We have gotten a lot of very smart but "big company" people who had applied for this position.
Sorry for the confusion however, most of our team is actually MUCH holder than the typical start-up: 500friends.com/team. We may be a lot of things but are definitely not ageist.
We want someone who has less than 12 years of MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE. The reason is that if you haven't been coding for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough
This arbitrary cutoff makes absolutely no sense. I'd like to see your quantification of skill drop off per year of management.
If what you are wanting is a hands-on technical manager, then you need to say so.
And it shouldn't matter if the person has been hands on for 5 years or 20.
But I feel I'm being a little too generous regarding your motives here.
But essentially, the ideal candidate was someone who was CODING 5-12 years ago...
Note:
Any notion that 500friends is ageist is a complete fabrication. This can be validated by looking at our team (link).