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Comment by MatthewPhillips | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations Caine and Gabriel!

I'm slightly worried about this style of hiring though. It seems to be really great for the hirer and not so great for the potential hiree. Want to work for a startup? Volunteer your time, not knowing if it will lead to something or not. I'm guessing Caine has volunteered a significant amount of his time to DuckDuckGo and has proven himself. Good thing DDG isn't random-startup that flips 6 months into its life.

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Thanks! I had a good idea about the company from the get go, so wasn't really concerned. I was still in college when I started donating my time to DuckDuckGo and never dreamed of ever being fiscally reliant on it. I am very used to contributing to FOSS projects since it's how I learned to code which fit right into the DDG culture. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that even if DDG flipped in 6 months I wouldn't be in any worse shape since I was consulting while donating time to DDG. It's just great to work for something you believe in that challenges you everyday. Gabriel's concept of Inbound Hiring comes with an Hors d'œuvre of sink or swim culture. I think this is a good thing; especially where we are at now. Thanks again!

It's definitely a cultural thing though. It works at DDG, where Gabriel will personally answer email from users. I'm glad this has worked out so well for you and look forward to seeing your future projects.

I'm just guessing, but I would imagine Caine started helping not because he wanted a job, but rather he just had a passion to make DDG better. Thinking about it more, I don't know if you really would want to hire someone that was doing it just to get a job, as in that case their passion is to find a job.

That's fine for OSS projects like DDG for Android or Firefox, but do you really feel that way in general? You can be passionate about a project, but to give away your time, sense of ownership, control, and credit to someone else's proprietary startup company? Fuck that. I'm not doing that unless I really feel a hire is likely. I've actually thought about building Android apps for a few web services I like, but the motivation simply isn't there when what you lose from doing it is that great.

Amen. I've got a huge backlog of things I want to build just for fun. If I'm spending that time working for somebody else instead I expect to get paid.

I think it is a pretty interesting way to look at hiring. Gabriel has mad something that people want to contribute to and I'm sure none of them are volunteering their time with expectations of a job in the future, I would gather they just like his product that much.

I would not be worried about this style of hiring, it is much better than the traditional cold 'interview' with questions and answers because working at a startup is a two way street. Doing a project, internship or just contract work for a while before joining full-time gives the potential hiree a good sense of the startup he/she is joining. Its a small organization and therefore, its critical to make sure that you are joining the right team and its difficult to evaluate that just by a series of interviews where everything can be perceived as rosy.

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