Not bad. I quite like the idea of screening applicants with essay questions however this brings two issues. First, I would be amazed if your response rate was a

Not bad. I quite like the idea of screening applicants with essay questions however this brings two issues. First, I would be amazed if your response rate was as high as 10%, in fact I'd be shocked given the fact that the kind of people you are looking to hire probably aren't using Monster and craigslist in the first place to find work. Second, the point is almost counterintuitive. You said yourself that the best people are already in work and probably have a stable job. Most of those simply won't bother to jump through additional hoops when all they want is to speak to an actual human about the position. Shameless Plug: I've written a pretty extensive post recently on making your start-up more appealing to potential hires which works nicely with your post: http://voltsteve.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-should-i-join-your-start-up.html http://voltsteve.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-should-i-join-your...