The competition for AI talent remains strong—and expensive. How can companies possibly compete for skilled AI talent when Silicon Valley behemoths are offering salaries and signing packages impossible to match? An analysis of CoffeeSpace, a talent-matching platform with over 25,000 users, found that AI professionals of all experience levels responded more strongly to a specific set of founder behaviors that signaled traction, competence, and seriousness. In particular, AI professionals wanted to join founders that were already working full-time on their idea and had already made some progress.
