What do you do if you have that next great idea but don't have the technical skill to turn it into that next breakthrough innovation? Would you even know how to interview and qualify a person to take on your idea? Many will turn to their network of friends and family or to one of the hundreds of technical out-sourced companies. There needs to be a better way. How do you find top talent?

This weeks guest is Breanden Beneschott, co-founder of Toptal. Toptal finds and qualifies the absolute best technical talent (e.g. software engineers, user interface designers, etc) so that their clients can be assured they always get the “A” team.

Topics we covered this week include:

* Breanden's experience as a contract software engineer while going to school

* His challenge in scaling an engineer team for one of his first companies

* What was the aha moment that led to Toptal being launched?

* Why do only 1% of those that apply to Toptal qualify to become part of the network?

* What are the three most common reasons someone doesn't meet the Toptal criteria?

* What should an organization have in place in order to benefit from outsources resources?

* What is the process for an innovator to go from idea to innovation using outsourced resources?

About Breanden Beneschott:

Breanden has been an engineer, founder, CTO, and consultant in industries ranging from aerospace to financial services to high tech. As a Toptal co-founder, Breanden frequently writes about scaling a hyper-growth and distributed company, and he has been featured on the blog of Tim Ferriss, The Huffington Post, and many others. Having been on both sides of the hiring equation as an engineer and team lead, Breanden combines his technical expertise and management experience to ensure that clients, developers, and team members at Toptal continually strive for excellence as the company rapidly scales.

Show Links:

* Breandon Beneschott on LinkedIn

* Breanden Beneschott on Quora

* Toptal on Wikipedia

* Toptal site

Note: Since this show was broadcast, Toptal has become a sponsor for the Killer Innovations show and has created a special offer for listeners.  Killer Innovations listeners will receive a no-risk trial period of up to 2 weeks on Toptal talent. If at the end of the trial period you are not 100% satisfied, you will not be billed and you can even keep any work completed during the trial.

Listen to this week's show, How To Find The Top Talent For Your Next Innovation S12 Ep4