I think you'd be pretty much incorrect that there are programmers sitting around unemployed who are capable of scraping together and making a successful softwar

I think you'd be pretty much incorrect that there are programmers sitting around unemployed who are capable of scraping together and making a successful software project, especially considering that when people who are unquestionably at the top of the industry do it they too fail more often than not. I think what you should do is make a site where employers can post a guaranteed test for hire situation. For instance, an employer would post a job, you would apply to it by signing up for the job. You'd have to do a test project for free, but the catch would be that as long as you could meet certain requirements you'd be guaranteed a job. I'm not sure if this would work, but it would certainly put the theory that there are a ton of capable programmers sitting around to a test. It's pretty risk free for the employer as long as they are careful with designing the test (and they could even design the test to get something useful out of it to offset their risk). Just my .02