From looking at their job posting and their website it sure gave me a good impression of how great they are...
Wait, no, see they (I'm assuming it's you now) didn't. They didn't explain why it is they offer something beyond money as an incentive to work for them. They don't talk about their passion, office situation, their work ethic, or what it is they're working on.
The job posting itself was just bland and generic, akin to the kind of cattle call you find on craigslist. It sounds more like the LeadLog is the one exhibiting self-entitlement here. How dare they get people that only cares about being paid!
Ha. Everyone here encourages thinking that differs from ours.
I suppose we are generic in the job posting (I really appreciate the feedback) and again, as I stated, we're trying to find someone who is looking for more than just money, someone looking for place to work where they fit in and feel at home.
If you were trying to meet a decent girl with values, would you go around waving $100 bills and wearing diamond pendants?
We're not trying to flash around our new funding and put emphasis on our fancy office and wii and ping pong table and couch and full kitchen. We're trying to find someone who would be looking at this as an opportunity, someone with ambition and not just a need for an inflated paycheck until the start up dies.
Something you have to understand: as a startup without a product, without users, and without revenue, your bargaining position sucks. It's incredibly easy to start a company; it's incredibly difficult to finish one successfully. If you're Google or Twitter or are funded by YC, you can attract applicants based on the strength of the opportunity. If not, you don't have much to offer besides the money.
Put yourself in a candidate's shoes and ask yourself: what do you have to offer that they can't get on their own? What's to stop a candidate from taking your idea and competing with you?
A pre-traction startup is riskier for employees than it is for founders. If it fails, they get to put "Software Engineer at Company Nobody Has Heard Of" on their resume, while you at least have a founder title. They probably will learn fewer skills. And they don't get the feeling of being in control of their own destiny, because you're calling the shots.
The only thing they do get is a salary, as well as not having the responsibility for success or failure fall on their shoulders. But here you say you want someone who's not really interested in the money, and you want them to take a passionate, active role in the startup. If they don't care about the salary, and the responsibility falls upon their shoulders anyways, why should they work for you instead of starting their own startup?
I kind of wish you would stop using that girlfriend analogy. If I wanted a decent nice girl to take home to mama I wouldn't be using okcupid or match.com or eharmony or even craigslist.
You're looking for an employee -- since you're not going to give them founder status -- and as such you simply want someone that exhibits more passion so that you can feel good about paying them. Or, in my cynical view, you want to exploit somebody that's willing to work more for what you're paying them for,hence the "options".
There's nothing wrong with that kind of behavior, as a business you do have to look for ways to maximize your cash and people like that do exist. The young-gogetters that are extremely talented and looking to work hard to impress and too inexperienced to know their true market value.
But the chances of finding someone like that is so rare, and considering other companies pay premium for something like that you would be lucky. And in your process you're going to end up with a lot of submissions from a wide variety of people. That's just how the cookies crumbles. This post doesn't really help with anything though...
True, but the facilitation of a relationship occurs much better in real life, no? As in, I meet girls and chat them up in real life before making the judgment call to date them or to continue a relationship with them.
And despite having advanced so far, there's a stigma with people using online dating services. Kind of the same with job hiring sites. Let's not forget that a lot of positions in companies are filled through connections and networking rather than applying blindly to job sites.
My point is that equating finding employees with finding a girlfriend is odd on so many levels. Most of which being that I really really really don't want to be caught playing third base with my hires.
We're trying to find someone who would be looking at this as an opportunity
The onus is on you to show that this job is an opportunity - that's what a job advert is for. Sorry, but your ad fails to do that.
If you're a startup, you don't need to emphasize wii and ping pong. You need to show that the candidate has a chance to be an important part of a successful company, and might make some fairly significant money if that happens.
I think you're overrating your new funding. It's cool, but mainly because it means someone believes in you. Money is just money - not important in itself. Get over it as quick as you can.
The great appeal of a startup is that early employees often end up being a VP or something. They get into a higher position than they would in a conventional company, and faster, provided: (A) the company takes off and (B) they are basically capable of it.
For this, people will accept less money initially. They know you're a startup. This is the kind of motivation you want; and this is the kind of person who wants you.
Thinking that this temporary funding makes you a target for gold-diggers suggests you've lost sight of what you are - a startup. Imagining you are flat broke, desperately needing to make and sell cool stuff, might help. It's the truth.
So you need someone who has lots of ambition AND doesn't object to put in a lot of work AND get a low paycheck AND is SOL when your startup dies.
Good luck in finding that person.
Wait, no, see they (I'm assuming it's you now) didn't. They didn't explain why it is they offer something beyond money as an incentive to work for them. They don't talk about their passion, office situation, their work ethic, or what it is they're working on.
The job posting itself was just bland and generic, akin to the kind of cattle call you find on craigslist. It sounds more like the LeadLog is the one exhibiting self-entitlement here. How dare they get people that only cares about being paid!