Jackson Gabbard, Seedcamp EiR & founding Facebook hire on great tech leadership

How can companies promote great technical leadership, and how should startups approach hiring developers? On that topic Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by Jackson Gabbard, one of the founding hires in Facebook’s London office and now an Expert in Residence at Seedcamp. Having made the transition from an English degree to a career in software development by teaching himself to code, Jackson also recalls how he overcame gaps in his technical knowledge through focus and hard study – leading to multiple promotions at Facebook after some initial struggles. Jackson, who conducted over 500 developer interviews while at Facebook, helped create the mobile timeline and worked on abuse prevention systems, cautions against non-technical founders outsourcing their dev work abroad because it can limit product development in the long run. Learn why the myth of the ‘10x engineer’ is a dangerous one, the reason it’s important to have product visionaries and not just great salespeople, and how tech companies can ensure good people management. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Jackson's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCcdCkJKXlRoXVD03eo-q8mQ/ Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Jackson: linkedin.com/in/jacksongabbard / twitter.com/jackson_gabbard