We want to date, not hire...
blog.koding.com
blog.koding.com
As you're starting to maybe realize, this approach doesn't scale.
You think you're special, that your employee requirements are way higher than any other startup's, because you're just that amazing and world changing. Mathematically, you're probably not, and every startup out there thinks the exact same.
Ultimately, you're going to have to suck it up and just hire people who can do the job. Those emotional stories about how Koding came together are great— you want to "date" (what a silly word, but let's reuse it) your founders. But wanting to build a full team like that is just delusional. There's only one "best engineer I've ever met" in the world.
Some reading for you:
http://careercarrot.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/looking-for-roc...
Right now your approach to hiring is the same as your approach to finding co-founders. Are you saying you're essentially looking for a 5th cofounder?
1. There is a single secretarial position to fill.
2. There are n applicants for the position, and
the value of n is known.
3. The applicants, if seen altogether, can be ranked
from best to worst unambiguously.
4. The applicants are interviewed sequentially in random
order, with each order being equally likely.
5. Immediately after an interview, the interviewed
applicant is either accepted or rejected, and the
decision is irrevocable.
6. The decision to accept or reject an applicant can be
based only on the relative ranks of the applicants
interviewed so far.
7. The objective is to select the best applicant with the
highest possible probability.
Well of course, they're founders so they have to be happy and optimistic, and as an engineer in SV I get people like them wanting to recruit me every day so I have to be cynical and jaded :)
I think the secretary problem applies very much. Ultimately, they're looking with people that a) have relevant skills and b) will fit in the culture.
If, as they claim, they tried all conventional methods of hiring over the past few months (and they have actually met a significant number of people and not just two guys at a random meetup), then they are probably unrealistic in their expectations. Ultimately, past your first or second engineer, you're looking for someone to get shit done, not someone to braid your hair with.
It turns out they have invented a new way to get content onto the screen, you're supposed to let go of your mouse and press one of the arrow keys so slide the image into view. Double-you tee eff?
Combine that with their attitude, and it makes we want to ... do something else, basically. :)
but that's not the point...
Users were coming in, we were so happy – and one day,
someone created a Linux Group on Koding, and he sent
me a message “do you need help?” I replied in a few
seconds, otherwise servers would have crashed before I
could hit ‘send’ I said “yes, but we’re also broke :(”
he replied “who asked for money?”. That’s how we met our
awesome sysadmin, Aleksey.