Thanks for the insight. We are working the IT department at UChicago so hopefully that will work out for us. We appreciate your input.
Your next challenge is to be able to work out which of the many people who apply can get the job done.
Your primary mechanism for this, after shortlisting/initial interviews, is for each graduate to do a 1 day practical exercise to pull together a simple CRM app that allows creation and browsing of client details. They should have a week notice to prepare themselves for this before doing the test at your office.
You should pay them a straight salary, at the lowest end of the market. Forget anything complex and don't even talk about equity until they have proven themselves invaluable.
After reading HN for 3 months, I got the feeling developers enjoyed working for an equity bonus. But then again if this is not a partner then that doesnt make sense. Very useful stuff, thanks for your time.
How much seed money do you have? Do not pay per hour, pay a salary, assuming you have enough money. Ideally you will have enough to employ a low end graduate for 12 months. That is your runway. When that money is gone your startup is gone. Do not be tempted to spend one cent of the money allocated to the graduate salary on anything else.
The price of the advice....... if you find someone using this approach then please do a "Tell HN:" post explaining how you used this approach to find the first developer for your startup.