"... ASP.NET 2.0, C# 2.0, SQL Server 2005, Web Services ... 5 years experience working with Microsoft technologies such as Asp.net, ASP or SQL Server ..."
all the great hackers are lining up for this one.
"... As a result we will be building up a large team of 20 to 30 employees over the next few months. ..."
Missed that one, why so large?
"... Having built systems that take orders and credit card transactions previously is a strong plus ..."
This site wasn't built by a great hacker so he doesn't care about hiring great hackers. I doubt Markus would want to switch architectures so an elite lisp hacker that will refuse to work on MS isn't what Markus wants.
The design is even worse and sometimes the site's UI doesn't even function. The girls are much uglier/less successful than match.com or OKCupid too, there's probably some explanation for that.
Although you've got to give him credit with what he has achieved so far with MS technology. I always wondered why did he use it in the first place though....on a related note yeah I've noticed that there are some inconsistencies with the UI. It wouldn't hurt for him to try to correct that.
20 employees wouldn't be completely unreasonable. Not all of them would be straight up coders, of course. Then again, with the traffic numbers he claims, I think he could justify having half the engineering power as someone like Facebook.
"... 20 employees wouldn't be completely unreasonable. Not all of them would be straight up coders, of course ..."
I'd agree with this bit, but it's the timing.
It really depends on exit strategy. I'm not sure at what stage the coy. is at - it hasn't been sold, has it received funding? Investing in 30 extra bodies is a lot. It takes a long time to employee quality people and is certainly against grain. One hiccup in the market and could be a Ev of Prya (Blogger).
Hmm. Yeah, he's processing millions and millions of requests a day off of one web server. I really don't think that (ahem) great hackers like having the power of MSFT technology thrust in their face.
"... Hmm. Yeah, he's processing millions and millions of requests a day off of one web server. ..."
I wouldn't say It's not possible, just painful. Firstly there's the cost (os, tools, languages) and externalities (bugs, slow code updates). I don't know if I could face going to work using such a crappy environment again.
As for the number of transactions, you cannot deny this. The real test will be adding the financial transactions and converting hits to dollars. I like people succeeding - it just makes me wince (personal prejudice) thinking of the technology choice.
Good luck to Markus. I'd be cautious with the idea of going from one person shop to hiring dozens of people quickly.