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In the South, Technology

The Cyclomatic Complexity of Nashville

- Seth Steele -

“How Soon Is Now?” is a column dedicated to tech startup culture and community from the perspective of a software developer in Nashville, Tennessee. His opinions are his own.

The year is certainly off to an interesting start. Silicon Valley looks to be in a downward spiral with several layoffs, and the media is pumping out article after article calling for “blood in the water” and a “unicorn reckoning.”

Hyperbole sells, but the insane valuations everyone has been calling out for years are beginning to correct themselves—and fast. It’s nothing to celebrate or make light of, as these down rounds in a system built to protect the investors are hurting employees most.

With the correction going on in Silicon Valley, I’m sure there are plenty of folks feeling somewhat vindicated about our situation here in Nashville. Local investors will get the luxury of spinning their capital investments, or lack thereof, as a stroke of genius. Though I’m sure we’ll be sweeping a couple things under the rug, like a company that raised $1.77 million, garnered local awards, scored one of those super-cool oversized checks from Steve Case and still, somehow, managed to criticize a lack of capital on their way out. Or another local media favorite that wouldn’t be out of place on an episode of “The Walking Dead.” It’s not hard to see why investors would turn a cold shoulder to technology.

Tennesseeans are still processing the $200 million taxpayer disaster that is TNInvestco, which managed to make $83 million disappear before a single dollar was invested. A much more reasonable tax credit is in the works for the next phase, but the real problem to solve isn’t about capital at all.

We need a cultural shift, and that shift should be built around our makers and doers instead of the “business elite.”

I spoke with a developer visiting from Boston recently and she asked me what co-working spot to check out so she could connect with local technologists and get a vibe for the scene. I struggled for an answer and bought time describing the great technology community here: frequent meetups on a huge range of topics, companies like Emma that are supporting our scene. None of these really answered her question, and in the end all I could suggest were a couple of coffee shops. Nashville has no shortage of co-working locations, but none of them are heavy on tech-based companies or come to mind as standing out for supporting our technology community.

That conversation helped me realize how physically segmented our startups and technologists are during our workdays. We’re scattered all over town in various office spaces, working from home or out of coffee shops. Slack keeps us connected, and the meetups are great, but developers do have a tendency to segment off by language and framework with little discussion around the business impact our technical solutions provide. Our technology community needs to find an entrepreneurial spirit that brings us all together to support everyone’s endeavors, to celebrate successes, commiserate in failures and, ultimately, work together to build our community that makes us stronger on the whole.

I doubt this dichotomy between technology and business is anything exclusive to Nashville, and it could all stem from our colleges and institutions having entrepreneur programs catered to MBA students. With this schism engrained, a “wait for them to come to me” attitude persists and carries over into our careers and seems clearly on display at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. The halls and meetups at the EC are filled with salespeople, marketers and service providers mingling and passing business cards around. It makes sense that eager entrepreneurs would seek out the EC, but with a lack of technologists around, things go from being about solving problems to being about generating a sales funnel. It’s a big reason why agencies thrive in this town and it keeps our business and technology communities living inside their own respective echo chambers.

In his book, “Startup Communities,” Brad Feld does an excellent job calling out similar situations for startup communities around the country that aren’t working. Feld explains the difference between Feeders (investors, mentors, government, universities and service providers) and Leaders (makers and entrepreneurs). While Feeders are vital to the ecosystem and provide a much-needed service, a startup community must be driven by the Leaders. Unfortunately, we’re short on Leaders in Nashville, leaving the Feeders to run the show. And while I’m sure the cocktail parties and award shows are great, they’re not bringing us any closer to being a community driven by Leaders.

Technologists are going through a time of incredible opportunity right now. Never before has a trade where a degree is moot had labor costs this high and so much potential to disrupt. Never before has the grip of the business elite been this threatened, but it’s feeling like we’re losing that hold. With the funnel tightening on Silicon Valley investments, you can expect the next round to be funded by the powers that be. We’re seeing a similar situation in Nashville, with our accelerator programs sponsored by massive music, publishing and soon, healthcare corporations. The goal no longer being to find new ideas that disrupt, but to maintain control and grow an already massive ecosystem through the fresh ideas of others.

While we’re continually sold on the idea of a STEM shortage, even with no evidence to support it, technology wages have stagnated. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics makes headlines with its 10-year growth outlook for web and software developers, but you’re not likely to find a mention of their predicted decline in computer programmers. And while it makes sense that software development jobs will continue to grow, it will be interesting to see what the correction in the valley does when morale causes a dispersal of talent that could bottleneck a pipeline around the country already picky enough that the average interview process takes 35 days. Meanwhile, we’re still churning out developers with the promise of six-figure salaries and great stock options, conveniently leaving out the bits about executives conspiring to keep wages lower.

