Ask HN: How to find side project friendly companies?
The title says most of it, how do you find interesting companies which are cool with side-projects (open source or otherwise)?
On the other hand, I've regularly taken a day or two off at times when I needed a break from working on our primary product, and ended up writing stuff that either massively improved my programming abilities, or contributed in a huge, but non-obvious, way towards improving our app.
Working on those side-project has helped to keep me energized and focused; you can't spend all day making license plates.
So, I'd hire someone who had a side-project, provided that it didn't conflict with what the company is doing, and that they were professional enough to not work on their 'side project' at the office.
I'd also want to be kept in the loop on what the side project is, because I want to make sure there isn't a conflict of interest. And also because, if it turns out that this project could be productized or would otherwise benefit the company, I could offer to buy it and put them to work on it on company time.
Alternatively, if an employee's 'side project' turned into their own scrappy startup, that's fine too, but at that point they really need to leave and focus on building their own company; it's just too big of a legal risk to keep them on as full-time employees.
I doubt Google had its 20% policy when it was moving from its Stanford lab foundation to establishing the company, I would think that had to come later.
Even if a company is profitable, that doesn't mean it has this sort of luxury, but you should probably start out with profitable ones.
I don't think on its face that your desire is crazy, people like you can provide all sorts of benefits to the company they're working for (e.g. your network, recognition (would Transmeta have had the slightest chance in the marketplace if they hadn't hired Linus?), etc.). But raw survival comes first.