This is not a free place to stay. You are asking a software engineer (the hottest date in Silicon Valley right now) to work just for the cost of rent. Even if you live in One Rincon that means you're effectively paying $24,000 post-tax.
Not sure why everyone is so negative. Yes, it's a "bad deal" in that you're getting paid way below what you're worth.<p>But normally, if you want to move to the Valley, you either have to try to find a job before you get out here, or you have to get enough money to live for a couple months, then find somewhere to stay, and then find a job.<p>Not everyone has enough savings to support that. Not everyone likes that level of uncertainty. Instead, you can work below your market rate for 3 months (ie. not really long enough to be significant), get a cool experience, get a bit of equity, not have to find a place before getting out here, and then have plenty of time to line up a job and a permanent place to live.<p>I can definitely see how a rational person would accept that deal.
There's a bum somewhere with the "Will code HTML for food" sign who's just your match. <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/265918244_f16ba8182a.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/265918244_f16ba8182a.jpg</a>
Wow, its interesting to see the mix of 'its cool / its stupid' remarks. I couldn't find any mention of the terms of the equity but lets say its not an incentive stock option as most people seem to be assuming, rather lets assume its actually stock, as in actual equity you can hold (and sell on secondmarket :-)<p>So you give someone say 90K shares in restricted stock on the condition that they complete their 3 months (maybe you unlock it 30 days at a time). Now at the end of their 3 months they have 90,000 shares which were probably valued at say .05. So a $4,500 taxable event (and free rent and board? for three months, so perhaps another $4,500 in non-tangible benefits.<p>If the equity now lets say the equity has participation rights in the series A. (As in you allow this coder to contribute their 90K shares if/when you go for a series A) and your series A rolls out with a 0.20/share valuation. Now your programmer can either take $18K for their three months or perhaps wait until series B.<p>I could imagine a lot of ways to structure this which would win both from the perspective of the entrepreneur and the programmer.<p>The key though is what are the terms on the equity.
That's the worst thing you can do. You'll not get a developer, but rather a sucker. Why would someone move to Silicon Valley? Either to work or to make a startup. In your case, it's to work and he is getting paid... not enough to feed him and pay some of his bills, but just a rent.<p>So what's really the point of it? Just go there to code for you and then get back home? I'll probably only spend money and then?
What should also be clarified are the <i>conditions</i> surrounding the equity. For instance, assuming there's a vesting agreement in place, it's probably set over 4yrs, with a 1yr cliff. So, if this candidate leaves in less than 1yr's time, then he/she automatically looses any equity earned thus far.<p>Its also interesting that they couldn't get anyone locally since the cofounder also runs a cofounder meetup group (<a href="http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-Meetup/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-Meetup/</a>).<p>All in all, it might appeal to someone just looking for an adventure in the valley without any need of compensation whatsoever (equity is worthless if the startup runs aground) and no expectations.
I think there is the kernel of a great idea here.<p>"Come work for startup pre-funding, we'll give you housing/food/etc. for now, and equity, and once we have funding, we'll help you find a place of your own, pay market salary, etc." is a good deal for a lot of people, if they believe in the startup itself.<p>A lot of people get overwhelmed by the number of (individually relatively minor) changes in a big move like "move to silicon valley and join a startup" -- if you can simplify<p>I'd expect founders to be willing to personally help out new hires or co-founders at the very early stage (especially if you are hiring people who have to relocate, or who are freshly out of something like college, grad school, or Google), but later, I'd actually go so far as to have an "ops" person who has the responsibility of handling all these tasks for people. Palantir, a pretty big/successful company, does this very well. You can see elements of it with free lunch, dry cleaning, etc. at Google and Facebook. The military does this exceptionally well -- basically, sign up, and your life is managed for you (for better or for worse -- the ideal for a regular tech company would be to provide acceptable defaults but let people override as they wish). Aaron Patzer did this for Jason (the designer at Mint) -- gave him a room in his house, a car, and introduced him to his future wife (!!!).<p>In addition to making it easier to join, this kind of "total institution" builds loyalty. There is a lot of value in getting your best people to stay 6 years instead of 3.
To be clear, we can't process visa applications, so you'd be moving from somewhere else in the US, not from abroad. (as a long-time visa holder in the US, I feel your pain, but there is nothing I can do right now)
guess they didnt get any takers from their initial posting so they upped the ante by offering up the founders spare bedroom. if we hold out just a little longer guys the applicant may get a free lunch once a month out of this.<p>initial post: <a href="http://blog.letslunch.com/2011/02/09/hot-startup-looking-for-php-developer/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.letslunch.com/2011/02/09/hot-startup-looking-for...</a>
This is fantastically awesome, guys. Good on you.<p>Someday, my dream is to have the means to do something like this, but bigger. A "hacker hostel" where people can come and spend time working on their projects without having to worry about paying rent.<p>Has anybody ever tried anything like that? I know there was "hacker halfway house" a while ago, but from what I understand, that wasn't actually a place you could live.<p>I also remember some people here allowing hackers to camp in their backyard in tents, and colaborate in the house...<p>I don't suppose you guys would let me and my insane dog come and stay there, would you? (Dog: <a href="http://thingist.com/t/item/1675/" rel="nofollow">http://thingist.com/t/item/1675/</a>)<p>[I'm kidding]
There's also a real downside to living with your boss. When do you get down time? Do you really want him to know how you spend your working <i>and</i> non-working hours? If there is tension at work how do you prevent it from carrying over to home, and vice versa.
"We may not be the next twitter or linkedin, but we think we can get pretty close."<p>That's not a great mindset. It might be honest, but not great to write on your company blog.
It's a terrible deal if you do the numbers but extremely convenient. Place to live + job + friends bundled into one. And you'll be (in)famous for being the person who accepted.