YCombinator-backed hacker recruiter platform Hackruiter has raised a modest seed round from investors SV Angel and Founder Collective. The company raised $200K but could have raised much more, because it is already profitable co-founder David Albert tells me.
Hackruiter is already profitable because startups like Tumblr, Weebly, Loopt, Artsy and Bit.ly currently pay Hackruiter $20K per programmer referral on average (Amazing, right?). And Hackruiter finds people to refer through its Hacker School, which is now entering its third batch. Unlike beginner code-learning programs like Codecademy, the in-person Hacker School is exclusively focused on making already good coders better.
Based in New York, Hackruiter Hacker School is full time (eight hours a day, four days a week for three months) and free for students. Hackruiter started out with a batch of six students in July, then 12 and will now have 25 places come February. Interested parties can apply here.
“The biggest problem is there aren’t that many good programmers in the world,” says co-founder Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock, “We see programming as a craft and we see Hacker School as environment were people can flourish.”
“We can afford to do it for free by helping place students at jobs afterwards if they’re interested (there’s absolutely no obligation),” says Albert, “We don’t know if this is the final business model, but the school currently pays for itself, so we’re going to make it as big as we can and see what happens.”
Hackruiter helps good engineers find jobs at startups. It’s a recruiting company, but all the recruiting is done by engineers who travel to different cities around the country and hold office hours for anyone who’s interested.
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
