Finding great engineers is a known challenge for every early-stage startup as you need to find missionaries willing to trade cash for risk and upside.

What we try: - We try to leverage personal networks, which seems like the best source (10x better than other methods)

- We're willing to poach talent (when timing aligns)

- We're generous with equity (can’t match FAANG cash)

Public job boards didn't work at all. About 98 % of applicants are spray-and-pray. We even added a product-specific question at the end of the ad and only few noticed it (but good filter!).

I also know that experience ≠ talent and that some people are terrible at selling themselves, I try to spot these.

What helped you find top engineers?