While it seems that startups can’t find talent; a topic which we’ve already covered in .ME’s infographic on the talent acquisition methods that startups can use to find new, talented people; the truth is that many just read the headlines, without understanding the underlying facts. While there is a shortage of startup talent IN Silicon Valley, there are thousands of talented developers, designers and growth hackers working on the next big thing around the globe – and outside the startup world. If we truly think of ourselves as a global industry, we should act that way.

Great Talent Is Already H… There!

Instead of whining how we can’t find talent (that sounds a lot like giving up), we should take a look at what the world has to offer. Yes, I’m saying that we should look for talent abroad. With thousands of great engineers that want to come to the US to start their own businesses and become part of Silicon Valley, we don’t have to look far to find like-minded engineers to work with us to succeed in the market.

The recently released European Digital City Index, for example, showed that cities all over Europe, not just Berlin and London, have a lot to offer. And while you might not decide to move to Europe to start your business, you can definitely find great engineers in cities like Lisbon, Prague and Bucharest. Companies like Intel and Microsoft as well as startups such as Visual.ly have for years used the Romanian capital for their R&D centres, employing talented designers and developers to work on global tech success stories. So, why are you so stuck up that you don’t want to look abroad, especially when other startups such as Toptal make it so easy!

New Generations Are Becoming More Digital

Projects such as STEMI, which wants to give students the chance to build their own robotic spiders, are fostering a whole new generation of kids who find technology far more comfortable than we ever have.

The Next Web conference in Amsterdam has seen dozens of kids ages 12 or 13 that have already started successful digital projects. From mobile games to web apps that earn not just pocket change but money that their parents can invest in their future. There was a time when to be an engineer you had to be one of the most talented students in a generation, but with numerous programs helping youngsters learn to develop software, it seems that knowing how to code isn’t going to be a “nice-to-have” skill reserved just for those that really, really want to be the next Steve Wozniak or Mark Zuckerberg.

More and more kids will learn to code thanks to both incorporating coding classes in schools, as well as online services that make it easy for parents to give their children tools to learn how to code themselves.

While companies struggle to find developers with enough years of experience, knowing how to code Ruby for a decade will be quite common in the future. Not just in developer’s circles, but also in the general public. Think of all the people that are tinkering around with various app builders. Visual interfaces will just be a start for those of us who want the freedom to create our own apps – that will let us take back control in a technologically advanced, app-powered world!

Startups Are Hot, Corporations Are Not

If you’ve been following Techcrunch, The Verge or any popular tech news website, you’ve seen a fast-growing trend of so-called corporate accelerators. For those not familiar with the startup world, accelerators are organisations that try to “accelerate” startups’ growth by giving them access to a number of benefits: Capital in the form of seed investments to get them started, mentoring from recognized professionals to help them use past experience from other startups and a program which makes them think fast and set goals they need to achieve.

Corporate accelerators take this concept and connect it to big businesses such as telecoms, banks and even retail companies such as Target which launched a partnership with Techstars to take advantage of retail-focused startups.

While corporate accelerators still haven’t shown that they can create a clear winner in the race to create the next unicorn, or $1 billion dollar startup, they are a sure sign that startups are a hot commodity around the world. The most talented engineers will flock to them if they want to work with the biggest businesses in the world, in order to skip the corporate ladder all together!

Most Startups Don’t Know How to Stand Out – Unlike You

Our own Sanja Gardasevic mentioned the fact that most startups don’t go out of their way to present themselves in a different light than other companies when it comes to employer branding. While every startup from the Valley to Boulder knows that you have to have a unique selling proposition for your product or service, most don’t think of hiring in the same way. Every company ends up having craft beer, Google-like benefits and unlimited vacation days. Because most founders have been told to focus on their product, they forget that they also need to focus on their team – after which they start saying things like ‘there is no talent in the workforce’ for their companies.

These predictions, however, do prove true when they just post a job ad on Angel List and pray that someone will notice their company among hundreds of others that – thankfully – at least don’t have the same logo. If you look at all the job ads out there, most of them have a similar layout, similar content and are similarly boring.

It’s always easier to blame external factors when you can’t achieve your goals, like when you can’t find your perfect employees. However, if “normal” methods of finding great people don’t work, don’t just think that the market is to blame. Think outside the box and don’t think of excuses. As we’ve seen, there are at least 4 reasons why talent isn’t a problem for startups!

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