1) I was thinking of changing the verification process by allowing users to place a special token in their profile, which I can just scan for (within a small time window). Thoughts?
2) I took ideas from stack overflow and 37signal's job boards.
3) In the works! :)
4) I work at Xilinx as my day job, but I have a passion for startups and spend quite a bit of time on HN (as a lurker though). I noticed there are 'who's hiring' posts every month, which are usually quite popular. I figured a dedicated website would suit the community well.
If I ever start charging, it would only be after I implement more features, make the site more useful, and depending on what feedback I get. Also if I do charge, whatever the cost might be, it would help filter out a lot of junk posts.
5) This is absolutely key. I hope to earn this trust. :)
I appreciate the feedback.