7 ms·

Startup Uses Eggs to Poach Employees from Facebook, Google

55 points by kumarrahul 13y ago

jchrisa 13y ago
Now that's what I call a hack. Bravo!
smoyer 13y ago
This may be a catchy way to make your company known, but I imagine you're only getting those who were thinking of leaving anyway.
- zem 13y ago
  yes, but you get first shot at the ones who were thinking of leaving, before they have turned that thought into actual action and you have several other companies to compete with.
  - smoyer 13y ago
    I didn't say it was a bad idea ... and the numbers seem to indicate it's working.
- dasil003 13y ago
  Well yes, by definition, you can only poach employees from a company who at some point think of leaving the original company. Seriously though, to your point, why do you say "but"? Are the ones who think of leaving somehow less valuable than the ones don't think of leaving? In my mind, those who never think of leaving probably tend to be the weaker talent. That could just be my unsubstantiated bias, but either way, I think the point is that they all got hired by Facebook/Google at some point which is a pretty good signal as far as tech signals go.
  - smoyer 13y ago
    It wasn't supposed to imply you were getting lower quality applicants BUT rather that you were getting some fraction of a bigger pool. It's entirely possible I use the word "but" too much or that I don't need a conjunction there at all - would two shorter sentences be better? Or maybe I'm just a butt?
    - dasil003 13y ago
      Okay, that reasoning makes sense. I would never read it that way though, because when you're hiring you're always getting some fraction of a bigger pool.
      - smoyer 13y ago
        I usually associate the idea of "poaching" employees with convincing those that weren't thinking of leaving that they should join you (I'm not saying my impression is correct). Think about Jobs "poaching" Sculley from PepsiCo. Jobs didn't even give him an egg sandwich (just the famous line: "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?").
        dasil003 13y ago
        I see, so you were originally saying that you don't think the campaign would cause anyone to consider leaving Facebook or Google that wasn't already thinking about it? I think it's really hard to pinpoint the moment in my own head when an idea like leaving my job first crosses my mind, probably even harder for an abstract class of people such as Google or Facebook employees. To me, poaching is more concrete, it means going after someone you know works at a specific place.
        smoyer 13y ago
        Two good points ... it's also interesting that the word "poaching" has negative connotations [1] but if you read those definitions the impression is that poaching employees is somehow wrong rather than being a facet of a competition-based economy. How can an at-will employee be considered "another's property, rights, ideas, or the like". [1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poaching http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poaching
stuaxo 13y ago
Egg sandwiches ... yuck !
- nsomaru 13y ago
  Alas. If this comment was better phrased, we might have started a stimulating discussion as to the merits of egg sandwiches.
- antonioevans 13y ago
  You don't like Egg Sandwiches? They're excellent.
  - LukeB_UK 13y ago
    I believe you mean eggcellent...
MicroBerto 13y ago
Those are not good enemies to make... seeing as though they probably drive well over half of your network's traffic.
- bayesianhorse 13y ago
  On the other hand Facebook and Google might be encouraged to buy out the company to get their employees back.
Steko 13y ago
Similar gag from this cartoon on recode yesterday: http://recode.net/2014/04/02/tim-cook-turns-up-the-heat-comic/ http://recode.net/2014/04/02/tim-cook-turns-up-the-heat-comi...
bayesianhorse 13y ago
The article uses an interesting phrase "[BC] has been accused of poaching [employees]". As if competition on the buyer-side of the labor market was morally suspect... Steve Jobs would have approved of the sentiment!
- walshemj 13y ago
  This is a well know political trick to shift the axis of a debate towards your position by continually drip feeding stories using loaded words so that eventually everyone tends to accept some or all of your position by osmosis.
- AYBABTME 13y ago
  I think in this case, it's just a literary device to make the text more interesting. At least it's more credible to me than a conspiration about manipulating the tech masses into disliking poaching.
  - chimeracoder 13y ago
    Whatever the intention, it's still a very biased perspective - the fact that the bias is so subtle is what makes it even worse. There's nothing to accuse - nobody's doing anything illegal or even unethical. A more appropriate line would be "[BC] has previously succeeded in hiring talent away from Google[0]", etc. "Accused" is the objectionable word - you generally don't accuse someone of something positive or commonplace. It's similar to the effect when newspapers have headlines on how "Snowden's actions" have caused people to be more suspicious of the government. (His actions aren't the reason people are suspicious; they're just the reason people know about the facts that are what really make them suspicious) [0] or, if they want to keep the word "poach" since the pun is part of the story, "[BC] has previously succeeded in poaching talent away from Google", etc.
    - AYBABTME 13y ago
