- Sequoia: http://www.hireloop.com/sequoia%2Denterprise/careers/portfolio_careers_home.asp?fnc=comp

- Kleiner Perkins: http://www.hireloop.com/kpcb/careers/portfolio_careers_home.asp

- First Round: http://www.firstround.com/openings.html

You might want to try to find a list of reputable VCs and google their websites for any job portfolios.

The good news is that startups are actively looking for good hackers. Investors are also looking too, since that's one way they can really help their companies. So he can find cool startups and email them, or find cool investors (like YC) and work from higher up in the stream.

My startup, Xobni, is very actively looking for great hackers. We are YC alumni and recently raised a series A financing from Khosla Ventures. We're still a small team, too, so all of the benefits of working for a startup are in full force here. You can email jobs foo at xobni dot com (remove foo)!

Adam

Another idea is to tell your friend to provide contracting services for start-ups. That way, he/she can test-drive the company while making a few bucks on the side.

So go to tech meetups, web conferences, etc. or network through friends and alumni.

Another way: most of the "cutting edge" startup blogs (37signals, GigaOm, Venture Beat, etc.) have job listings that you can subscribe to by RSS.

One tracker at SeekSift -- http://www.seeksift.com/xml/BE9a28987F/rss.xml -- is using most of those sources for its results, so you could subscribe to it, or create your own.

(Disclaimer: my own startup is behind SeekSift.com)

This is not true. Usually one of the first people brought in after a series-A round of financing is some sort of VP-level manager whose job is to find other people to hire. This VP often was a recruiter, or hiring manager at some point, and usually hires some sort of recruiter to help him or her find people.

It definitely helps if you're genuinely interested in startups and what they're doing and look forward to talking to good hackers yourself.