In the midst of an intense AI hiring frenzy, startup founders are resorting to increasingly creative and costly tactics to attract top technical talent. Alfred Wahlforss, CEO of Listen Labs, recently unveiled a cryptic billboard in San Francisco featuring only “https://” and a string of numbers. The stunt, which led to millions of online views, 10,000 email sign-ups, and about 60 interviews, was designed to test potential candidates’ problem-solving skills. Those who cracked the code earned a trip to Berlin and access to the legendary Berghain nightclub. Wahlforss, whose company has raised $27 million from Sequoia, said the effort was part of a broader struggle to hire skilled engineers. “We’re spending a ton of money just to advertise ourselves to engineers,” he said. He noted that even individuals without formal education can earn $2 million a year working at OpenAI, making it nearly impossible for smaller startups to compete on compensation alone. To stand out, some founders are going beyond salary. Wahlforss described a case where his cofounder delivered a high-end carbon road bike to a candidate who loved cycling—helping seal the deal. Yet, more often than not, candidates still walk away for offers from larger AI labs. “You spend hours with people who end up rejecting you and just go to Anthropic. It’s very, very painful,” Wahlforss said. Austin Hughes, CEO of Unify, an AI sales platform with over $50 million in funding, commissioned a custom painting for a top candidate. OpenAI offered three times the compensation, and the candidate took the money—and the artwork. “It’s heartbreaking,” Hughes said. Jesse Zhang, CEO of Decagon, a $1.5 billion startup, faces similar challenges. Despite hosting exclusive dinners with investors, offering courtside Warriors tickets, and even driving to meet a candidate’s family in the South Bay, he admitted the most effective strategy has been hiring people he already knew. “All the senior hires we’ve made in the first 100 people were just people I knew,” he said. At Unify, the team maintains a shared Google Sheet of LinkedIn contacts, using an index match to identify candidates with strong network ties. The pattern across founders is clear: the most sought-after talent is the “AI product engineer”—a rare individual who combines deep technical expertise with product sense, capable of building and shipping high-quality AI tools quickly. Wahlforss estimates there are only a few thousand such people globally, each fielding around ten offers at any time. While OpenAI and Anthropic remain highly desirable, founders increasingly argue that the gap between these labs and Big Tech is narrowing. The real appeal for startups now lies in offering candidates the chance to act like “mini founders,” building products from end to end. While strong investor backing and brand recognition help, they’re no longer decisive. As Zhang put it, “There’s too much capital, too many AI startups.” The hiring boom, he believes, won’t last forever—but no one knows when it will end.