The Best Place to Find Talent

Let's face it, recruiting talented people to join your company, venture, project etc. is really, really hard. You can search through LinkedIn.com and find all of the people that say they have the relevant skills and experience. You can hire a recruiter to help with the process - and they will search through LinkedIn for all of the relevant people. You can ask for referrals, which are great when they come through but typically this isn't a sustainable solution for growing companies. You can post ads.... blah, blah blah.

Alternatively you can make a conscious decision to hire someone that is truly talented. Someone who has proven that they can create and ship a viable product, or identify and segment a growth market, or design something elegant, functional and amazing etc. The good news is that there is a database that is totally searchable and only has people in it that are entrepreneurial, innovative, risk taking independent thinkers that get shit done.

Where is this magic place? Kickstarter!

For me, Kickstarter is the absolute best place to find and recruit top talent. Here's why:

Breadth of Experience: By default individuals or groups that post Kickstarter projects will need to have chops in design, marketing, manufacturing/development, promotion and finance. Additionally they typically have a broader view of their market and what it takes to win.

Entrepreneur's Only: A lot of companies talk about being entrepreneurial and having the spirit of entrepreneur's etc. YAWN! Everyone on Kickstarter actually started something from scratch and in most cases shipped an actual product. Most employees of companies just can't do this.

Video: Almost every Kickstarter project includes live footage of a real person pitching their invention. You can learn so much more from video than you can from words on a screen.

Access: Every KickStarter project provides contact details for all the participants. #Winning.

Social Proof: You can literally see -via dollars pledged- how the universe thinks about the work of someone you may want to recruit. Where else is this possible?

If I had to pick between recruiting a candidate from KickStarter vs. an Ivey League MBA, or employee of a big company with a fancy brand... my money is on the Kickstarter person every time.