The biggest problem I see with startups searching for designers is that many fundamentally misunderstand what design is all about. They see the job of folk with

The biggest problem I see with startups searching for designers is that many fundamentally misunderstand what design is all about. They see the job of folk with design/UX skills as simply making there product pretty. A nice logo, some good icons, etc. Design/UX, like development, is a far deeper domain than that. Design/UX, like development, will significantly affect the business/product. Far too often I see recruitment for roles that are exploiting only a small subset of a good designers skill set - and those are naturally going to be hard positions to fill. There are strong parallels to the issues non-technical founders have recruiting developers - when what they really need is a technical co-founder / CTO type role.