眼下美国的失业人口高达1,200万，在这时想着“拍卖”一小群高薪人士，简直可谓大逆不道。但确实有家公司正在“拍卖”软件开发人员，而且还获得了风险投资家的关注。

    DeveloperAuction公司（这个名字贴切极了）日前宣布，在首轮外部融资中，已从恩颐投资（New Enterprise Associates）、席拉创投（Sierra Ventures）以及谷歌投资（Google Ventures）等公司筹得270万美元。《财富》（Fortune）杂志获悉，这笔交易的投资前估值为1,200万美元。

    DeveloperAuction的运作模式是：开发人员先提出申请，然后从中选出150人参加随后的拍卖。雇主在为期两周的流程中可以查看候选者人才库、进行面试，并“竞拍”相中的开发人员。迄今为止，通过DeveloperAuction发出的聘书总价值已达2.25亿美元，雇主包括DropBox、Motif Investing以及Quora等私营企业.

    若聘书被接受，雇主需向DeveloperAuction支付相当于该新雇员第一年基本工资15％的佣金。而DeveloperAuction会把这笔钱的20％分给这名雇员，同时还送上一瓶唐培里侬香槟。

    最初，DeveloperAuction只接受从麻省理工学院（MIT）或斯坦福大学（Stanford）毕业，或是曾就职于苹果（Apple）、Facebook、谷歌（Google）、Twitter或社交游戏公司Zynga中某一家的开发人员。后来，它的范围有所放宽，部分原因在于这家公司扩张后进入了纽约、洛杉矶、波士顿和西雅图等城市的市场。DeveloperAuction希望最终不光局限于开发人员这一领域，可能会涉足金融服务和生命科学市场。

    公司首席执行官马特•密茨凯维支解释道：“我们决定先融资，以更好地捕捉现有的市场机遇，同时进行扩张，提高竞争对手进入的壁垒。此外，我们得以接触到我们的投资者所投资的其他公司，而所有这些公司都将是我们的潜在客户。”（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    At a time when 12 million Americans are unemployed, it's almost obscene to contemplate "auctions" for a small subset of highly-paid workers. But that's exactly what's happening for software developers, and venture capitalists have taken notice.

    Today, the apt-named DeveloperAuction announced that it has raised $2.7 million in its first round of outside funding from firms like New Enterprise Associates, Sierra Ventures and Google Ventures. Fortune has learned that the deal was done at a $12 million pre-money valuation.

    Here's how it works: A developer applies to the system, and hopefully is one of 150 individuals selected for an upcoming auction. Then comes a two-week process in which employers can review the candidate pool, set up interviews and "bid" on desired developers. To date, $225 million worth of job offers already have passed through DeveloperAuction, including from private employers like DropBox, Motif Investing and Quora.

    If a deal is struck, DeveloperAuction receives payment from the employer that is equal to 15% of the new employee's first-year base salary. It then actually takes 20% of that total and sends it to the employee, along with a bottle of Dom Pérignon champagne.

    Originally DeveloperAuction only was open to developers who either had degrees from select schools (MIT and Stanford), or experience at one of five companies: Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Twitter or Zynga (ZNGA). It has since expanded its parameters, in part due to its own geographic expansion into markets like New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle. The company also wants to eventually move beyond the pure developer space, which could include both the financial services and life sciences market.

    "We decided to pursue funding first to get more aggressive on the existing market opportunity, but also to expand and create stronger barriers to entry for competitors," explains CEO Matt Mickiewicz. "And we also get to access the portfolio companies of our investors, all of which would be prospective customers of ours."