Inspired by the success of previous spreadsheets, here's a pet peve of mine.
Startup dating is broken. The skills that are really valuable in getting a business up&running are not malleable to easy proxy measurement (such as CV, or forms, or cover letters). So let's try it from a demand point of view.
Post your most pressing need in your startup business, that you want to get help with strictly on a voluntary basis, along with the larger scope of the project.
The most important column is the "First steps to start with". Put here a _minimum viable_ qualification task, something that would test for the ability to "get things done" for the value of "task" you're looking help with; eg. a git repos, and a bug id; "get 20 customers" for sales, "beat my 0.78% CTR on adwords" for marketing, I'm sure you can think of something.
At first I thought this was more a "gigs" board, which I was happy to use but now I'm not so sure. Is it a startup co-founder matching board? If so it should be renamed as such (help wanted sounds exactly like a job board or gigs board)
So we're supposed to post something we want someone to do for free?
Since this is startup focused, and it works out, are they going to be expecting equity and/or payment? Seems odd not to get some sense of that before investing time together.
The spreadsheet is specifically not a job board; and I will excercise extreme prejudice against non-"getting things done" measurement for first steps, including "send me your resume", "send me an e-mail", and such. Seriously, coming up with something that is actionable for candidates is the best communication starter, and filter 99% of the crap out immediately.
If you are a startup or a job seeker, you can also come to our startup career fair and meet other entrepreneurs on August 17th at the Stanford Park Hotel in Menlo Park, CA.
Here is the link to register: www.careerelement.com/jobfair
We expect over 300 tech job seekers and 20-30 startups.
If you are an early stage startup that is hiring, we might be willing to waive the registration fee for you. Send me an email at paul.campbell@careerelement.com and we can discuss.
It's rather difficult to find developer interest for new open source projects. Sourceforge, etc, have no real means of high-volume social networking. Besides, I'd really like to find someone from HN that is interested in my area of research (distributed web tech).
I understand if you're going to keep this spreadsheet specifically for the purposes of startup networking, but I politely request that you consider allowing open source projects as well. I don't think it would overcrowd your data.
Inspired by the success of previous spreadsheets, here's a pet peve of mine.
Startup dating is broken. The skills that are really valuable in getting a business up&running are not malleable to easy proxy measurement (such as CV, or forms, or cover letters). So let's try it from a demand point of view.
Post your most pressing need in your startup business, that you want to get help with strictly on a voluntary basis, along with the larger scope of the project.
The most important column is the "First steps to start with". Put here a _minimum viable_ qualification task, something that would test for the ability to "get things done" for the value of "task" you're looking help with; eg. a git repos, and a bug id; "get 20 customers" for sales, "beat my 0.78% CTR on adwords" for marketing, I'm sure you can think of something.