex Magazine. Now available works has got an angel investor financing. 10x didn't help Nanis get the job, but helped him negotiate the contract. Nanis says this is crucial to him because the people who do art ears don't seem to know what they want. "This is generally a dangerous signal," Nanis said. He asked the other person to contact Solomon, who took two weeks to get the details of the contract and the action plan settled. And these, Nanis says, make everything smoother. "It's refreshing to deal with cool social, demographic-related work," he said. He is going to work overtime to finish the project by January next year. "The website plan has become very clear," he said: "I spoke to Asher through two calls, and we only talk about what is best for artists." ”

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