Talking to every candidate (the ones that were loosely designated as 'mine') turned out to be my most favorite part of this whole deal. In some ways, even better than having an opportunity to write an AVR emulator. These guys are smart and they have interesting stories, and the enthusiasm they expressed for what they wanted out of their careers plucked my mom strings pretty hard.

I always knew that if we continued to grow, that this part would go away, but I would have struggled to keep this going as long as I could. Even if it meant less serious $. It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that had we grown to the point where hiring "actual recruiters," it would have been impossible to find ones with the same mindset.