joelonsoftware has interesting insights on hiring the best people. He pokes holes
in hiring fallacies like super-selection: “We're so good we hire only
1 out of 200 applicants!” Big news: the best people _aren't_
scrambling for your vacancies! Joel said:

By the way, it's because of this phenomenon—the fact that
many of the great people are never on the job market—that we are so
aggressive about hiring summer interns. This may be the last time
these kids ever show up on the open market. In fact we hunt down the
smart CS students and individually beg them to apply for an internship
with us, because if you wait around to see who sends you a resume,
you're already missing out.

The best experienced software developers WILL NOT BE LOOKING FOR WORK.
They will be under lock-and-key at software companies that know how to
take care of them. Unless you can get at them through personal or
intellectual reasons, they're not going to apply to your job ad. Screw
experience. Cherry-pick students, offer them great internships,
CHALLENGE THEM WITH INTERESTING WORK (not just your usual OJT gofer
duties), and mold them into the developers you want them to be.

Something to keep in mind if I start my own tech company.