Startup Uses Eggs to Poach Employees from Facebook, Google

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Bigcommerce employees woo unsuspecting Google and Facebook employees in San Francisco with eggs.

Image: Bigcommerce

By T.L. Stanley2014-04-05 02:30:55 UTC

Stealing from your new neighbors? Now, is that any way to make friends?

Bigcommerce, an e-commerce platform company that just opened its first office in San Francisco, has started trying to poach talent from heavyweights like Google and Facebook by offering potential job candidates poached egg breakfast sandwiches while they wait for their employee shuttle buses.

Artisanal coffee to wash that down? Check. Sales pitch about Bigcommerce, which closed a $40 million investment round led by AOL co-founder Steve Case last year? Check!

Bigcommerce, which has home bases in Sydney, Australia, and Austin, Texas, already snatched a few top executives from rivals. West Stringfellow, a veteran of PayPal and Amazon, joined as chief product officer, and Ron Pragides, formerly of Twitter and Salesforce, is now vice president of engineering.

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The e-commerce firm intends to hire 40 engineers in 60 days, with the curbside poaching being one of several tactics. The early-morning events, dubbed #poached, became so popular after kicking off in March, Bigcommerce added #parched, a happy hour at its new office.

A couple of related contests are giving away iPads (for referring a friend) and Google Glass. It’s part of Bigcommerce’s plan to be “extremely aggressive in our hiring,” Stringfellow said.

So far, the program has doled out hundreds of sammies and cups of coffee, and early results show a 54 percent increase in site traffic for Bigcommerce careers and 150 percent increase in applications. A Twitter contest has drawn in 60-plus referrals.

Topics: Business, Jobs, Marketing, Recruiting, Startups