I'm not saying they don't exist, I'm sure there's probably a few of them, but you have to hope they're in your town. And don't have other interesting offers. Fu

I'm not saying they don't exist, I'm sure there's probably a few of them, but you have to hope they're in your town. And don't have other interesting offers. Furthermore, Chris Dixon's quote wasn't (as far as I can tell) talking about recruiting interns, but recruiting employees and that's an entirely different ballgame in my opinion. These companies don't have money to offer employees or interns, but they will offer equity to employees. What's the chance a company will offer any form of equity to interns? So you're suggesting that rather than "immediate compensation", their compensation is that they have a couple months experience at a successful company? That's much less compelling than what employees are getting (a much greater experience and some equity). Not every company needs interns, and if you can't afford to pay them, maybe you don't need them quite yet. If you want to recruit people as full-time employees or something, on the other hand, that's an entirely different argument.