      Maybe it's just me, but when I read that accusing tone, I saw that as a tongue in cheek. Like a fake news coverage for a super villain. Or perhaps I'm super blind for not seeing the obvious attempt at discrediting the practice.
ghfdaghkj 13y ago
If someone harassed me while I was waiting for the subway and tried to get me to quit my job, I definitely wouldn't want to work for them. I'd probably go out of my way to never use their product, actually. I don't see how this is any better than the "do you have a minute for ____" clipboard people that prey on tourists for donations/signatures on the sidewalk.
danbarker 13y ago
The writing on this site seems pretty terrible: http://www.freshtechapps.com/7-reddit-amas-that-went-horribly-wrong/ http://www.freshtechapps.com/7-reddit-amas-that-went-horribl...
- rachelbythebay 13y ago
  Well sure, start with this: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bigcommerce-tries-poaching-tech-workers-at-S-F-5378102.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bigcommerce-tries-poachin... ... then rewrite it until it doesn't look like it was straight-up ripped off. Edit: this, too, complete with the same photos: http://mashable.com/2014/04/04/startup-eggs-recruiting/ http://mashable.com/2014/04/04/startup-eggs-recruiting/ Blogspam.
sergiotapia 13y ago
This is fantastic! Don't be fooled a company has _zero_ allegiance towards you, sure they pay you but when things go south they will drop you lickity-split. I've seen it done and I've had it done to me once. Employees out there: don't feel guilty about leaving a company, always find what's best for you - not the company.
lost_my_pwd 13y ago
I have no issues with companies courting employees from other companies; it shifts the power balance a bit back towards the individual for a change. I am, however, a little put off by the term "poached", which BigCommerce is actively using in their campaign. It implies the sentiment that these people are simply a quarry being hunted as a prize rather people, of their own free will, deciding that the grass is greener elsewhere. Language matters.
- ryandrake 13y ago
  I posted a rant about that word on an earlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7463417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7463417 Really, unless we think of ourselves as deer being stolen from the local land owner, we should stop using that word.
- mark_l_watson 13y ago
  Is using the word "poached" just a joke since they are handing out poached egg sandwiches?
  - samatman 13y ago
    Nope! The poached egg sandwiches are a joke, since they're "poaching".
- zodiac 13y ago
  I think they used it, in part, to make a pun. Because BigCommerce offers them free poached egg sandwiches.
kevrone 13y ago
Nothing wrong with this at all.
ma2rten 13y ago
The recruiter of Bigcommerce, Steve Donnelly, will ask the guys waiting for the Facebook bus whether they were interested in changing the world of e-commerce. But to his disappointment, many of them replied no. Obviously, they are going to reply that in a situation where they are together with their co-workers.
- codeonfire 13y ago
  Are you saying there are people out there that want to change the world of e-commerce? Maybe someone who owns a large share of an e-commerce firm will feel this way. Some guy waiting for the bus to go to work to pay the bills definitely does not give a shit about changing e-commerce. A more apropos question is to ask if the person wants to become financially secure quickly and not have to take the bus to work every morning. Alas, there's no company that makes that as a goal for its employees.
jobseekr 13y ago
I don't think they're poaching anybody. I'm looking for a new job and this company has been posting the most ridiculous, desperate ads on Craigslist. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eng/ http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eng/ Y work for 1 startup, work for 50K - Software Eng (PHP, Ruby) Product Are you down with OLTP?- Database Engineer (MySql, Innodb) Are you SaaS-y enough? - System Engineer (Linux, Perl, PHP, Ruby) Are you ob-cess!d?- Front End Engineer (HTML, CSS, Javascript) Engineers: Last day to RSVP here for Happy Hour at our new SoMa digs! Engineers: RSVP here for our Happy Hour at our new SoMa digs! http://sfbay.craigslist.org/web/index100.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/web/index100.html Rich and Sexy- Front End Engineer (HTML, CSS, Javascript) The headlines are horrible. The postings are horrible... We are SoMa's hottest new startup and we are building a team of badass engineers to help us take the world's fastest growing e-commerce solution to the next level. The image (which doesn't show anyone working) is horrible... http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Bigcommerce/CL-Ad2_zpsc15233da.jpg http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Bigcommerce/CL-Ad2_... The recruiting video (with swearing!) is horrible... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibkWc26MgQ&hd=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibkWc26MgQ&hd=1 These guys have been posting this crap nonstop on Craigslist for a while so I'm not surprised at all to see them trolling bus stops.
usujason 13y ago
Like the 'poached' campaign, dislike the misspelling of 'employess' in the article's headline.
raldi 13y ago
More like, startup uses eggs to get free media coverage. The eggs do nothing to help recruiting.
rpwilcox 13y ago
Hmm. Seems like a technique with a very low success rate: out of 1,000 applicants they hired 2? So what's that, a .2% success rate? Seems like there has to be techniques with better success rate than that...

