[LnxPrgr3]

What kind of job seeker is this looking to attract?

Equity's great if that equity turns out to be worth something, but it doesn't pay today's bills. If I've got money saved up and I'm looking to take on a labor of passion, chances are really good it's going to be with one or two other people I already know, respect, and trust. If I don't have money saved up then I need cash now, not equity with an uncertain payday.

I get why entrepreneurs would love this, but what's the use case for job seekers? What am I missing?

[ProblemFactory]

The problem with most recruiting sites is the lack of (competent) candidates.

And this is because highly competent candidates are never deliberately looking for a job. They get recruited to a pretty good job before they have even started thinking of jobs from college, and then get recruited to other companies by an old friend. It's extremely rare that they are ever considering themselves to be a "job seeker" at all.

These people don't bother reading recruitment-only sites in their free time. And they certainly don't want to create a job-seeking profile, and get in trouble with their boss who thinks they may be leaving.

But what they are very interested in is reading about their field of speciality. When I was sourcing candidates, the only online places where I found qualified engineers were the StackOverflow and 37signals job boards. These two are successful because they built the community and content that competent candidates want to visit daily first, and added a job board second. I have no expertise in mechanical engineering, but GrabCad seems to be doing it well in that area.

So my theory for running a successful recruiting site is:

1. Choose a single profession, skill, or field. 2. Create seed content yourself to attract initial experts in that field. 3. Add community features to let these initial experts contribute more content. 4. When you have become a well-known site for most experts in the field, add job boards.

[fellars]

I see geekli.st taking this exact approach now. Another approach is what betacave.com is doing (disclaimer: I'm a co-founder)

[sage_joch]

If it were a tough job market, I could see this as a good way to get some initial experience/resume fuel out of college.

[cpolis]

I will be graduating college soon and getting paid in equity is the last thing I want, regardless of the job market.

I need money to pay off student loans, rent, food, gas, etc... Equity in startups is highly illiquid and turns out to be worthless more often than not; I can't take that risk.

I'm not sure exactly what the sweet spot demographic for this site is, but I don't see it being me or my peers.

[panda_person]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, and I can't stand startups that advertise for unpaid internships (which is what this would be). My guess is that they are either totally unaware, or deliberately flaunting the laws against unpaid internships (where the intern is getting paid nothing for doing substantive work). I've seen ads like this all the time on craigslist. Pretty much the only people who can afford to apply are wealthy kids who just graduated, need experience, and can have mom and dad pay the bills. Not paying interns makes me think even less of startup culture than I already do.

[hoursforequity]

So would you prefer a combination of equity and cash? We are always open to ideas and would consider including that functionality. Lots of people seem to be mentioning that concern.