Contrary to popular belief a lot of people in this community do not know VC's. Extending this to just using your network to feel out different companies is definitely a good suggestion though. I for one am interested in seeing something like a "Who's looking to help out open source" post once a month.
And to make things worse, sometimes they don't have local VCs...
I am from Brazil for example, I DO know local VCs, but startup community in Brazil overall is very weak, of almost all startups I saw, all of them are in the same situation as me (ie: only the founders, struggling to reach ramen profitability, desperate for money, and would jump ship themselves if they could).
What about people that want to get hired from Brazil's swamplands for example? No VCs there, but lots of educated people there (the Federal government here built lots of top-notch tech and STEM universities there, hoping that having the workers there would make companies go there, it failed, instead people study there and then move elsewhere, or get stuck there doing low-pay jobs)
