Startups don't often hire recruiters, and most of the "startup" job ads on the internet job boards seem to be either a) established companies claiming to be startups in order to sound trendy, or b) Ponzi schemes. So what's left?
The good news is that startups are actively looking for good hackers. Investors are also looking too, since that's one way they can really help their companies. So he can find cool startups and email them, or find cool investors (like YC) and work from higher up in the stream.
My startup, Xobni, is very actively looking for great hackers. We are YC alumni and recently raised a series A financing from Khosla Ventures. We're still a small team, too, so all of the benefits of working for a startup are in full force here. You can email jobs foo at xobni dot com (remove foo)!
Adam
It definitely helps if you're genuinely interested in startups and what they're doing and look forward to talking to good hackers yourself.
Another idea is to tell your friend to provide contracting services for start-ups. That way, he/she can test-drive the company while making a few bucks on the side.
So go to tech meetups, web conferences, etc. or network through friends and alumni.
Another way: most of the "cutting edge" startup blogs (37signals, GigaOm, Venture Beat, etc.) have job listings that you can subscribe to by RSS.
One tracker at SeekSift -- http://www.seeksift.com/xml/BE9a28987F/rss.xml -- is using most of those sources for its results, so you could subscribe to it, or create your own.
(Disclaimer: my own startup is behind SeekSift.com)
- Sequoia: http://www.hireloop.com/sequoia%2Denterprise/careers/portfolio_careers_home.asp?fnc=comp
- Kleiner Perkins: http://www.hireloop.com/kpcb/careers/portfolio_careers_home.asp
- First Round: http://www.firstround.com/openings.html
You might want to try to find a list of reputable VCs and google their websites for any job portfolios.
This is not true. Usually one of the first people brought in after a series-A round of financing is some sort of VP-level manager whose job is to find other people to hire. This VP often was a recruiter, or hiring manager at some point, and usually hires some sort of recruiter to help him or her find people.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sof?query=startup&format=rss
Those crack me up -- what are they even bringing to the table? "You do all the work, and we'll give you a small percentage."
(sure there are exceptions to the rule; "Google, it's like AltaVista...")
Before Justin.tv launched, I imagine there was a lot of coding/testing involved. Most start-ups don't need a TV producer even after they have a product.
I take a particular interst in this question because I'm working on a project (that doesn't deserve to be called a startup, but maybe it could be), and I need someone with kick-ass UI design and graphics skills (I wrote the backend myself, but it looks lame). I'll go through my blurred social/professional networks to see who would be into it.
Then again, I'm just looking for someone I already know and like who would dig the project and maybe want to make something of it. An actual job job, the kind that pays money, can probably afford to be more formal about this sort of thing. But would you want to be? Seems safer to go through those blurry networks at an early stage, where one bad programmer can drag everything down. and one good one can rev it up fast.
You don't get paid as well as if you just worked at google or yahoo, and as an employee, your stake is usually something like .25-.75% of the company, which means if the place gets bought for 100M, you'll make out with about $120K extra, 4 years down the road.
$120K isn't anything to scoff at, but keep in mind that startups pay a lower salary, and if you scored a job at yahoo for $90K instead of $60K at the startup, after 4 years you'd have the same amount of money.
Now, if you can swing a deal where you get 10% of the company, I'd go for it. But with a percentage like that, you're gonna be employee 3, co-founding, not just "have a job at a startup."
Having worked for 9 companies in the last 10 years, I've found that it's more about who you know than what you know.
And if you are well connected in the internet industry AND talented, startups will find you.
Also, get your resume on the web and let the search engines index it. You'd be surprised at how many random searches will lead people to it.
Step 1: get lots of people jobs
Step 2: ...
Step 3: Profit!