Ryan started working with us full-time at Crowd Fusion this month and we are ecstatic to have him.  Hiring him was a triumph that is seems many other NYC Startups are having trouble with.  Nate Westhimer posted about his trouble finding php developers and Allen at Centernetworks picked up the story.  I'm drawn into this conversation because of my recent history of being an advocate of the virtual workforce and that Nate being an internet entrepreneur is caught up with old world workplace notions.

We have been able to find tremendous talent available if you broaden your search scope.  Virtual working is something an employer has to get used to.  It requires constant contact -- It requires an IM session that is always on.  It requires a huge leap of faith that the person on the other end is working on the project you are paying him for.

Dealing with remote contractors will tax your management to the very bone.  I'm drawn out of my comfort zone setting up for our next round of projects, for example:

1. I have to setup individual secure work environments that have no interactions with

• Main Code Base
• Production Databases
• Other Users environments

2. Specifications, Documentation and Email Communications have to be as detailed as possible

3. Scheduling calls and work sessions has to be flexible to accommodate weekends, evenings and lunch hours.

As an employer I'm glad so many other employer's don't get it, or don't want to put in the extra effort, our overhead stays low, we can pick our workforce from the best in the world, and we can focus on having challenging projects to do.