At Calif, you're a star

We're hiring!

I grew up reading Joel Spolsky.

You might not recognize his name, but you might have heard of Stack Overflow, of which Joel is a co-founder.

He also created the project management software Trello. He sold the two companies for more than $2B.

But what's made me a fanboy is his blog on software business Joel On Software.

The first day I found his blog, I stayed up all night devouring every article. In the days and years after, I always dreamed of joining his all-stars company.

Joel has strong opinions about how to run a company, but there is one sentence of his stuck forever in my mind:

Programmers are [...] stars. Stars go first class. Get used to it.

Joel’s formula of success looks deceptively simple:

He later “upgraded” to a new formula, but this philosophy remains the foundation of all of his business ventures. His team had private offices, flew first class, worked 40 hour weeks, and bought people lunch, Aeron chairs, and top of the line computers. And it works wonders.

So when we started Calif, we copied his formula.

Since the earliest day when we didn’t have much revenue, everybody here always travels business class and stays at five star hotels when out and about on business.

A team member once asked why I wasted so much money. I said well we are stars, and I read on the Internet that stars don’t wait in line.

I have to admit I’m frugal. I think twice whenever I want to buy something for myself, then usually decide not to buy it. But I believe business must pay.

If we can’t generate enough revenue, either our work is worthless or I’m doing a bad job selling it. Either way we should close shop and go home. It’s a waste of time pretending everything is alright while the company can’t even treat its people decently.

Doing a business is a long-term investment.  I ain't here to make a quick buck. I’d rather take zero dividend for ten years, to get ourselves ready for a huge exit in the eleventh year. Calif has been profitable since day one. Amongst the many ways to use a dollar of profit, we choose to spend it all on our brilliant hackers.

Of course as a self-bootstrapping company we have to think about the runway, but the runway must take into account all the perks.

I’d rather shut down the company rather than saving a few bucks cutting costs. If the business ain’t working, switching to economy class won’t help. Who wants a slow, painful death? Not me.

There are also practical reasons.

We’re helping the poor and the have-not, but our largest clientele are the elite. I believe sales can only go down, not up. If we want to sell to the elite, we must be more elite than the elite. Otherwise they won't trust us.

This means we must do everything in style and with great care. I also believe we can’t serve our clients if we don’t live their lives.

Money can't buy happiness, but it sure can buy time, comfort and convenience. Since we fly business, we can just go to the airport and take the nearest flight.

The first time I did this I didn't believe it was possible. It has saved me countless meetings that would have been late otherwise.

If I sound like bragging, it's only because your employer doesn't treat you as you deserve. This is the standard. We aren't even flying first class (we’re getting there).

As a great hacker, you deserve better. Come join us and never look back!

• Offensive Security Engineer (Vietnam/US)

• Software Engineer (Vietnam)

• Operations Lead (Hanoi)

Imagine yourself in this stunning photo taken at our recent offsite in Japan.