Adelaide entrepreneur launches coder marketplace Codehire.com

Australian coders are being encouraged to use newly launched platform Codehire.com, where employers have to “prove themselves” to coders, rather than coders convincing employers.

Codehire.com, which launched a week ago, is the latest venture of Adelaide-based tech entrepreneur Daniel Draper.

Describing itself as a “niche coder marketplace”, Coderhire.com incorporates validation technology so employers know the skill level of applicants, not just their qualifications.

“Employers face major problems when looking for programmers,” Draper says.

“It’s a niche area where you need to be skilled yourself to understand whether someone actually has the appropriate level of skills listed on their resume.”

“An applicant may have a C# qualification but have poor skills, while someone who has no C# experience could a great coder.”

“They might be able to get up to speed in a couple of weeks because they already know five other languages. Codehire’s challenge software will reveal who would be the better investment.”

Codehire.com follows in the footsteps of sites such as Late Labs, which allows cash-strapped developers to trade code for equity in the businesses they work for.

But Draper says he’s not concerned about the competition.

“I take it is a sign of encouragement, not as a reason to stop… While there are similar ideas out there, for me it’s all in the execution,” he says.

“Our goal is to get as many people using the system as possible, and to ensure it provides a good experience for coders and employers.”

“Employers don’t understand how to hire coders, and [other sites have] given them a system made by coders, which doesn’t really help.”

“The other big differentiator we’re working on is how the companies present themselves. [The focus is on] how good are the coders and how will they present themselves?”

“There’s a shortage of software coders, so employers really have to flip that around and they have to pitch to the coders. How do the companies present themselves to developers? It has to be a two-way street.”

With this in mind, Draper says he intends to introduce company profiles on the site. But he doesn’t believe the coder-employer dilemma is any worse in Australia.

“It’s a problem everywhere,” he says.

“I know the Australian market but I’ve also spent a fair bit of time in San Francisco and Silicon Valley – it’s even worse there – and I’ve spent some time in London and western Europe and it’s a big problem there too.”

Codehire.com has only been live for a week but has already attracted several hundred hirers and coders, says Draper, who has big plans for the platform.

“It’s definitely going to be a global platform. I don’t think it will be particularly successful if we stick to Australia, just because it’s too small a market,” he says.

“The US is definitely on the horizon, and we’ll be focusing on [other] English-speaking countries first.”