55 points by kumarrahul 13y ago

Now that's what I call a hack. Bravo!

This may be a catchy way to make your company known, but I imagine you're only getting those who were thinking of leaving anyway.

zem 13y ago
yes, but you get first shot at the ones who were thinking of leaving, before they have turned that thought into actual action and you have several other companies to compete with.
- smoyer 13y ago
  I didn't say it was a bad idea ... and the numbers seem to indicate it's working.
dasil003 13y ago
Well yes, by definition, you can only poach employees from a company who at some point think of leaving the original company. Seriously though, to your point, why do you say "but"? Are the ones who think of leaving somehow less valuable than the ones don't think of leaving? In my mind, those who never think of leaving probably tend to be the weaker talent. That could just be my unsubstantiated bias, but either way, I think the point is that they all got hired by Facebook/Google at some point which is a pretty good signal as far as tech signals go.
- smoyer 13y ago
  It wasn't supposed to imply you were getting lower quality applicants BUT rather that you were getting some fraction of a bigger pool. It's entirely possible I use the word "but" too much or that I don't need a conjunction there at all - would two shorter sentences be better? Or maybe I'm just a butt?
  - dasil003 13y ago
    Okay, that reasoning makes sense. I would never read it that way though, because when you're hiring you're always getting some fraction of a bigger pool.
    - smoyer 13y ago
      I usually associate the idea of "poaching" employees with convincing those that weren't thinking of leaving that they should join you (I'm not saying my impression is correct). Think about Jobs "poaching" Sculley from PepsiCo. Jobs didn't even give him an egg sandwich (just the famous line: "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?").
      - dasil003 13y ago
        I see, so you were originally saying that you don't think the campaign would cause anyone to consider leaving Facebook or Google that wasn't already thinking about it? I think it's really hard to pinpoint the moment in my own head when an idea like leaving my job first crosses my mind, probably even harder for an abstract class of people such as Google or Facebook employees. To me, poaching is more concrete, it means going after someone you know works at a specific place.
        smoyer 13y ago
        Two good points ... it's also interesting that the word "poaching" has negative connotations [1] but if you read those definitions the impression is that poaching employees is somehow wrong rather than being a facet of a competition-based economy. How can an at-will employee be considered "another's property, rights, ideas, or the like". [1] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poaching http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poaching

stuaxo 13y ago

Egg sandwiches ... yuck !

nsomaru 13y ago
Alas. If this comment was better phrased, we might have started a stimulating discussion as to the merits of egg sandwiches.
antonioevans 13y ago
You don't like Egg Sandwiches? They're excellent.
- LukeB_UK 13y ago
  I believe you mean eggcellent...

MicroBerto 13y ago

Those are not good enemies to make... seeing as though they probably drive well over half of your network's traffic.

bayesianhorse 13y ago
On the other hand Facebook and Google might be encouraged to buy out the company to get their employees back.

Steko 13y ago

Similar gag from this cartoon on recode yesterday: http://recode.net/2014/04/02/tim-cook-turns-up-the-heat-comic/ http://recode.net/2014/04/02/tim-cook-turns-up-the-heat-comi...

bayesianhorse 13y ago

The article uses an interesting phrase "[BC] has been accused of poaching [employees]". As if competition on the buyer-side of the labor market was morally suspect... Steve Jobs would have approved of the sentiment!

walshemj 13y ago
This is a well know political trick to shift the axis of a debate towards your position by continually drip feeding stories using loaded words so that eventually everyone tends to accept some or all of your position by osmosis.
AYBABTME 13y ago
I think in this case, it's just a literary device to make the text more interesting. At least it's more credible to me than a conspiration about manipulating the tech masses into disliking poaching.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  Whatever the intention, it's still a very biased perspective - the fact that the bias is so subtle is what makes it even worse. There's nothing to accuse - nobody's doing anything illegal or even unethical. A more appropriate line would be "[BC] has previously succeeded in hiring talent away from Google[0]", etc. "Accused" is the objectionable word - you generally don't accuse someone of something positive or commonplace. It's similar to the effect when newspapers have headlines on how "Snowden's actions" have caused people to be more suspicious of the government. (His actions aren't the reason people are suspicious; they're just the reason people know about the facts that are what really make them suspicious) [0] or, if they want to keep the word "poach" since the pun is part of the story, "[BC] has previously succeeded in poaching talent away from Google", etc.
  - AYBABTME 13y ago
    Maybe it's just me, but when I read that accusing tone, I saw that as a tongue in cheek. Like a fake news coverage for a super villain. Or perhaps I'm super blind for not seeing the obvious attempt at discrediting the practice.

