[nugget]

I always liked the story of the "Microsoft Five" who joined Facebook early on. I would pay a little more if I could hire a small team of developers who already had experience working together. I bet a team of 3 or 4 devs who shopped their skills this way could demand a premium.

[pdenya]

I'm not familiar with that story but I know teams of copywriters & art directors that do this currently in the ad industry to great success. I'm not sure how well that would work for a startup though, seems like an easy way to mess up the culture.

[beambot]

I wasn't familiar with the story either [1]. Cool idea.

[1] http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-story-behind-the-Microsoft-...

[nugget]

In Facebook's case (see quora link from beambot), it seems like the instant injection of a high-quality core team permanently elevated the engineering culture and probably led to a lot of the success that followed. I could see it going the other way too. Maybe it just accelerates your startup towards its inevitable destiny, one way or the other...

[heartbreak]

One of the primary factors behind acqui-hires is a preset team.

[gojomo]

AKA, a "gelled team".