Radical Engineering Culture and High Bar Hiring feat. Stefan Richter // Founder @ Freiheit.com Technologies

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 Europe's top companies, Stefan shares his philosophy of radical engineering culture and maintaining an exceptionally high bar in recruiting. This episode dives deep into how Freiheit 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 productivity tools
• 🔄 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 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 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 deliver successful projects
• 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

"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