Would most founders be interested in finding programmers through the traditional job posting/resume/interview process? I'm thinking that to get a crack at working with really excellent programmers and founders, you probably need to be connected through a network and known a bit by reputation. No, you don't have to be famous, just respected and known by a group of good peers.

I take a particular interst in this question because I'm working on a project (that doesn't deserve to be called a startup, but maybe it could be), and I need someone with kick-ass UI design and graphics skills (I wrote the backend myself, but it looks lame). I'll go through my blurred social/professional networks to see who would be into it.

Then again, I'm just looking for someone I already know and like who would dig the project and maybe want to make something of it. An actual job job, the kind that pays money, can probably afford to be more formal about this sort of thing. But would you want to be? Seems safer to go through those blurry networks at an early stage, where one bad programmer can drag everything down. and one good one can rev it up fast.