DeveloperAuction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think

DeveloperAuction, a startup that focuses on…

No, let’s make this interesting.

Complete the sentence, multiple choice! DeveloperAuction is ___________:

A) A mobile app that lets you share photos with your friends. But this one’s totally different, I swear.
B) Airbnb for oil tankers.
C) A site that helps developers get jobs.
D) Subscription commerce for the $10 billion bear-hunting industry. It’s been 12 days since the last accidental postal-worker bear-trap maiming!
E) In stealth mode. Sad trombone sound effect.

If you guessed C, you might be literate! DeveloperAuction, as the name would imply, lets developers set up sexy websites for themselves and try to find new job opportunities. It gives them tags for skills, brief résumés, and even handy GitHub widgets. In that sense, it’s very much like Work for Pie.

But wait! There’s a twist: the “auction” part of DeveloperAuction, where companies get two weeks to bid on top candidates.

To date, the startup tells us via email, the platform has played host to around $225 million in job offers. And with today’s news, the company is seeing some inbound cash as well: $2.7 million in a first round of institutional funding led by NEA and Sierra Ventures with participation from Google Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and Jeff Clavier’s
SoftTech VC.

“The most common tactic for recruiters is spamming LinkedIn, and it’s not unusual for a Silicon Valley engineer to receive 30-50 unsolicited and off-base LinkedIn messages a month from recruiters,” said co-founder/CEO Matt Mickiewicz in a statement on the news.

“It’s a waste of time and resources for all parties involved.”

So, auctions. In the current inflated developer job market, when there’s a lot more demand than supply, these kinds of tactics presumably work well and cater to market dynamics.

There are a couple other interesting twists: The site will only feature 300 auctions each month, so only the top talent will be sold to the highest bidder. Each dev gets his or her own agent, who represents and guides the dev through the process. And if a dev gets a job through DeveloperAuction, the company pays out a signing bonus.

DeveloperAuction is based in San Francisco and was founded by Mickiewicz (99designs founder), Douglas Feirstein (LiveOps founder), and Allan Grant, serial entrepreneur.

Image credit: Shutterstock/leedsn