This is horrible advice. First, this won't weed out the "clock punchers". It will do is hire the "clock punchers" who punch their clocks 1930 instead of at 1730

This is horrible advice. First, this won't weed out the "clock punchers". It will do is hire the "clock punchers" who punch their clocks 1930 instead of at 1730: the focus here is still on _having an appearance of doing work_, not on doing work. It will also create a great degree of churn: people will put on a show just to get the job and then leave after a few months. Churn is always incredibly expensive and demoralizing and kills start-ups: to some degree it's not avoidable in a start-up, but this is just asking for it. So how do you hire hard working and passionate people? It's much simpler: is this something that they do for fun? Do they have side projects or participate in open source projects (which may conflict with the idea of them spending all their time at the office!)? Do they give any indication of a passion for their work (instead of just putting on a show and telling you what they wan to hear?) Lastly, this is just plain bad advise for employees as well. Like in dating, you don't want to look desperate: especially in a situation where the competition is so high. Talking about long hours and weekends you will put in and how you just want a subsistence salary will show desperation.