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Perth companies pitch for developers in unique ‘Reverse Shark Tank’ event

Patrick Green
Patrick Green
// // The "We'll Handle the Business Side - Company Edition seeking Software Developers" event was held at IXQ in Nedlands last night with about 100 people attending.

// The “We’ll Handle the Business Side – Company Edition seeking Software Developers” event was held at IXQ in Nedlands last night with about 100 people attending.

This pitch concept reverses the traditional interview process, as Perth companies pitch to developers why they should bring their skills and talent to the company.

The companies then answer some tough audience questions about themselves, such as why would a developer want to work there? This puts the hiring company under the spotlight and gives developers a chance to learn more.

There was quite a good attendance, being on the footsteps of UWA there seemed to be a lot of students, but also there was a lot of seasoned looking developer types. Proudly hosted in the IQX Innovation Quarter which has an interesting history of having been a Masonic Hall, the event was sponsored by Varsity Burgers and WeDispatch.

The event grew out of the identified problem of companies not being able to find developers in Perth, and developers not hearing about the jobs, or not being sure of the companies offering them.

UWA IQX Space Curator and MC for the night Zoe Vos kicked the night off with the ground rules and kept the presenters moving through at a snappy pace.

Perth companies pitch for developers in unique 'Reverse Shark Tank' event
Zoe Vos

Each company got a minute to talk about themselves, then one more minute to describe the role offered, then a few minutes of audience and panel questions.

The companies that pitched were a mixture of well known names and new emerging startups;

There was a panel of interviewers, whose job it was to take audience questions via an app, as well as come up with their own. The questions ranged from privacy and ethics to company culture and funding potential.

The panel members were;

  • Peter Versaci – Director at SquareNode
  • Arthur Ong – Head of Product Management – Curve Tomorrow
  • Hen Greville – Developer – HealthEngine
Perth companies pitch for developers in unique 'Reverse Shark Tank' event
The Panel

Some notable buzzword skills and quotes were “C# AWS Fullstack cloud native developer with strong opinions – loosely held, distributed teams, React Native, Lean”

This was the fourth developer pitch event and already several hires have been made according to previous pitchers in the audience.

No dates have been set for the next event at this stage, but keep your eyes out on the UWA IQX website.

THE NEXT EDITION WILL BE HELD ON THURSDAY 28 JUNE 2019.
All software developers are free and spectators pay a nominal fee. 

If you are a company interested in registering for the June edition on Thursday 27 June 2019, go to the IQX website and complete the survey. 

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Patrick Green

Patrick Green

Patrick is the co-founder and co-editor of Startup News. With a history in software and startups, he gets a kick out of seeing other peoples ideas come to life.
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