Unfortunately, as I predicted in this July 05 post, the labor market here in SF has significantly tightened up, particularly at the executive level. Last week I received 4 separate headhunter calls looking for senior executives at consumer-facing start-ups, 1 in consumer technology, 2 in User Generated Video, and 1 in mobile gaming. All of these companies had raised at least one legitimate VC round and were looking to expand across the board. The good news is that it looks like there are lots of opportunities again for those employees unhappy with their current jobs, although we still can't find the brilliant 3D game engine programmer we need - see listing. The bad news is I didn't have even one name to give the search guys since everyone I know is either tied into a great job, or is starting their own firm.
Outside of a fun work environment, a great location, and competitive pay/equity/benefits for full-time employees, here at Donnerwood we are using a mix of outsourcing options (just set up a deal for a DBA that way), off-shore options (1/3 of our resources are in India), short-term contractors (to fill in gaps) and the recruitment of a tier of more junior employees which we can train. I think every company will have to look at some mix of these options in order to grow through this frothy environment.
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