The problem is that experienced people cost a lot of money, and since they are typically older with things like a family to support, mortgage to pay, etc, are going to be more risk averse.
Especially in the early stages, all projects are more or less a crapshoot, so in order to tempt someone away from that 200k a year job, you're going to need to hand over a lot of equity, raise a lot of money, or overpower them with sheer force of charisma.
If you want to hire five of these people, you better be heavily bankrolled, or rolling natural 20s.
Well, first of all don't go to people thinking why they might turn you down.
People don't care about money, as long as you can pay them enough to pay the rent / mortgage and the little extras in life. If you don't have that kind of money, you're doomed anyway.
Offer them a dream job. If they believe in the project, they know money will come later.
On a really tight budget? Recruit less. 2 seniors instead of 5 juniors.
People don't care about money, as long as you can pay them enough to pay the rent / mortgage and the little extras in life.
With that pitch your best bet is empty-nesters and retired folks itching to get back in the game.
Otherwise, it isn't just the mortgage. It's the mortgage, the car payment, car insurance, a month-long overseas vacations you've planned out a year in advance, kids' dental, your in-laws taking your kids on a skiing vacation (but you're paying), the kids going to tennis/band/nerd camp, time to replace the refrigerator, the couch has a funny smell you can't get rid of.... (I'm paying special attention to my older coworkers so I know why I'm saving my money.)
The college kid is probably sleeping on a couch that an experienced engineer had to throw out because prosperous forty-year-old people aren't allowed to have furniture that smells funny. The college kid doesn't care if the roof leaks, because that's the landlord's problem. (Maybe's he's paying a few hundred a month for a bedroom and his name isn't even on the lease.) The refrigerator needs to be replaced? Lemme check. Nope, the beer's still cold.
Retired people, on the other hand, live like college students except with better hygiene, different recreational choices, and more regular sleep schedules.
whenever someone tells me that money shouldn't matter, I hear "I'm trying to take advantage of you"
If you want me to work for you for equity, you better be bringing something valuable to the table; and you know what? that idea isn't valuable. Not until you implement it.
This is the other reason why startups like young people; a young Engineer is easier to impress into thinking your 'idea' is so awesome that you keep 90% of the equity while he does all the work. (and yeah, I've seen that exact scheme come to pass.)
Sure, business people often contribute more than an idea. A /good/ business person is quite valuable. a bad business person is worse than nothing, though, and it's extremely difficult for a nerd to tell the difference.
For building something for demo purposes, you can hire anybody to build it. But when it's time to build the app for real, the app that your target users will use, an experienced developer is important.
If not what your code will be hard to maintain and it may be difficult to add new features and/or scale.
If you have a weak foundation, if you put stuff on it, it will collapse at some point.
> Especially in the early stages, all projects are more or less a crapshoot, so in order to tempt someone away from that 200k a year job, you're going to need to hand over a lot of equity, raise a lot of money, or overpower them with sheer force of charisma.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Frankly, I look for a biz guy who has an extreme amount of charisma because that can really help a biz.
Especially in the early stages, all projects are more or less a crapshoot, so in order to tempt someone away from that 200k a year job, you're going to need to hand over a lot of equity, raise a lot of money, or overpower them with sheer force of charisma.
If you want to hire five of these people, you better be heavily bankrolled, or rolling natural 20s.