alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

#118 - Radical Engineering Culture and High Bar Hiring feat. Stefan Richter // Founder & CTO @ freiheit.com technologies


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Ship Great Software Through Simplicity and Discipline

Discover insights into building a high-performance engineering organization with Stefan Richter, founder of freiheit.com technologies. With 25+ years of experience delivering successful software projects for the Who’s Who of European businesses and industries, Stefan shares his philosophy of radical engineering culture and maintaining an exceptionally high bar in recruiting. This episode dives deep into how freiheit.com has achieved their "Never Late, Never Failed" mission through disciplined processes, carefully selected talent, and a relentless focus on simplicity.

Listen to find out:

  • 🎯 Why shipping great software is their mission
  • 🧑‍💻 How they maintain a high bar in recruiting with "tested in life" candidates
  • 📊 Their approach to engineering career levels and continuous feedback
  • 🏗️ Why they prefer full stack engineers over specialized roles
  • 🧩 How they build complex systems from simple components
  • ⚙️ Their custom-built engineering project management tool
  • 🔄 Their program to continually find and remove friction
  • 📈 How they've delivered every project successfully for 25 years
  • 🔍 Why reducing entropy is critical in large software projects
  • 🌐 Why great software should be simple and maintainable for decades
  • TIMESTAMPS:

    00:00 Introduction to Alphalist Podcast
    00:51 Meet Stefan Richter, Founder of freiheit.com technologies
    01:40 Origins of the company and early internet days
    03:24 Client portfolio and focus on engineering culture
    05:04 Mission: Ship Great Software
    07:10 Why freiheit.com focuses on reducing friction
    08:57 How they minimize non-engineering roles
    09:55 Finding and removing complexity in software
    12:07 Hiring strategy and maintaining a high bar
    14:22 Looking for candidates that are "tested in life"
    16:34 Deal breakers in hiring
    18:20 Approach to hiring senior engineers
    21:17 Engineering level progression system
    23:34 Focus on feedback and continuous improvement
    26:07 The problem with specialized roles
    28:16 Building custom project management tools
    32:28 How they always deliver on time, on budget, on target and on quality
    36:52 Reducing entropy in large projects
    39:41 Teaching engineers to take responsibility
    43:34 Building simple, maintainable software
    47:40 Working with corporate clients
    51:54 Transition to private equity ownership
    56:36 Planning for the next quarter century

    QUOTE:

    "Our mission is to ship great software. Great software is actually simple, has as few dependencies as possible, as few parts as possible, like any good machine." - Stefan Richter, Founder of freiheit.com technologies

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    alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical LeadersBy Tobias Schlottke - alphalist CTO Podcast

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