I imagine many would be hesitant to mention such experience, but I think it would be a great thing to hear about in an interview. If you're interviewing an par

I imagine many would be hesitant to mention such experience, but I think it would be a great thing to hear about in an interview. If you're interviewing an parallel universe's patio11-equivalent, and they say, "I have been running FlashCardCreator.com since 2001...", and goes on to explain neat things about what she's learned from it, it sounds like that should be a big green flag. Not only is such a person likely to have lots of cross-domain insight, but they clearly have the mojo to deliver working code. If you're worried that they might decide that their work-outside-yours is going to cannibalize their time, they probably have an answer for why you don't need to worry much about that. (After all, they __did__ apply.) I would be surprised if you had to worry about them leaving any more than you would any other developer.