ghfdaghkj 13y ago

If someone harassed me while I was waiting for the subway and tried to get me to quit my job, I definitely wouldn't want to work for them. I'd probably go out of my way to never use their product, actually. I don't see how this is any better than the "do you have a minute for ____" clipboard people that prey on tourists for donations/signatures on the sidewalk.

danbarker 13y ago

The writing on this site seems pretty terrible: http://www.freshtechapps.com/7-reddit-amas-that-went-horribly-wrong/ http://www.freshtechapps.com/7-reddit-amas-that-went-horribl...

rachelbythebay 13y ago
Well sure, start with this: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bigcommerce-tries-poaching-tech-workers-at-S-F-5378102.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Bigcommerce-tries-poachin... ... then rewrite it until it doesn't look like it was straight-up ripped off. Edit: this, too, complete with the same photos: http://mashable.com/2014/04/04/startup-eggs-recruiting/ http://mashable.com/2014/04/04/startup-eggs-recruiting/ Blogspam.

sergiotapia 13y ago

This is fantastic! Don't be fooled a company has _zero_ allegiance towards you, sure they pay you but when things go south they will drop you lickity-split. I've seen it done and I've had it done to me once. Employees out there: don't feel guilty about leaving a company, always find what's best for you - not the company.

lost_my_pwd 13y ago

I have no issues with companies courting employees from other companies; it shifts the power balance a bit back towards the individual for a change. I am, however, a little put off by the term "poached", which BigCommerce is actively using in their campaign. It implies the sentiment that these people are simply a quarry being hunted as a prize rather people, of their own free will, deciding that the grass is greener elsewhere. Language matters.

ryandrake 13y ago
I posted a rant about that word on an earlier discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7463417 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7463417 Really, unless we think of ourselves as deer being stolen from the local land owner, we should stop using that word.
mark_l_watson 13y ago
Is using the word "poached" just a joke since they are handing out poached egg sandwiches?
- samatman 13y ago
  Nope! The poached egg sandwiches are a joke, since they're "poaching".
zodiac 13y ago
I think they used it, in part, to make a pun. Because BigCommerce offers them free poached egg sandwiches.

kevrone 13y ago

Nothing wrong with this at all.

ma2rten 13y ago

The recruiter of Bigcommerce, Steve Donnelly, will ask the guys waiting for the Facebook bus whether they were interested in changing the world of e-commerce. But to his disappointment, many of them replied no. Obviously, they are going to reply that in a situation where they are together with their co-workers.

codeonfire 13y ago
Are you saying there are people out there that want to change the world of e-commerce? Maybe someone who owns a large share of an e-commerce firm will feel this way. Some guy waiting for the bus to go to work to pay the bills definitely does not give a shit about changing e-commerce. A more apropos question is to ask if the person wants to become financially secure quickly and not have to take the bus to work every morning. Alas, there's no company that makes that as a goal for its employees.

jobseekr 13y ago

I don't think they're poaching anybody. I'm looking for a new job and this company has been posting the most ridiculous, desperate ads on Craigslist. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eng/ http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eng/ Y work for 1 startup, work for 50K - Software Eng (PHP, Ruby) Product Are you down with OLTP?- Database Engineer (MySql, Innodb) Are you SaaS-y enough? - System Engineer (Linux, Perl, PHP, Ruby) Are you ob-cess!d?- Front End Engineer (HTML, CSS, Javascript) Engineers: Last day to RSVP here for Happy Hour at our new SoMa digs! Engineers: RSVP here for our Happy Hour at our new SoMa digs! http://sfbay.craigslist.org/web/index100.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/web/index100.html Rich and Sexy- Front End Engineer (HTML, CSS, Javascript) The headlines are horrible. The postings are horrible... We are SoMa's hottest new startup and we are building a team of badass engineers to help us take the world's fastest growing e-commerce solution to the next level. The image (which doesn't show anyone working) is horrible... http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Bigcommerce/CL-Ad2_zpsc15233da.jpg http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a605/Bigcommerce/CL-Ad2_... The recruiting video (with swearing!) is horrible... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibkWc26MgQ&hd=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibkWc26MgQ&hd=1 These guys have been posting this crap nonstop on Craigslist for a while so I'm not surprised at all to see them trolling bus stops.

usujason 13y ago

Like the 'poached' campaign, dislike the misspelling of 'employess' in the article's headline.

raldi 13y ago

More like, startup uses eggs to get free media coverage. The eggs do nothing to help recruiting.

rpwilcox 13y ago

Hmm. Seems like a technique with a very low success rate: out of 1,000 applicants they hired 2? So what's that, a .2% success rate? Seems like there has to be techniques with better success rate than that...