The guy dropped out for family reasons, went to work in factories, got a job in IT eventually, but was really bright and hard working, but stuck in a dead-end help desk job. One of our other devs knew him and suggested we give him some programming projects on contract- like $10/hr. So we did. He did a good job, so we offered him an entry level job, working closely with the dev who referred him.

So he moved across the country on the promise of a $15/hr 6 month apprenticeship, and in that time, learned everything you'd hope about building a Java-based web app that handled a lot of traffic, and after 6 months he was full-time at full entry level salary. After a couple years, he became one of our leads. After we got acquired, he went on to the acquiring company, then joined another startup as their first employee.

But, I would not have taken the risk unless a) he had a sponsor, b) he had some distinguishing credential.

In his case, yes, he dropped out of h.s., but he was also taking AP Calculus at the time. To me that was a sign that was enough of a time that he had the horse power to making it worth taking a risk on him.