Need guidance Building a Team of Elixir Developers

Hey there, I’ve reread your post several times to make sure I really understand your situation.

To summarize: You want to build an all-intern team (based on the roles listed it seems that you intend for them to stay together beyond the training period) so that after 6m of training they’ll be ready to deliver on some ill-defined client project.

I think this endeavor might have a high chance of failure.

• In my experience the teams that deliver tend to be small (2-3 devs max) and composed of senior personnel.
• You could add a single brilliant intern to such a team (3 devs max still applies!), and maybe after 2-2.5yrs they can be counted on to be fully productive and for you to trust them to figure things out on their own. In the mean time, the intern is going to be a drag on productivity. Following this train of thought, putting several interns on the same team sounds like a bad idea.
• The fact that the project will eventually be made apparent (maybe, or maybe nothing comes up) is also a big risk. There are only a few things as demoralizing as working on something that doesn’t really matter during the training period. It’s best if the project already exists and actively worked on, both from a risk management perspective (the team’s raison d’être) and for the team’s morale - so that they can make meaningful contributions from the very beginning.

You also mentioned the risk that your clients could attract your people to their ranks. Good pay so that devs find it less attractive to jump ship and a contract with your clients that stipulates that they can indeed attempt to win your devs over if they’re willing to pay a parting fee can both help. The fee clause does not really help with holding on to your people, but it will make it less attractive for your clients to work behind your back to get to your people, giving you a chance to work on replacing them before it’s too late.

I hope I don’t come off as too much of a party pooper and that the advice above only helps you fine tune your plan, not dissuade you from making a go at it. After all, it’s only my experience, not some universal law of physics.