[wplug-jobs] need serious Linux skills for a new top-notch Pittsburgh dev team

[Dean Thompson]

I am helping a Pittsburgh-based company, ModCloth, pull together a  
super-strong engineering team.  Although I'm at mSpoke and not  
available to join ModCloth myself, I see it as a fantastic opportunity  
to build a top-notch software team in Pittsburgh.  Most importantly  
for this mailing list, ModCloth needs to hire the talent to build a  
large Linux operational infrastructure in a hurry.

I will explain, below, why I think this opportunity is so exciting.   
If you are interested, you can email me with questions, or go ahead  
and apply at http://www.modcloth.com/careers .

ModCloth is a great group of people with an amazing opportunity, and  
some fascinating software challenges.  They run a retail website for  
retro indie women's fashion.  Revenue has grown from $3 million in  
2008 to an expected $18 million or $19 million in 2009.  Their demand  
shows no sign of slowing -- their barrier to growth so far is just  
speed of execution.

The nature of indie clothing sales makes it a very interesting  
software challenge:

- The consumer wants to mix and match articles of clothing on the web  
site, in ways that go far beyond Amazon's "buy these two books  
together and save".

- ModCloth buys from a network of small independent clothing designers  
and manufacturers.  These suppliers work in very small lots --  
typically manufacturing runs of 200 to 1,000 items.  This puts very  
challenging demands on inventory management, logistics, and decision  
support.  For example, if a particular item turns out to be a hit,  
ModCloth may have only a few days to acquire more before the  
manufacturing run is sold out.

- ModCloth has taken initial steps -- and wants to go much further --  
toward involving the consumer in choosing which designs will be  
manufactured, naming those designs, etc.  Obviously this is a way to  
boost consumer engagement, but it goes much deeper than that.  It  
helps align the production of large numbers of small suppliers with  
the market, and it gives ModCloth ways to identify potential hits  
before production runs even start.

- ModCloth believes good online product recommendations will be  
important, but they see this as a much more difficult problem than the  
typical product-recommendation situation.  For example, clothing  
combinations that make perfect sense for one consumer segment (such as  
California 20-somethings) may make no sense at all for another segment  
(such as Manhattan 40-somethings).

ModCloth has done most of their development so far with a Mexican  
outsource team, and they recognize it is time for them to build a  
strong local (Pittsburgh) engineering organization.  They are at the  
very beginning of that process, with just a few local developers.   
Since ModCloth is profitable and growing fast, from a developer's  
perspective, this is a rare opportunity to be on the ground floor of a  
new development organization while joining a company that is already  
on a solid success path.

Plus, ModCloth is a great work environment.  It is run by a husband- 
wife team: the CEO, Eric Koger, and his wife Susan Koger.  They seem  
to be universally well regarded, and I can certainly say that I like  
them a lot.  The ModCloth office has a great sense of energy, humor,  
and warmth.

My point of view as I help them with recruiting is that -- for all the  
reasons I just listed -- ModCloth will be able to pull together an  
amazing software team.  Are you interested in joining them?  I will  
look forward to your emailed questions, or go ahead and apply at http://www.modcloth.com/careers 
.

Dean

Here are some links for more information about ModCloth:
http://www.modcloth.com
http://www.inc.com/30under30/2009/profile_modcloth.html
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_25_and_under/16.htm