If I wanted to get the best developers for my new startup, perhaps I'd launch a company like DeveloperAuction first, find all the vetted A-list engineers, and secretly swoop in on the best ones for my DeveloperAuction clone. Then that clone would pivot and become the startup I was actually planning to build. Meta enough?
> “notable GitHub profiles,” CS degrees from Stanford or MIT or currently employed at Google, Zynga, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Yelp and Square for upcoming auctions.
That is a narrow field, artificially scarce, driving up prices.
DeveloperAuction gets developers paid the least the market can pay and get away with
Auctions with a scarce supply get collectors and enthusiasts. Prices soar. Auctions with a constant stream of the same old stuff are just a race to the bottom.
They're currently following the first model by limiting where the engineers can come from. They clearly want to be seen as the Southerby's of the recruitment auction world.
So it'll be interesting to see how long before they figure out they'll probably make more money being Ebay.
Congrats on the launch, guys!
I like this in theory, but in reality the most important thing when hiring is not how good they look on paper, but how well a developer fits in and works with a team. If they're a team player, how well they can resolve disputes, etc.
We've surveyed a LOT of employers, and that's definitely the number one thing they look for in employees. Culture fit, personality, empathy, etc.
> 142 startups, including Quora and Dropbox, submitted over $30m in job offers.
That $30 million figure is useless. It tells us nothing. Why was it included?
Reminds me of the latest trend in news, "how much were people Twittering when <person> made a political speech".
I always liked the story of the "Microsoft Five" who joined Facebook early on. I would pay a little more if I could hire a small team of developers who already had experience working together. I bet a team of 3 or 4 devs who shopped their skills this way could demand a premium.
So... Fully non-binding on both parties, is what I'm reading.
So we can expect, if we interview through there, that we'll see an artificially inflated offer to get us to interview there, followed by a much lower salary on the actual offer letter?
Not that I work for one of those companies anyway.
Is signing in with AngelList really a requirement? Why must these new services force you to leave your social footprint on their website..
I like this upside model of freelancing where the companies have to bid for the freelancer's work. I wish there were more generic freelancing websites that did this, though. Could be a start-up opportunity here.
I know Doug and Matt really well and they are great guys. Fully support what they're doing with DA.
As a co-founder of another tech company, I still get barraged by inbound tech recruiters claiming they have the next great Ruby engineer for us. This approach is much more transparent and fair from an employer perspective, and I think it's friendly to developers too.
Aaaawesome.
Pretty much everything I've done in the last 8 years has been NDA'd.
I'm screwed.
> How do I know the offers I’m receiving are legitimate? Only pre-screened employers, who have raised outside funding, are allowed to bid.
huh, so a company has to have venture capital to be eligible?
>"DeveloperAuction says it is accepting applications from developers with “notable GitHub profiles,” CS degrees from Stanford or MIT or currently employed at Google, Zynga, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Yelp and Square"
>"We help developers get paid what they’re worth through a competitive process,"
Only if worth is exclusively dependent on Academic Pedigree. Or having worked at a large corporation that relies on a consumer product. Seems to me it's a pretty limited service.
Mixed feelings. On one hand: Yay, developers capturing more of their surplus value! On the other: winner's curse, mercenary cultures.
This is a really neat idea, I think this market still can be disrupted in many ways, trying to flip the coin like they do is certainly one. I'm kind of excited with this since I'm also working on an idea related with changing the way in which recruiting works, this proves we are right and that the jobs market needs a change.
10-15% of first year salary sounds like a laughably high commission. Surely it can't cost >$5K to find a good coder... Frankly, I don't see why it should cost more than 1K, tops, to find an excellent, excellent coder...
Agents for all: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/08/why-not-agents-for-all...
This is a pretty revolutionary idea is applicable to more than developers. It would be great to see a similar concept/site be developed for UX/UI designers…
So what's the current average pay for someone that gets an offer using this auction? Any stats?
Great idea, hoping they open this up to UI/UX designers in the near future.
I assume the get paid what they are perceived to be worth.
did they make 15% of the $30M?
Neat concept, but the exclusivity douched it up bad and I'd short-sell it because of that. In the age of the Internet, you have to find a way to create exclusivity that isn't elitist. Hacker News is an exclusive community (the people we don't want here find technology boring) but not elitist.
By the way, I think you should limit your field to people who would never work for Zynga, not people who currently work there.
Wow... Zynga... really? Because Zynga only takes the best of the best. I mean, not everyone can write trivial web versions of existing games and claim it as their own, right? It must be extremely challenging from a technical perspective. Only javascript gurus need apply!
Bleh, what a joke. If you don't have the first clue as to how to judge a technical candidate then don't bother launching your site. For every cut-rate javascript monkey you include here there are thousands of highly skilled engineers (yes, "engineers", not front end web-app developers) who you are ignoring.
The most brilliant engineer I have ever had the pleasure to work with wouldn't meet any of your criteria. He currently spends his days writing control systems for very expensive satellites (doesn't compare to FarmVille, I know). No, no glorious github profile, he chooses to do something other than programming with most of his spare time (ridiculous, I know). No, he didn't attend a prestigious ivy league college (where does he get off?), but I'll tell you what; I would put money on the fact that he is in the upper echelon of software engineers.
I'm not saying that there aren't highly intelligent people working at Zynga, I honestly have no idea, but it certainly doesn't seem like ground breaking stuff. Again, until you figure out how to judge applicants appropriately, do everyone a favor and shut down.
"DeveloperAuction.com is currently open only to employees of Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Zynga, and Google as well as Stanford & MIT graduates. If you'd like to be notified as we expand, please contact us."
Only Stanford and MIT graduates? What about the other 99.9% of tech grads?