Matt_Mickiewicz

Nah, I'm spending every waking moment (and some of my non-waking ones) on DeveloperAuction.

I just know the founders and want to see them succeed.

Cool idea, tons of execs and sales reps have corporate AMEX cards but use really boring/generic templates for all their presentations.

I think the lifetime value for customers could be high if you can deliver quality work consistently.

Maybe not Google or Facebook (yet), but we have hundreds of venture funded companies who will do exactly that on DeveloperAuction.

Yep. Despite our name, we're accepting UX/UI designers who are based in major cities (Denver/Boulder, NYC, SF Bay Area, NYC, Boston).

You hit the nail on the head.

It was/is a temporary filter, it's a band-aid awaiting a better long-term fix. Certainly the list of half a dozen or so companies isn't meant to be all inclusive.

We'd love to hear your suggestions/feedback on how we can avoid being spammed with 100,000+ applications and how we can better determine which candidates will attract job offers & interest from employers.

We're allowing UX/UI designers into the system, despite our name. Huge, huge unmet demand from the employers that we have in our database. Might have to rebrand to be more all encompassing :)

Just make sure you include a portfolio of your work with your application.

I'd love to hear your suggestions on how we could better vet that second group, and identify who they are, so that employers place a credible value on them.

Hey Michael --

The criteria in the story is what we used for our first auction, we love talented engineers that work at all companies not just the half dozen or so listed in the TechCrunch story.

We'd love your feedback on additional testing/vetting criteria that we could use. At the moment though, if you work at Gilt Group, Intuit, Etsy, Square Space, Microsoft, Amazon or any other number of "big brands" in one of the major cities we'll get you approved in one of our upcoming auctions (but only if you're serious about switching jobs).

My head is spinning.

Yes.

Rather than being buried under recruiter emails (who frequently keep their client identities a secret), we hope they'd participate on DeveloperAuction instead in order to be exposed to some cool companies & interesting opportunities in a condensed time-frame.

Agreed 100%!

The goal is to give every developer 5-7 interesting opportunities (with numbers attached). At the end of the auction, they can create a short-list and go in for in-person interviews to determine cultural fit with the team, etc. and ultimately determine what's best for them.

It's definitely not going to be highest-bidder always wins, hiring is too complex to boil it down to a single number. Every developer will have personal preferences about what sorts of opportunities they want to work on, what work environment they prefer, and whether they want to join an early-stage company or a more mature one.

That we'd love to have them!

The goal is to have only credible, vetted, companies browsing profiles who are able to honour the offers they are making.

Those were the developers represented in our first auction, but we're definitely not going to be turning away senior talent in the future just because they work at Amazon, LinkedIn, Etsy or Gilt Groupe.

... and this is why I'm Canadian.

It's about breaking through the clutter & being contrarian.

By now, everyone has realized the value of A+ players and they tailor the job ads to those individuals -- the problem being, that anybody who is any good is already employed, has their choice of opportunities and is never browsing through the Stackoverflow job boards.

24 dead companies according to the list

It's to justify their ridiculous fees and to avoid being cut out of the equation.

Smart move... now they just need to buy up SQUARE and iZETTLE.

Anybody know the price paid?

Co-founder of 99designs here.

For clarification, there's no such thing as a $200 web design contest on 99designs.

Prices start at $599 but you really have to offer $1000-$2000 or more to get a good result. You browse thousands of finished web design projects here to see the outcomes that customers get:

http://99designs.com/web-design/contests?show=finished

I think the quality speaks for itself... the typical 7-10 day turnaround is also very helpful for a fast-moving start-up that needs results FAST and doesn't want to spend time getting multiple quotes/proposals and reviewing contracts.

Congrats to Noah & Rahim!

They raised $196 million round in 2007 from Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Accel Partners.

That stake is now worth $254 million for General Catalyst. Sequoia Capital's stake is $150 million. Accel's investment is now worth $120 million.

... that's $524 million on a $196 million investment, after 5 years. Hardly spectacular.

You forgot the second part of the headline - "Twitter Completely Down, Productivity Surges"

Fake it until you make it...

It's common for UK citizens to give up citizenship, prior to an exit in their business and move to Monte-Carlo or Gilbraltar for a few years to avoid capital gains tax.

If Facebook blows up on the IPO and the stock value increases 50% or 100% he could easily be saving $500m - $1b in taxes. It's a no-brainer...

I'm really excited to see what will be done with this.

For every instagram, there's 100 Revision3 stories... other other "acqui-hires" for a few million.

$10m raised over 3 rounds, $30m exit... probably not a great outcome for any of the investors.

Matt, co-founder of Flippa here.

Given the huge size of fandalism, Phil would probably be better of hiring an investment banker or business broker to sell the it (not that it's his goal here)... Flippa's specialty is under $250K, once you start approaching 7-figures, the transaction gets more complex, the buyers get bigger, and it makes sense to have a professional involved.

If you look at the distribution of exists/mergers/sales, it is infinitely easier to grow and sell a company for $20-$50m than it is for $100m+. The number of potential buyers rapidly diminishes, once you get into 9 figures, deals get more complex, take longer to execute, and have a higher chance of failing.

Over the past 18 months, I've seen four of my friends "cash in". Most of these guys were at it for 7-10 years before the exit, and all but one of these was a sub-$30m deal.

In order to justify these "NEW" valuations, entrepreneurs & investors have to hold out for VERY high value exits, which will dramatically reduce the chances of success and statistically extend the exit time for the angels and entrepreneurs by over a decade.

For most entrepreneurs who are on their first business, $5m or $10m is a life changing amount of money - by declining exits at prices that could achieve that outcome, they are forced to keep rolling the dice, over and over again, hoping that growth continues, a new competitor doesn't emerge, someone doesn't undercut their pricing, and everything is going at 110%.

It doesn't seem to make sense on the surface of it.