I’m all for teaching people to code, as it brings fresh voices, improves diversity and roots out the nonsense. But let’s at least be conscious that the goal of the learn-to-code movement isn’t to bring six-figure salaries to more people, but to increase supply and cheapen labor overall.

The growth that software development has seen in the last decade is incredible. We’ve seen cycles like this before, but with the excitement around technology and sheer number of developers coming into the fold, we need to acknowledge that it’s not enough to learn to code or even be a “10x developer.” We must evolve our attitude toward business and our business sense to stay relevant, especially in Tennessee, where we find ourselves ranked 41st in innovation. We can do better and we will do better, but it starts with acknowledging our failings so we can work towards the solution.

As a software developer with a passion for leveraging technology to find solutions, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling ostracized by the EC. Whether it’s a problem with leadership lacking a technical background, a reliance on investors who don’t understand technology or the lack of desire from technologists to get involved, what’s actually boring is a deadlock that keeps one side complaining about a lack of capital and the other side complaining about a lack of “spectacular deals.”

If it’s not there for us and it’s something we want, then we need to work to find it, foster it or create it ourselves. Let’s work to build the community we want to exist. Let’s focus on solving problems we want to solve, while educating ourselves and our peers. Once we’re successful, everyone else will be knocking down our door to get in.

Jan 29, 2016Seth Steele

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5 years ago 5 Comments In the South, TechnologyNashville Entrepreneur Center, tech, tech community, TN870
Seth Steele

Seth Steele is a software developer, wantrepreneur and tech-obsessed Nashville native.

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Comments: 4
  1. Milt Capps
    5 years ago

    Seth _ Good debut! Regarding TNInvestco, I think it’s really important to note that there not only has not been a rigorous, independent assessment of whether TNInvestco was boom or bust, nor has there been a comprehensive approach to assessing the overall economic impact of the program. That reality, coupled with the fact that no one in power has yet realized that there is within TNInvestco a massive opportunity to educate Tennesseans about entrepreneurship, capital, competition and innovation, among other things. My related article is linked below. Milt

    ReplyCancel
  2. Paul S
    5 years ago

    “As a software developer with a passion for leveraging technology to find solutions, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling ostracized by the EC.”

    Bingo. The EC has always been about keeping the “deal flow” concentrated within a self-selected cadre of established operators. Actual innovation is a by product, not the mission.

    This is perhaps the most cogent analysis of Nashville’s tech/startup scene that I’ve encounerd. Good job, and look forward to more.

    ReplyCancel
  3. Brian D.
    5 years ago

    I felt like this started with something to say (check the URL for what I mean) but it seemed to be a bit all over the place. I wasn’t sure if I was reading a complaint about the EC, local developers, local entrepreneurs, local investors, or a combination of all of the above.

    The paragraph on the coding schools felt particularly out of place. I have my reservation about the gold-rush on teaching to code (I fear it could go the route of places like the Art Institute), but that is an entirely separate conversation.

    I think your over-arching theme is that there is a gulf between the business community and the development community. That’s true, but remember that, generally speaking, the two communities have different goals, different heroes, different ideals, etc. The overlap between the two is entrepreneurial developers – of which we have a few. This is a complicated problem (which you allude to in your title) for which I have little advice.

    You mention the NashDev Slack group in passing, but I think it deserves more attention. It has certainly served to unite factions of the development community in a fantastic way (something I was hoping to do when I started the monthly NashDev breakfast in 2014).

    If you’re gripe is with the EC, I have to ask: have you volunteered your time there? When my company was headquartered there it was clear that the leadership had a desire to reach out to the development community but they didn’t know how. They serve, primarily, the business community and they seem to be doing that pretty well. Their stated mission is to raise “the quality of resources available to Nashville’s entrepreneurial and small business communities.” You might argue that encouraging the growth of the software dev community falls under that, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

    In short, I hear a lot of complaints in the local dev community about how this or that organization isn’t doing enough, but I don’t see a whole lot of boots on the ground changing that. I’d like to see more action, less screeds. 🙂

    ReplyCancel
    • Ryan Macy
      5 years ago

      As an entrepreneurial developer like Brian, I would say he hit this comment head on. The gulf exists not because either party intrinsically better than the other, and one is not certainly scheming against the other, it’s just that they don’t know how to connect together. There are very very few founder/developer types in Nashville, which are people that traditionally know how to bridge the gap.

      I wouldn’t complain any initiative in Nashville, because frankly, at least they are trying to do something.

      I would also say that the developer community in Nashville (broad brush here) generally lacks any entrepreneurial experience/understanding away from what they have seen in TechCrunch and really have no clue how to approach startups, how they are governed, and how to align with them. This is something I’d personally love to address by getting the developer community more involved in the nascent startup ecosystem we have.

      ReplyCancel
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