I have noticed that Freetrade have 10+ vacancies for engineers,does anyone know how much the lack of skilled engineers is hindering the growth of the product on offer. They have been advertising for some time now and don’t seem to be able to fill the vacancies. I think it’s maybe about time to bite the bullet and start increasing incentives… What do you all think about the situation.
I think if that’s aimed at the current engineering team then you don’t sound like much of a friendly ghost.
10 Likes
I don’t think it’s our place as customers and/or shareholders to advise on remuneration and how to run the business…
6 Likes
For goodness me,are you not allowed to say anything on this Community Forum without being attacked and criticised? It was a genuine enquiry to ask if the lack of skilled engineers was hindering the growth of Freetrade. I know the current engineers are doing a great job,did I say they were not?? I am not looking for conflict just some constructive replies would be nice!
8 Likes
Judging by the two replies having nothing to do with your actual question, it would seem so.
3 Likes
Disagree, shareholders literally own part of the company. They have every right to say and advise on whatever they want. This is a valid discussion topic for any company. Engineers are in demand and every startup has some issues finding qualified people working for less than market value.
Being an engineer myself I’d not work for freetrade even though I’m also an investor just because they seemed not to be open towards remote working for example.
5 Likes
hiring engineering talent is absolutely a barrier to growth - some of those vacancies have been there over a year, and you can see this trickle down to how slowly the app is iterated (no offence ft, its a great app). But in many ways, it cant be helped - there is a profound shortage of engineers in the UK, perhaps globally too.
, its difficult for any startup to compete with the big tech firms salary wise, but stock options are a great way around this, which freetrade offer.
i think establishing offices in stockholm and brisbrane is also freetrades way of finding more engineering talent. the engineering shortage isnt as profound in these places as it is in the UK.
lastly, a great culture/hiring brand is a great way to differentiate (this helps keep talent too, which is just as important as acquiring talent) but this is not easily done at all. Monzo did a fantastic job of this, their community has a strong cult following - when they were freetrades size/stage, monzo managed to hire 30 backend engineers in 3 months, a whopping feat.
4 Likes
Your communication could be lighter For example “lack of skilled engineers” could be rephrased as to not come across as aggressive and disingenuous.
yes, more engineers would be great!
1 Like
A couple of years ago Adam called out one of the biggest challenges was hiring top engineers. The business has grown 10x since then so they found them back then, but to grow 10x again they need to scale the team even further. They’re setting up bases in Europe & Australia to do so, this is the next test.
Also, check out the below tweet on incentives over the GME all nighter weekend!
5 Likes
No it couldn’t, not unless you are trying your hardest to find an argument that doesn’t exist.
1 Like
Thank you everyone for the constructive replies,please excuse my lack of communication skills ie: my grammar 
1 Like
You need like minded and passionate skilled engineers, so I feel hiring the right team members take time and benefit the company as a whole rather than accepting anyone that just applies, same thing applies for the customer service agents hence was a great solution to hire temps for urgency, full time CS staff will be carefully chosen for the long term.
6 Likes
I don’t think big tech salary has much to do with it I think (IMO) it’s largely a London problem.
London attracts big salaries but not necessarily good engineers.
There’s highly skilled engineers all over the country but freetrade can’t hire them unless they open up to remote working (which they may have?)
And a lot of those engineers don’t need London salaries, and they’re less likely to immediately jump ship at the first sight of a new offer at some other startup
4 Likes
The company I work for really struggled to recruit engineers in the Aylesbury area where we were based so had to open up an engineering office in Birmingham - recruitment seemed to be a lot easier there!
1 Like
I was looking at the megabytes growth of other companies in regards Megabytes increases in the iPhone APP store.
From 15/1/21 till today 3/3/21
Freetrade—46.8MB now 47.3MB
E Toro——-95.2MB now 120.5MB
IG———127.9MB. now 137.0MB
Plus 500—72.4MB now 74.3MB
T212——-93.1MB. now 95.9MB
2 Likes
I just feel it is time to kick on with the APP development if they are going to be expanding into other countries. I would try and poach staff from maybe one of the other investment platforms I have mentioned beginning with T lol,maybe along the lines of a £10,000 starting bounty repayable say if you leave within a year and £5000 repayable if you leave within 1 and 2 years. And maybe increase the share options. Give the present engineers a wee £5000 loyalty bonus and/or extra share options. Please don’t be offended by what I am suggesting. @adam @Viktor @Freetrade_Team
Hiring good engineers is hard
3 Likes
Totally agree. I’m not sure about some of your incentive schemes but I like where you’re coming from
Speaking to my friends who are financial engineers and they say all they care for is ÂŁ and home working flexibility
2 Likes
Money talks? I can see how the home working could be a hindrance while building the APP but they could maybe offer home working at a later date,once the app is Tip Top.
Just to say I know absolutely zilch 
about technology 
You won’t get any engineer who wants remote working by saying “we might allow it someday though” 
Also every engineer I know has had extreme productivity gains through wfh instead of going to the office last year. Companies who don’t offer wfh at all, effectively want lower performance just so that they can control their employees/ have perceived control over what employees are doing. It’s a sign of a culture lacking trust.
1 Like