Where they hide

  • GitHub commit history for engineers — recent activity, language preferences, project types.
  • Industry-specific Slack/Discord communities — way higher signal than LinkedIn.
  • Conference speaker lists — proven communicators with recent talks.
  • Author bylines — Substack, Medium, technical blogs.
  • Open-source maintainers — clearly motivated by the work, not the title.

The first message

Three rules:

  1. Specific. Reference something they actually did. "Loved your post on X." Not "I see you're a senior engineer."
  2. Short. 80 words max. Specifics beat brochures.
  3. Concrete. Role, location/remote, comp range, contact. Don't make them ask.

Bad: "Hi! Are you open to new opportunities? We have an exciting role…"
Good: "Saw your GoLang/Postgres benchmark post — I'm hiring a Sr. Backend Eng at [Company] doing similar work, remote-first US, $180–$220 + equity, full role here: [link]."

Following up

One follow-up after 5 days. Then nothing. The fastest way to ruin a relationship is to message 4 times.

Building a long-term pipeline

Most "no" answers today are "yes" 18 months later. Tag interesting candidates and check in once a quarter with relevant updates — not asks. The relationship compounds.