I think quality begets quality, too. I once had a phone screen interview with Backtype before they were bought by Twitter. I was (and perhaps still am) extremely unqualified for the role, but the interview process was interesting and enjoyable. At the end, after doing a small at-home project for them, they turned me down. To thank me for their time, they gave me a 25$ Amazon gift card, which is still the best rejection gift I've received to this date. I worked for Amazon at the time, and you basically get $100 in Amazon credit per year even as a full-time employee, so the irony of getting a quarter of that for failing an interview was not lost on me.
More than anything this article convinces me that there is a bubble of Data Scientists (speaking as someone who as employed as a DS and quit one month ago to build his startup).
I've had the opportunity to meet Jake Klamka in person, and he is one of the most charismatic people I've met. His Insight program attempts to solve a really important problem in our world. It doesn't just solve the academic-job-prospect problem, but the way to interview people isn't limited to a 4 hour or 2 day interview anymore - employers can see the demonstrated work output of these talented candidates.
I liked this article a lot. The art of approaching a business opportunity. Jake approached him like he would a potential buyer of his products. Don't force a sale on someone, get them to want your product first and eventually have them begging you for it. Very clever.
Are some of the fellows' projects made available as open source? I'd really like to see some sample data science projects and what they're about.